"Adjustable" anti skate weight

Montycat

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I had a little brainstorm recently. I was searching around for suitable anti skate weights for a Sony PS-5520 I am working on. I have been to bead stores in the past and used lead fishing weights and though the first were pretty they were usually too light or bulky and the second were ugly.

I remembered I had a clevis pin on my desk at work. It came with a stainless steel washer and has a convenient hole for the fishing line. The neat thing is that by adding additional washers I can readily adjust the weight. The washers I had lying around that fit each were about .5 to .6 grams. As far as I can tell the Sony should have something in the 2 to 3 gram range so I can get there easily. Of course the line can be moved along the notched rod to adjust the bias but this adds more versatility.

I will put up another pic when I get the string attached and on the table. The pin I am using is about 4 mm in diameter in the body and 6 at the head, and about 9 mm long.


Clevis pin by Buhduh, on Flickr

No washer:


Clevis pin 1.1 by Buhduh, on Flickr

One washer:


Clevic pin 1.63 by Buhduh, on Flickr

Three washers:


Clevis pin 2.81 by Buhduh, on Flickr
 
Oooo, nice and neat..modular in nature..thats systems got it all, good on you.
As per fishing tackle, 1/12 or 1/16 oz brass bullet weights. Not a bad look, and kind of look like they belong, also avail in powder coated black.In fact, at one time BassPro was selling a little plastic bag of some manner of black powder coating so with that and a bic lighter or a match, iirc, most anything could be black.
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Neat. Drill a small hole in the end of it for the monofilament and tie a knot on the other end. That way it will hand straight.
 
Using some very light weight Nylon Invisible Thread I don't need to worry about it hanging straight especially with a big (perhaps too big) loop at the bottom. This thread is also not quite as strong as I would like but it is very flexible.

I might re-do it to get smaller neater loops but this works. :) It's really hard to tie this stuff and keep length right and the loops small.


Sony clevis weight by Buhduh, on Flickr
 
Well here is another variation on an anti-skate weight for another Sony 5520. Yes same model, but a different actual turntable. The other one I was fixing for a friend and this one I got in exchange for helping another guy with his other turntables.

I got it with a missing counterweight and anti-skate weight plus a messed up headshell/cartridge combo. I swapped another Sony shell and cartridge onto it, found a counterweight among my stash that works. Both the headshell and counterweight are lighter than stock so it works out ok.


Sony 5520 2 by Buhduh, on Flickr


Sony 5520 by Buhduh, on Flickr

This weight is made from another odd combo of parts. Lead fishing weights are a good option but are fugly, so I was looking around for inspiration and saw some bike parts that had little holes in them. Those things were the end caps for brake and gear cable housing, plus I also found some needle type inflating pins, the kind you would use for footballs etc.

I cut the needle off the pump thing, made a loop of nylon thread and stuck the other end through the hole and then squashed the lead weight around the other end of the thread. I jammed the lead weight into the hollow end of the adaptor and voila...


Sony anti-skate thing by Buhduh, on Flickr
 
Here is what I mean by the pump thing that I cut the skinny bit off to end up with the thing in the previous post:

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And here is a bike cable housing cap that could work in a similar manner. It would easily hide a small fishing weight inside it. It would look even better than the thing I used but the weight ended up better with the combination I used.

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Well combining the ideas above is working out well. The bike gear cable housing cap plus the clevis pin produces a very clean almost factory design weight.


Yamaha YP-211 anti-skate by Buhduh, on Flickr

I tied the thread around the hole in the clevis pin which fits perfectly inside the cable housing cap and the thread pokes out through the small hole. Gear cable caps have a smaller hole than brake so look a bit better but either could work. Caps also come in a few shapes and sizes and you can see some variations in one of my pics.


Anti-skate by Buhduh, on Flickr


Anti-skate parts by Buhduh, on Flickr

The completed weight shown on the Yamaha in the first pic is in the foreground in the next pic.


Anti-skate parts 2 by Buhduh, on Flickr

One thing I find tricky is getting the length of thread just right. It's easier with this as once the knot is made you can wrap the thread around the clevis once or twice to shorten it. You can also take it apart and use a washer as in my first version at the top of the thread to make it heavier. Or you can use lead fishing weights and not the clevis and if they are not too big they should fit inside the housing cap. The lead shot works but looks fugly and this should fix that. :thmbsp:
 
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