Turntable Repair/Setup

ambiophonics

I'm in charge of the Electronic Repair department at my workplace and am looking at broadening the scope of our repair offerings. We currently focus on guitar/bass amps, PA equipment (amps, speakers, mixers) and digital keyboards. We have repaired turntables in the past but do not have all of the equipment and tools to really advertise this service yet. I've been looking into what we would need to have on hand to offer this service and am looking for insight and opinions from anyone with experience they would be willing to share.

Here is my list of items we probably need so far:

Strobe Disc
Test Record (Analogue Productions - The Ultimate Analogue Test LP)
Overhang Gauge
Stylus Force Gauge (G SHURESFG-2)
Alignment Disc (G Geo Disc)
Various Size Belts (Some available from MCM)
Cleaning Solvents - not sure what's best here
Lubricants - grease and oil, recommendations?

We already have most of the standard repair tools - multimeter, oscilloscope, variac, soldering iron, wow and flutter meter, speakers, phono preamp etc. I'm also thinking about offering new cartridges and cleaning brushes for sale as well.

What do you think?

SCompRacer

Bearing lube will depend on manufacturer suggestions and clearances. Older Rega's used 75W gear lube, tighter tolerance can use 3-in-One Blue which is a 20W oil. Really tight tolerance bearings a light synthetic or turbine oil. Inverted bearings, a PTFE grease. Some bearings used a dab of grease on bottom and oil on top.

You can use isopropyl alcohol to clean bearings, the higher percentage the better, less water in it. Like 91%/99%. Sometimes that high percentage is behind the counter at pharmacies. I use it to clean solder flux off circuit boards after soldering too. I also use a brake cleaner found at auto parts stores. With brake cleaners, fumes could be a concern in confined spaces.

I really like my KAB SpeedStrobe. Battery powered so not affected by mains fluctuation. Large disc, easy to read.



http://www.kabusa.com/strobe.htm

ambiophonics

Thanks for all the suggestions SComp - I like the look of that speed strobe too!

Big Dawg

If you're serious about it, you should be spending time at vinylengine.com. They are the best source of formation on turntables, both generally specifically, including manuals, service guides, downloadable protractors, etc.

Keep us informed with how things progress. BTW, where are you located?

ambiophonics

Vinyl Engine is a great resource! Thanks for the tips so far. I'm located in Iowa, but we have drop off locations for repairs at all our stores throughout Iowa and Illinoise so we end up with a lot of interesting items in the shop.