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Thread buffer rcm i the works.

edd9000

edd9000

Don't Panic!
Thread buffer rcm in the works.

This is my keith monks/loricraft style rcm in progress.

IMGP0822.jpg


I used a piece of acrylic for the platter, the 3 holes were so i could hold it in the lathe.

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This is the motor assembly, its an 80rpm gear motor from a surplus website, all of $7.50

IMGP0826.jpg


Main spindle in bearing

IMGP0824.jpg


The arm wont sit quite this high, i havnt cut the hole in the top for it yet. there are 2 bearings in its holder, and 2 small beaing on the arm shaft.

IMGP0825.jpg


This is the vacuum nozzle that will be attached to the arm, the white piece pushes into the metal tube. It is teflon.

Im yet to sort out the vacuum pump, but i have a couple laying around. The drive for the arm will be sorted when i have the vacuum working, probably rc servos (lift and rotation) powered by an arduino.

edd
 
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Small update, silver soldered the arm together today after shotening the post a bit a couple of days ago:

IMGP0839.jpg


The finish isnt great, but it was the first time using silver solder. In fact this is the first time ive used a lathe and a mill too.

edd
 
Here is the arm in more or less its final state, i hope to solder the brass tubes to the arm or place them internally at some point but for now its functional.

IMGP0840.jpg


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I can now clean record by manually moving the arm over the record :D

edd
 
dnewma04 said:
Very interesting. Can you explain how a RCM of this type cleans the records?
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You apply cleaning fluid manualy with a brush. Then the arm vacuums off the liquid by moving over the lp.

I think there are some videos on youtube if you search for keith monks, or have a looks at the keith monks or loricraft web pages, lots of info there.

The reason i chose this method was i thought it would be more fun to try, and the keith monks and loricraft are waaayyy out of my budget ($2500-$5000)

edd
 
spartanmanor said:
Great looking build! I will be interested in hearing about your results.
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Well, i can clean lps by manualy moving the arm right now. First of the all the record wasnt destroyed, this is a success in my book :banana:

More seriously, the water collected in the jar is filthy. The lp comes out looking very clean and shiny. The problem is i have no real way of telling on a microscopic level is the lp is as clean as say a commercial vpi, or even hand cleaning.

The few lps i have cleaned sounded excellent, they were given to me and have been in storage for 20 years, so im pleased so far.

Once i have the machine fully built, i will atempt to quantify the results by recording a before and after.

edd
 
Chazb11 said:
Very nice work edd! Does it get the record completely dry in one pass?
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yes. I have used a keith monks in the past so have seen them in action. The vacuum is very concentrated and pulls the fluid very nicely into the jar.

edd
 
here are some photos of the arm mechanism.

the arm and lift:
IMGP0867.jpg


the arm is freely removable (other than the pipe and thread tangle), you can see the gear on the end of the shaft, this has some slip so the arm can be repositioned:
IMGP0868.jpg


the hole with the driving servo:
IMGP0870.jpg


the lift and rotation servos with the basic lift linkage:
IMGP0865.jpg


edd
 
So, the thread stops the vacuum head from attaching itself to the vinyl. Presumably this thread has to continue cycling to avoid grinding contaminants into the record. How is the thread cycled and where does it end up?

Do you have a parts list available to someone interested in making something similar?
 
yes, thats exactly what the thread is for. Its sucked up and ends up in the waste collection jar. On the keith monks machine the thread is slowly realed out by a 1/2rpm motor or so. currently on my machine and the loricraft you just unreal half a turn or so of thread before each side.

A parts list is tricky since i fabricated alot of it, but i will put together a material/part list of what i actually bought.

edd
 
edd,

Right on, i figure the mfg bits are pretty obvious, but the electronics and such are things that would have had to have been purchased from somewhere.

It's an intriguing machine and I have been trying to decide on a cleaner to use for quite a while, this might be the best option I've seen yet. I recently picked up an old victrola that was gutted but the cabinet is in nice shape. :)
 
ok heres a decent list of what i used:

All the metal came from an off cut store locally
The wood was scrap i had spare.

The acylic for the platter is 0.5" thick and came from mcmaster-carr
The teflon rod is 0.5" and also came from mcmaster-carr. An alternative to this is used the end of a desoldering pump.

All the bearing i had on hand, i used 6201 bearings as that was what was on the shelf.

The platter motor is this one: http://www.sciplus.com/singleItem.cfm/terms/11400 but many other gear motors would do im sure.

The thread is number 30 nylon thread, again from mcmaster-carr.

The vacuum pump im going to use is this one : http://www.barnant.com/products.php?product=66&desc=none
But any thing with 0.5 cfm flow and 20" hg vaccum will work. mine came from ebay for $55. look for a diaphragm or piston pump, like a gast. they are around $2-300 new. All the vacuum fitting came from mcmaster-carr, apart from the waste jar, thats a pickle jar :D.

The micro controller is an arduino, i got it here http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=666
http://www.arduino.cc has all the information on it with tutorials and code etc.

The servos and the gears came from : http://www.servocity.com/
i used the basic hitec servo hs-311. The gears were an 18 on the servo, and i think a 74 on the base of the arm, this takes the 180 degree motion of the servo to the 50 or so needed for the sweep.

Im pretty sure something similar could be made from a scrap turntable and its arm, here are some examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20DJ5XchA30

http://karstenw.gmxhome.de/wash.htm

hope that helps for those who are still awake :boring:

edd
 
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