My son's tonearm design

[topround]

My son's first tonearm design, he is taking orders so order early before the holiday rush.

[tmazz]

My son's first tonearm design, he is taking orders so order early before the holiday rush.

Mike, this is serious. I'm afraid your son may have......."The Knack". 


http://www.flixxy.com/dilbert-the-knack.htm

[richidoo]

Nice work!!    Which son?

Maybe he will enjoy reading these articles:
http://www.altmann.haan.de/tonearm/
http://www.altmann.haan.de/turntable/

The important thing is to BUILD IT!!!! Listen to it, learn from it, build a better one, repeat! Write some lavish audio poetry and watch the orders flood in! PM me if he needs any custom parts made, metal or wood (for free.)

[topround]

Thanks!
We just came back from Lowes we bout 1/ inch ply and some sheet aluminum.
He is drilling something downstairs, the kid is amazing,
Rich I may put him in contact with you because he will need some parts made that he cannot.

Uh oh the wife is freaking out he is drilling.

gotta go

Mike

[topround]

progress

[richidoo]

Looking good Andrew!!  No problem on parts. I have metal and wood tools.

Here's a good site for precision parts: http://www.smallparts.com/
Precision drive components: http://www.sdp-si.com
and MSC has good prices and stocks everything: http://www.mscdirect.com/
Order their catalogs so you can get some ideas from seeing the pictures.

And here's a good free CAD program that's easy to use: http://www.cadstd.com/ 
It will help you to visualize how things go together and refine your designs before you start building. It's not 3D but good enough for making parts. 

[topround]

He wants to mount it on Mike's Continuum table!
He cracks me up.

[richidoo]

I'll make him a drilling template...

I was thinking that it would be cool to make a heavy base of lead with a thin rubber foot so it could be safely placed on an open area of any plinth. Then with the help of an alignment jig to set the distance and angle to the spindle he could try it on any TT.  I guess the height would need to be shimmed too, forgot about that, but maybe he can think of a solution.

[mgalusha]

He wants to mount it on Mike's Continuum table!
He cracks me up.

That would be awesome. 

Great job on encouraging him. I built a model of the Garrard Zero 100 with lego's when I was a kid but never an arm that would actually play.

Another source for high precision small bearings and such is W.M Berg, website does not do their stuff justice, it's worth getting the catalog just to see the cool stuff they make.

mike

[topround]

Thanks for all the help guys, he ran into a problem with the counterweight, it was a problem I had to describe for him and let his mind try to figure it out. He came up with some simple solutions that of course do not work nut his mind is in the move.
I love his can do attitude
He drew a template on the plinth of my SP 25 and had drill in hand when I had to stop him!
I like the heavy base idea instead sort of like the RS labs arm.
We are off to vacation today so it may be on the back burner for a while!

mike

[rollo]

   This thread made my day. Anything we can do for your little wonder boy let us know.
   Gotta love this guys.


charles