Shackman55
Super Member
I have wound up with a fair number of carts and headshell combos, Ok I like swapping what can I say. Any how I was looking for a way to keep them last year and was appalled at the price of headshell holders. $50 for a Tupperware container?? And forget the prices on some of the nicer (Still not so nice) wood ones. So I started tinkering with a CD Spindle and made a disc with some holes in it to fit inside and then the head shells would stand up in the holes and be protected, well this worked but ugly. I am usually more about function that fancy, but in this case I want to be able to appreciate my assortment too. Well as odd as it might seem I was in a thrift shop, yes I know that is hard to believe that one of us would frequent a thrift shop, but I was and I saw a covered cheese board and it got me thinking. I have found and looked at bunches of these cheese holders and usually right around 1-3 bucks. So I looked for one that had #1 a real wood base, #2 a real glass dome #3 high enough and big around enough to accommodate my head shells. Second time out I found one. $2 invested so far. I took it home and like any good procrastinator, I left it on my audio table for 7 months. Looking at it every few weeks or so and thinking I should get a round to it. I have the day off today and the weather is a bit dreary so I got to it. The one I found is made of solid teak, as is all my audio furniture. Pretty simple DIY I am actually surprised I have not seen anyone do this before. Given how much they charge for pre made ones. I measured/marked and pretapped some holes to fit my 8 headshells, I think I could have easily made it ten in this size. I drilled the holes using a standing drillpress but a handheld would have worked too. The drill bit I figured out by using several close ones on a test board and decided on the one that gave me the fit I liked. The one thing I had found with my first go round using the CD holder was I had not counted on the bayonette on the mount of the headshell. It made for an uncomfortably tight fit, so I found a jigsaw blade and made a notch at a tangent to the board. I wanted the headshells to fit with the lift arm inward all pointing the same way. When it was done I hit it with some 0000 Steel wool as the finish was already not bad, it didn't take much. Sopped it with some Howard's feed & wax a quick buffing and it was done. Likely 20 minutes tops, the toughest part was finding the right drill bit size. That and where the heck my Howards was. Just a side note about the Howard's, when I first came to the forums here, I didn't know what Feed & Wax was, folks kept talking about this Howard guy who refinishes wood, I looked and looked and I couldn't find any posts from him. Then I was reading a DIY post that went into some detail about a speaker cabinet and Duh..... This is one of those where I say to myself, "Why the heck did I put this one off???" Onwards to the RCM, well maybe tomorrow or the next day....
