thedelihaus
Nocturnal transmissions
Got Mackat's Black Widow in the mail today, and this being a pretty straightforward arm and me feeling unusually active and with unexpected free time, I jumped right on it.
The box arrived in a Priority box which I'll get to later. The arm was suffering from a broken trough paddle (I'll get to that later too) and a supposed sticky bearing. Also, I wanted to check the wiring- it was Ben's first time and he was not sounding too pleased with it. I said I'd look into it.
Upon inspecting the knife edge bearings, I really couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. A small (almost microscopic) nick on one "V" knife edge pivot bearing and a small burr sitting at the very top of the female "V" the bearings sit in- but I've seen this on others too, and honestly, it's not in a spot that should cause an issue. That near-microscopic nick on the knife edge bearing was only detectable by slowly running an X-acto blade across the edge- it was almost non-existent, and not something the eye would catch.
Nonetheless, I took a small and very fine file to the bur, a very fine grade file actually used to file points on a motorcycle. I then took a dremel and polish disc and polish compound and polished the knife bearings- not quite mirror finish, but nice and shiny.
The wiring-
Ben did a much better job than I expected and is probably too hard on himself. I expected gloppy giant solder blobs at the tone arm din plug pins. Instead I found pretty decent beginner work- I've seen folk with some experience do much worse. They were only slightly on the large side, and a bit close together.
The big issue was the delicate silk sheathing on the Litz arm wire- it is easily torn and the wire was bare in many spots. Like I said, the sheathing is fine silk, and any rough or sharp edge or a bit too much force pulling it through the tube could spell disaster. Like I said, it's easy to strip it off if you're not careful. It was good fortune the bare section of the wires did not touch each other and short out his amp or speakers. This actually happened to AKer Soundweasel when he purchased a restored Marantz 6300 that had a bit of a quick rush job done to it by the restorer who was trying to complete it for a record show, and stray solder and wire caused it to blow out drivers in one of his rare Allisons when hooked up. Doug's a good friend of mine, and had ended up repairing that for him afterwards, and we added some nice rear-mount RCA jacks to the otherwise lovely table.
Anyhow- back on track. I had some new Litz wire on hand, and with some work, able to remove the tags that were pre-installed on the wire ben bought. I braided up some new wire, re-threaded the arm, cleaned off the old solder and wires from the Din plug pins, and tested for continuity.
Everything tested out great, and I can give this arm a clean bill of health. I didn't mount it to test it, but ran a continuity test for the four cartridge wires and ground wire, and did the "dangle" test for the bearings, horizontal and vertical. I don't expect any issues.
As for the sticking bearing, I don't see it now, and if it was there before, it had to be pretty mild. This arm is very clean and in very good shape. One of the cleaner examples to come across my bench, actually. The only thing I can fathom is at the extremes of the arm's action perhaps a bit of chatter or "ride"- but nothing that would be abnormal for this design, and nothing within the correct and proper operating range.
Okay- my biggest concern was when the box arrived- much too small! And a slight crunch to it. The arm fit diagonally only- and by good fortune didn't get smooshed. Ben, it's coming back to you in a bigger box!
Oh- that smoosh- it was enough to leave a small gap in the bottom of the box. The baggy with the trough and paddle wasn't in the box, so either it fell out, or hopefully it's somewhere at Ben's place. I'd love to see if I can repair this rare piece and I hope it's not at the bottom of some USPS carrier bag somewhere to be lost forever.
Okay- enough chatter from me- here's some pictures....
The box arrived in a Priority box which I'll get to later. The arm was suffering from a broken trough paddle (I'll get to that later too) and a supposed sticky bearing. Also, I wanted to check the wiring- it was Ben's first time and he was not sounding too pleased with it. I said I'd look into it.
Upon inspecting the knife edge bearings, I really couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. A small (almost microscopic) nick on one "V" knife edge pivot bearing and a small burr sitting at the very top of the female "V" the bearings sit in- but I've seen this on others too, and honestly, it's not in a spot that should cause an issue. That near-microscopic nick on the knife edge bearing was only detectable by slowly running an X-acto blade across the edge- it was almost non-existent, and not something the eye would catch.
Nonetheless, I took a small and very fine file to the bur, a very fine grade file actually used to file points on a motorcycle. I then took a dremel and polish disc and polish compound and polished the knife bearings- not quite mirror finish, but nice and shiny.
The wiring-
Ben did a much better job than I expected and is probably too hard on himself. I expected gloppy giant solder blobs at the tone arm din plug pins. Instead I found pretty decent beginner work- I've seen folk with some experience do much worse. They were only slightly on the large side, and a bit close together.
The big issue was the delicate silk sheathing on the Litz arm wire- it is easily torn and the wire was bare in many spots. Like I said, the sheathing is fine silk, and any rough or sharp edge or a bit too much force pulling it through the tube could spell disaster. Like I said, it's easy to strip it off if you're not careful. It was good fortune the bare section of the wires did not touch each other and short out his amp or speakers. This actually happened to AKer Soundweasel when he purchased a restored Marantz 6300 that had a bit of a quick rush job done to it by the restorer who was trying to complete it for a record show, and stray solder and wire caused it to blow out drivers in one of his rare Allisons when hooked up. Doug's a good friend of mine, and had ended up repairing that for him afterwards, and we added some nice rear-mount RCA jacks to the otherwise lovely table.
Anyhow- back on track. I had some new Litz wire on hand, and with some work, able to remove the tags that were pre-installed on the wire ben bought. I braided up some new wire, re-threaded the arm, cleaned off the old solder and wires from the Din plug pins, and tested for continuity.
Everything tested out great, and I can give this arm a clean bill of health. I didn't mount it to test it, but ran a continuity test for the four cartridge wires and ground wire, and did the "dangle" test for the bearings, horizontal and vertical. I don't expect any issues.
As for the sticking bearing, I don't see it now, and if it was there before, it had to be pretty mild. This arm is very clean and in very good shape. One of the cleaner examples to come across my bench, actually. The only thing I can fathom is at the extremes of the arm's action perhaps a bit of chatter or "ride"- but nothing that would be abnormal for this design, and nothing within the correct and proper operating range.
Okay- my biggest concern was when the box arrived- much too small! And a slight crunch to it. The arm fit diagonally only- and by good fortune didn't get smooshed. Ben, it's coming back to you in a bigger box!
Oh- that smoosh- it was enough to leave a small gap in the bottom of the box. The baggy with the trough and paddle wasn't in the box, so either it fell out, or hopefully it's somewhere at Ben's place. I'd love to see if I can repair this rare piece and I hope it's not at the bottom of some USPS carrier bag somewhere to be lost forever.
Okay- enough chatter from me- here's some pictures....
.
