Technics SL-1401

oldrocker

Picked this up with the SX 780 today and some others. Horrible dirty mess, metal pitted terribly on the platter, does work fine but the visual is just bad..










780 cleaned up ok.. But that TT, not so much..

EndersShadow

Eh two out of three ain't bad... You can't always win em all lol

mhardy6647

Nice tt. Looks are only cosmetic (assuming the platter balance is still OK).

EDIT: oh. The one thing about which I do worry when dealing with junker, dump find, etc. tts is the health of the arm and its bearings. Check the latter for play and friction/binding. Check the alignment of the former for twists, bends, stuff like that (i.e., that Panasonic didn't intend the arm to have!). The arms are kind of delicate. The drive system is fairly robust (although the main platter bearing is also, I suppose, an opportunity for trouble in a 'rode hard and put away wet' tt like the titular example).

boston1450

Looks good to me. Close your eyes n enjoy

oldrocker

Here's the stains on the platter. It seems to be aluminum. Any advise on what to clean those dark spots?

oldrocker

EndersShadow wrote: »

Eh two out of three ain't bad... You can't always win em all lol

Yep, so much for giving up the audio thing for butterfly collecting..

I read through that sub info you sent, it makes sense now.

Cept if I were you, I check to make sure the roof on your house is attached good enough...

EndersShadow

oldrocker wrote: »

EndersShadow wrote: »

Eh two out of three ain't bad... You can't always win em all lol

Yep, so much for giving up the audio thing for butterfly collecting..

I read through that sub info you sent, it makes sense now.

Cept if I were you, I check to make sure the roof on your house is attached good enough...

Remember how I told you I needed a new roof .....

I've also got another sub design I'm looking at, which would use 4 subs total, each one a 8 ohm load with them wired into 2 sets..... It may be a bigger winner and at a cheaper cost with giving up some of the low low stuff in the process though.....

dromunds

Is that a Billy Idol CD in that photo? If so, you're a ROCKER!

oldrocker

Yep it is. I didn't have my glasses on when I pulled it out of the rack.
I just needed a cd to test the aux on the 780.
I did know I was somewhere in the A-C area of my cd's...

dromunds

Well, it was a good pick!

SCompRacer

oldrocker wrote: »

Here's the stains on the platter. It seems to be aluminum. Any advise on what to clean those dark spots?

Mothers Mag & Aluminum polish. By hand (harder) or machine with buff pad (easy).



Before...



After...

oldrocker

Hey thanks!!!

And that folks ^^ is a TT....Sweet...

erniejade

That's the thing about the old technics DD or QD turntables, they can take one heck of a beating and keep on going!

oldrocker

Here is where I'm at and got some questions.

Got some Mothers polish, been at it for hours.

Does the black crap ever quit coming out?
Am I over doing it?
What's the best to clean the middle black section of the platter as it is a black painted piece of aluminum.

Yeah, that's one of the tee shirts I was using.

SCompRacer

oldrocker wrote: »

Here is where I'm at and got some questions.

Got some Mothers polish, been at it for hours.

Does the black crap ever quit coming out?
Am I over doing it?

Once you get the shine you are done. I then wash platter with soap and water and buff dry. For the paint, treat it like you restore oxidized paint, with light polish.

Looks great!

oldrocker

Ok thanks.
You were right on the by hand thing, fingers awfully sore.

EndersShadow

oldrocker wrote: »

Ok thanks.
You were right on the by hand thing, fingers awfully sore.

You sure the your ONLY polishing the TT platter David

oldrocker

Yeah, didn't even think about that until after I posted the comment.

That storm should be right on top of you folks...

boston1450

That looks much better. Great job

oldrocker

boston1450 wrote: »

That looks much better. Great job

Thanks

Mr. B,
I was digging through some old threads and found one of yours where you were asking about getting clear tape residue off a TT lid.

You also said you wanted to know what to clean the lid with as it was cloudy.
May I ask what did you use to make the dust cover look better as this one is cloudy and scratched.

EndersShadow

Have you thought about trying the same stuff they use to clear up headlights? I'd bet that would potentially work.....

I also may have a extra cover that would work for it. If it happens to fit for yours, its all yours no cost

oldrocker

Glad to finally hear from you, damn wicked weather today.

I thought about that headlight stuff as it was suggested in that old thread.

I do appreciate the offer and might take you up on it.

Oh, the wife read your one comment, looked at me and said "you did walk right into that one".

boston1450

I used some leftover headlight cleaner i had with a soft rag & buffed it by hand. It worked well & i had it on hand.. It took out the cloudiness & cleaned up the lite swirls it had. Here is some-not sure it works or not. But decent price http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=150524729970&fromWatch=true

halo

I have used Meguiar's Clear Plastic Cleaner with excellent results for years.

mhardy6647

I presume (although I don't know and I am too lazy to look) that products like the mag wheel polish contain chemical reducing agents to counteract the surface oxidation of aluminum (etc.). The plastic polishes are, again presumably, just fine abrasives (rouge) to polish... the surface chemistry is entirely different for oxidized metals vs. photochemically oxidized/crosslinked plastics.

Just a long-winded way of saying that "metal polish" is probably the better choice for.. polishing metal.

halo

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I presume (although I don't know and I am too lazy to look) that products like the mag wheel polish contain chemical reducing agents to counteract the surface oxidation of aluminum (etc.). The plastic polishes are, again presumably, just fine abrasives (rouge) to polish... the surface chemistry is entirely different for oxidized metals vs. photochemically oxidized/crosslinked plastics.

Just a long-winded way of saying that "metal polish" is probably the better choice for.. polishing metal.

Unless I misunderstood, at some point in this thread, someone was asking how to clean up the plastic cover of the turntable as well and that is why I brought up the plastic cleaner. I understand car care products pretty well :-)

mhardy6647

oh, heh... I missed that completely. Sorry.
(yup, now I found that post!)

Yes, I'd think any of the plastic care products would be pretty good to very good... I've always liked/used the Novus products (FWIW).

oldrocker

The platter is about the best I can get it and now I'm onto the cover which is the worst part.

Thanks for the info all!!!

If it's not to much, after the cover work, I will post some pics of the interior and be asking about which parts need oiled/lubed.

Once again THANKS!!!

oldrocker

With platter back on. Probably could use a second round of cleaning.

All four corners of the base have that scratching. It appears it is from the dust cover sliding back and forth. I don't have the hinges for the dust cover but the guy does have them, he just needs to find them.

The dust cover, it looks a lot worse than the picture.

oldrocker

A mat question.

Is there something used to treat it?

It's somewhat clean for it's age, is flexible and not brittle anywhere.

However, I don't know if I should be putting some sort of conditioner on the mat to keep it soft and flexible?

oldrocker

First one I've had that has the speed light not projecting light on the side of the platter. You have to look into the little square on the base to see it, which works.

Not really a TT guy and this certainly is not a cream of the crop TT but when I saw this thing sitting on a shelf in a garage covered in dirt, I just had to see if she can be saved... I know it was made in the 70's, vinyl engine pegged it at $290.00 new.

Time will tell...