The Mike New Bearing Base Plate

[CableMaker1]

This article is to visually document on how to install the Mike New Bearing Base Plate into your beloved Technics SL-1200 Mark 2 Turntable. Given that I have twins, I purchased two from Mike. The purpose of this visual article is to give guidance on how to attach the base plate to your TT with very little difficulty. If you have questions about the undertaking of this project, you should always ask for guidance. If there are any conflicts with the answers you get, Mike New (not Mike as in me) has the final say since it is his product.

I take no responsibility on how your project turns out. Unless of course the results are spectacular , then of course, I take full credit. If you are a DIY'er, you should not have any difficulty, or very little difficulty at most, if you follow the steps outlined.

This document will be broken up into several sections for clarity.

The project took me 3 hours to complete for the first TT, 2 hours for the second. I was not in any hurry to complete the project. Your time may vary.

The tools I used to complete this project is:
Plyers or wrench - have 2 handy
Screwdriver and bits
Drill
Drill Bits - 5 and 10mm are recommended (yes you will need two different sizes)
Flashlight - in case you loose them screws somewhere
Allen or Hex Key
Smoothing File
Ruler
Eye Protection

If you need to remove the external power supply (which is recommended by Mike New to use his Bearings) you may need the additional parts to remove the wiring:
Soldering Iron
Solder
Solder Remover

A recommendation someone had was to use clamps to hold the TT in place during drilling. If you have them, you may want to make them available.

Now with all this said, let the "fun" begin.

[CableMaker1]

One of the base plates came with the Bearing attached to it as it is shown in picture 1. The other was just the plate itself, but has cutouts drilled to attach the Bearing.

Unfortunately, if you purchase the Base Plate and Bearing seperate, the Bearings do not have the holes drilled to attach it to the Base Plate. The steps will not change either way, and it will not change the outcome of this project. You can see this in picture 2.

I drew arrows in the pictures to show where the screws attach the bearing to the plate in pictures 3 and 4.

[CableMaker1]

It is time to remove the tonearm, the platter, the top cover and the electronics from the TT - having only the chassis exposed. If necessary, desolder the PSU wiring from the circuit board.

Here is how the TT looks. And as a bonus, there is a close-up area of the Bearing area of how it looks - pre-drilled. Notice how the screw taps are elevated above the bottom of the chassis. This will need to be drilled or "shaved" to where it is leveled to the chassis. This allows the bearing base plate to be flushed to the chassis.

[CableMaker1]

Now it is time to take your drill and insert the 10mm drill bit into it. Drill the tips of the three bearing taps where it will be shaved down to where it is level to the chassis. It is important to keep an eye out that you do not over-drill (or overshave) the bearing taps. You may want to have a small ruler or something small and level to sweep across the shaved bearing taps. If the ruler does not sweep across the bearing area uniformly, drill accordingly until it does sweep across. You want to insure that the taps are not under-shaved as the idea is to have the bearing base plate flush with the bottom of the chassis. Remember to use optical protection when drilling.

When drilling is completed, take a smoothing file and shave off any bits left over from the drilling.

See pics for details.

[CableMaker1]

This next step will require the use of a 5mm drill bit. I recommend that you screw the bearing base plate into the bearing area using the enclosed black bolts that Mike N. enclosed. This will keep the bearing alligned to the drilling area on the chassis when drilling. I also recommend removing the bottom rubber from the TT before starting this procedure, but keeping the inner cavity attached to chassis.

Seperating the rubber from the TT insures you will not drill into or through the rubber.

To keep the chassis stable while drilling, you may want to clamp the chassis and cavity together to keep it steady if you have it at your disposal. I used a round-plastic waste basket, placing the chassis and cavity on top of it while placing the rubber underneath the wastebasket. This worked well for me.

Now drill into the chassis where the 5mm holes are on the bearing base plate. This is where you removed the 5 screws that came attached to the BBP.

A special note if you are using a hand-drill bit as opposed to a plunger drill. Try to keep the drill as steady and level as possible when drilling. If you have a bubble-level on your drill as I do, make use of it!!! Again - keep the drill as level as possible during this process. Although allignment is not critical, I feel it is important for this step. We are looking at drilling through two pieces of material which attach to one another, which makes this detail something that should not be overlooked.

Dont worry if you drill into and through into the cavity. You will want to drill into part into the cavity at a minimum to leave drill marks (in case you decide not to drill all the way through at this time). The drill marks will be used as an outline since you will need to drill into and through the cavity at these spots.

In the next step, you will drill through the cavity, making bigger holes.

[CableMaker1]

Now remove the cavity from the chassis. Where you left drill-marks is where you want to drill. You will need the 5 and 10mm drill-bits for this step. Note that in this step, if you have a bubble level avaiable on your drill bit and you are using a manual-drill like I did (as opposed to using not a drill plunger), make use of it to try to keep the drill steady!!! It is important to keep the drill level as best as possible since allignment, although it is not critical, is important since the holes need to be alligned well for the nut to clear when you attach the cavity back to the chassis.

I recommend that if you did not drill through the cavity when it was attached to the chassis, take the 5mm drill bit and drill until it goes through. Then take the 10mm drill and drill through these same spots making it bigger. Resist using only the 10mm bit to drill through the cavity if you did not drill through using the 5mm bit. Using just the 10mm drill to drill through all the way will take more time to drill through.

Dont worry if there are only 4 spots to drill into the cavity. The 5th screw may not have moulding around its area as it was in my case - the unmoulded area is the Transformer Area.

[CableMaker1]

So how does it sound? Stay tuned tomorrow!!! It is midnight and I have to get to work tomorrow. I am pushing 3 hours spent so far between the picture work and the thread.

[JazzBones]

Well done Mike (CableMaker1), a clear, pictorial with accompanying instructions for anyone contemplating this mod. Thanks for the time and effort taken. One question: did you clamp or restrain movement of the turntable when your performed the drilling process to prevent rotational movement of the alloy chassis also how did you achieve this?

Ron

[CableMaker1]

Hello Ron.

I did not have any clamps available to use on my TT when I drilled. I discovered that the TT stayed rock steady when I was performing the drilling. The secret is to put the TT chassis and cavity on top of a round-bedroom wastebasket and put the rubber underneath the wastebasket to dampen any movement. Make sure the wastebasket is plastic and durable!!!

However, you do bring up a good point which makes a good suggestion - if you have clamps at your disposal which you are confident that it will not leave marks on the TT, especially during the drilling process, see if you can make use of it to keep the TT steady during the drill process.

More to comment later.

Whoever is responisible for making this thread a sticky - thank you! I planned to request this at some point after completing my article.

[Marco]

Hi Mike,

Just a quickie, and totally off-topic, but where is Westchester?

Marco.