How to pack a turntable for shipping

[gata]

Hi folks,

I don't know if anyone has posted this info yet, but I thought it'd be useful to those buying vintage turntables, especially from the many careless eBay sellers who don't really know or care.

The Turntable Factory in South Carolina has a webpage appropriately titled,
"How to pack a turntable for shipping."

http://www.theturntablefactory.com/packing.html

Sage advice, very good pictures, and detailed instructions on how to ensure your Empire, Dual, or Rega will arrive as it left.

Twice I had careless sellers improperly pack and ship turntables, which arrived destroyed. Both a Marantz 6300 and AR XB-91 arrived with:
-- broken dust covers
-- plinths scratched by platters not packed separately or fixed in place
-- tone arms destroyed by the loose platters

I've since bought two more, and each time I emailed the link to the seller, who followed the instructions exactly.

Cheers! :D

[litefusegetaway]

Great advice on that website. People should definitely look at that page if they're planning on moving or mailing their gear. Double boxing is good for most gear, anyways. :thmbsp:

[jimrick1]

Here's a webpage a friend and I made to show how we pack turntables:

http://www.magma.ca/~jimrick1/PackingTT_July05.htm

We've shipped well over 100 turntables packed this way, with no mishaps.

[gata]

Wow! I like that one even better. I especially like the ole "platter in the pizza box" trick.

Although I'm certain everyone on this forum knows how to pack audio stuff properly, it's a relief that there are good resources on the net, so that we don't have to type it up each time for ignorant sellers. I even had one dude tape the tonearm of a Marantz 6300 to the plinth with the ultra sticky clear packing tape! And not just in one place, but all along it! Uggh. :headscrat

[ARguy]

I see "TheTurntable Factory" has closed...boo hoo.

[Tleilax]

The Turntable Factory is alive and well:

http://www.theturntablefactory.com/

[gata]

It appears that they are alive but not well! From their website:

"It is with heavy heart and great regret that I announce that "The Turntable Factory" will be closing it's doors before the end of 2005. After nearly 30 years in this business, deteriorating health has made me unable to properly keep up with the business."

This is a big boo hoo! He's a really knowledgeable dude.

[doug s.]

yup, this really *is* unfortunate. i have had recent dealings with him, re: getting a plinth to replace the damaged one for the base of my empire 498. joel is a really nice guy.

doug s.

[Tleilax]

Wow...I didn't realize (and I just chatted with Joel last week). I've known Joel for about ten years now and I knew he was planning to "downsize", but I did not know he was going to close up shop altogether. Going to give him a call over the weekend and find out what's up...

[Redboy]

Let's blow a little dust off this thread, shall we?

The links above appear to be dead. Could someone give us some TT packing pointers?

[vinyldavid]

Guys.....Joel is dead.

So it appears that all of those links are dead, ut I have saved the entire contents of the website to my hard drive in case of this unfortunate situation. I lost a LOT of files, but I will look hard for them.

I was supposed to be his apprentice nest summer, but he passed away June 1st.

[vinyldavid]

I HAVE THEM. ALL OF THE FILES THAT WERE ON THE SITE. Can someone tell me how I should add these to AudioKarma, as these are invaluable.

[SpeakerLabFan]

David, Thanks for the offer to share these files on AK. If you can convert / import these into one or more PDF docs, that might be a good approach. AK member Njord Noatun hosts alot of documents for AK members, you might want to check with him for ideas... There should be alot of HTML > PDF utilities available to do the task if you need one - check out download.com.

[Redboy]

David, that's awesome! I'm sorry to hear the news about Joel, but I'm thrilled that you had the foresight to save those files!

Let us know where to look for them once you've figured out how to upload them.

[Cantabury Guy]

Reports of the demise of the site may be premature. I was on that site a month ago and one of the guys that worked for Joel had reopened for repairs. I checked back again just before Christmas and they were open for business but posted they would be closed until Jan 7, 2008. Let's see what happens next week.

[Fisherdude]

David, I had no idea you knew Joel. I had been visiting his site for years and was well aware of his deteriorating health. My condolences.

[Cantabury Guy]

As I thought, the site is back up. Not a bad idea to archive the valuable info ...you never know.