Garrard 301 restoration project

[Wakefield Turntables]

Great post Andy and the bearing collar makes a lot of sense. But would it be a good idea to incorporate a bearing collar into a top plate chassis stiffener? Can this be done then you would spread the strength and stabilising effect over a wider area.?

I totally agree with you Jim, you'd think an all in one solution would be best but it never happened, hence the two seperate bits. It's only a bit of fun and again it's a slow burn side-project, maybe something to do on a lazy sunday when it's cold and raining! The 301 is spinning again.

[Chas B]

I'm interested to read that you have de-coupled the motor on the 401 but not bothered to do this on your 301. Is this because you don't think there are benefits to this modification?
I did a modification on my (heavily modified) Lenco which could be applied to our Garrards. I added a brace to the bottom of the main bearing which has a similar effect to stiffening the top plate. I have yet to try it on a Garrard but it was a positive addition to the Lenco.

[Jimbo]

I'm interested to read that you have de-coupled the motor on the 401 but not bothered to do this on your 301. Is this because you don't think there are benefits to this modification?
I did a modification on my (heavily modified) Lenco which could be applied to our Garrards. I added a brace to the bottom of the main bearing which has a similar effect to stiffening the top plate. I have yet to try it on a Garrard but it was a positive addition to the Lenco.

Where did you get the brace for the bearing on the Lenco?

[Wakefield Turntables]

I will post more on this subject tonight. In fact it will form tonight’s update!

[Qwin]

I'm interested to read that you have de-coupled the motor on the 401 but not bothered to do this on your 301. Is this because you don't think there are benefits to this modification?
I did a modification on my (heavily modified) Lenco which could be applied to our Garrards. I added a brace to the bottom of the main bearing which has a similar effect to stiffening the top plate. I have yet to try it on a Garrard but it was a positive addition to the Lenco.

Yes, a bearing steady is a good idea.
I used the Long SPH bearing on my Lenco GL75 Project.
Also the PTP-6 top plate was used (4mm Stainless Steel).
But I still made a bottom steady clamp/plate, to stop the very long bearing leaning in use (5.5kg platter assembly).
I think this clamp also helps damp the spindles thrust bearing.
Very happy with its performance.

[Chas B]

Where did you get the brace for the bearing on the Lenco?

See Qwins later post but mine was a simple DIY effort.

[Qwin]

Yeh, mine was a bit of DIY too.
I took a stock engineering, 30mm ID "C" Clamp, which was quite tall. I cut it down to almost half its height and tapped the plain mounting holes with an M10 thread.
The plate is 3mm Stainless, I cut and shaped with hacksaw and file.
The screw fixings to locate the plate, go into metal threaded inserts, imbedded in the rear of the lower layer of my laminated plinth.
The plinth is made of three 40mm thick layers. In total, I put 11 threaded inserts into the base section and 24 into the top section, before it was glued up. The inserts fit from the rear, so are totally encapsulated in the lamination. A lot of precise drilling and they all had to be counter bored so the inserts didn't protrude and keep the bamboo sections from pulling up together when glued/clamped. I did a full trial build, to a motorised working deck, without arm, to make sure everything fitted and worked as it should. Only then did I glue the plinth layers together.

[Wakefield Turntables]

The Garrard 301 Restoration Project PT XXXXVI - Getting a stiffy!


Well maybe not! But tonights little ramble is all about how it's not quite so easy to make a bearing collar and clamp. Well, that's not actually true, it is easy, quite easy, but like most audio geeks I've been having fun we another turntable, mainly the 301's younger brother the 401 (check out the thread) and not really given the 301 bearing much thought or attention over the weekend. I've noticed some well needed conversation on the thread, I always love it when that happens, about my bearing ideas. The ideas are nothing new and have been around on the Lenco scene for decades. Making a bearing clamp is very easy for a lenco bearing due to the fact that it's cyclindrical in nature and a "C" clamp will easily fit around the shaft of the bearing. Now, welcome to Garrard world where nothing is ever easy and you need a bit of lateral thinking . Check this picture out.



Here we can see a stock standard 301 bearing on the left and the lovely SPH garrard bearing bearing from a few years ago. Please note the two ridges going down the shaft of the 301 original bearing, ain't no "C" clamp going around that shaft (oo-er). So, the lovely design from Ken won't work. The "C" clamp idea might work with some modification to the "C" clamp itself but I haven't got that far yet. I need to physically order one and give it a try. The same problem also arises when thinking about making a collar for the 301 standard bearing. The collar is going to be the easiest thing to make and I'll make a prototype at some point when I can get my hand on some 5mm bamboo sheets. I may even then produce something in steel, but that's in the future and I'd like to see if the bamboo does anything to damp the bearing from motor vibrations.

Now Chas.B asked why I haven't decoupled the motor? OK, Chas, short answer is that I'm getting to grips with the sonics of the Bamboo plinth. Well that's a little lie. The plinth is still being modded as time goes by. My next "mods" will be the bearing collar and then the bearing clamp which will form an integral part of the plinth. I'm not sure if I'll have any space under the plinth to design something which will decouple the motor as well. In an ideal world I'd have a Martin Bastin plinth made from Bamboo, it would also need to be able to take two tonearms, and also have space for a bearing clamp. Hey, Chas, we are now in the second decade of messing around with this deck, as you can see it's a slow boat to China with this deck.



Finally, the 301 benefits from some messing around with the infrastructure that it lives on. Here is a wee picture of the Sondex amp now sitting on its very own Townshend Audio Seismic platform. The platform can handle loads upto 80Kg. It's hard to say if the 301 benefits but TBH I'm not fussed the seismic plinths always benefit TT's and worst case scenario is that I sell it and get my money back. I'll have to sit down and listen to more vinyl to see if things have improved.



More musings at some point in the future, stay tuned.

[Jimbo]

Just watched a great video on future of vinyl playback Andy and vibration elimination is a priority as it has been found to deliver even more information from those grooves than has ever been thought.

check this discussion out.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTGzoYlgxjM&t=86s

[Wakefield Turntables]

Just watched a great video on future of vinyl playback Andy and vibration elimination is a priority as it has been found to deliver even more information from those grooves than has ever been thought.

check this discussion out.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTGzoYlgxjM&t=86s

Thanks Jim. I'll check this out when I have a bit of time.