Garrard 301 restoration project

[Dominic Harper]

Hi Andrew. That mains lead is way too heavy and will drag at the motor suspension making it noisy as hell. better to have single insulated wires running to an IEC socket on the plinth.

[Barry]

Agreed! The motor on both the 301 and 401 had very good cast iron shields.

By the looks of things, that clumbersome mains lead will, by virtue of its weight, twist the motor slightly on its mounting, leading to excessive wear of the idler wheel.

It would be best Andrew, to do as Dominic suggests; if you don't want to terminate the single wires in an IEC mains socket, use a two-way 'chocolate block' connector conveniently mounted on the chassis of the turntable. This is the arrangement used on the Thorens 124 turntable.

Regards

[Wakefield Turntables]

Thanks guys, will change the lead when I get time, tonight its the levers. I'll be making a plinth from a huge piece of stone stored in my garage I dont think I want to terminate to a IEC, its just another component in the chain. I'll probably connect the new power lead to the underside of the stone plinth so it dosent pull on the motor. Will post some more pictures over next few days.

[Barry]

Thanks guys, will change the lead when I get time, tonight its the levers. I'll be making a plinth from a huge piece of stone stored in my garage I dont think I want to terminate to a IEC, its just another component in the chain. I'll probably connect the new power lead to the underside of the stone plinth so it dosen't pull on the motor. Will post some more pictures over next few days.

That's better, but I'm still a little concerned the stiff mains cable will tend to 'short out' the motor suspension, especially as you intend to connect the power lead to your new stone plinth.

Or by 'connect', do you mean an electrical connection to short lengths of a more flexible wires, and thence to the motor?

I should add that I admire your commitment and compliment your hard work; the deck looks as though it is shaping up very nicely!

Regards

[Wakefield Turntables]

Or by 'connect', do you mean an electrical connection to short lengths of a more flexible wires, and thence to the motor?

I should add that I admire your commitment and compliment your hard work; the deck looks as though it is shaping up very nicely!

Regards

Thats exactly what I'll be doing. Thanks for the nice comments I just do a bit each night in the knowledge it will be finished one day!

[Wakefield Turntables]

Another day and the 301 is nearing completion! Today fitted some levers, removed the shielded power cable as instructed, will seek another one out tomorrow. Still waiting the faceplates these need rivotted into place. The trigger lever also need some attention. I've not fitted any springs yet as I dont want to damage them so I'm waiting until the faceplates and trigger lever are sorted. I seems to have a shed load of washers, I'm going to have to read the 301's manual and refit them. Only lever left now is the variable speed lever. No point in fitting this until the knob turns up! Just a couple of photos tonight. Toodle pip!

[Wakefield Turntables]

blimey its been a month since I last updated this! Well my 301 now has some face plates rivetted into place and we now have a proper variable speed selector. The 301 is about 85% complete. There are still some problems with the on/off levers. I need to sit a noise supressor (which I have) and a power lead. These are all small jobs which I'll do over this week. I still need a few small parts but I'm not quite sure which they are I'm gonna have to carefully go through the manual and make sure everything is in the correct place. I've included a new pic of the 301 (sorry if its a bit crap)

[Wakefield Turntables]

WOW, nearly 7 months since I updated this. The 301 is now at Dominic's place for a full fettle and to finish off the bits I couldn't! I have no idea how long this will take but I should have a nice new plinth waiting for when I get back. A 35kg monster that's going to be designed to take 9 and 12" tonearms. I may even pay for a new bearing at some point.

[Wakefield Turntables]

the 301 has had a slight upgrade in the form of a new tonearm, it can be seen here http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...978#post365978 Now just waiting for the 301 and the plinth and we are away! I have a crappy ortfon MM strapped to the 3012 at the moment but this will change, I'm not quite sure what will be going on the 3012 but it should be something nice!

[Wakefield Turntables]

The 301 has now been fully restored and fettled by myself but mainly NWA (thanks DOM), I should be getting it in the next few days, photo's to follow!