Turntable repair in Dublin?

Wheeker

Hi there, I have a c.10 yr-old Sherwood PM9800 turntable which I wanted to get up & running again. I have now bought 2 new needles, a new belt & a pre-amp for it. Having made all that investment I now find that the speed fluctuates on it .

I found out online about oxidisation etc. so I opened it up & sprayed all the pots liberally with electronic switch cleaner. It seemed to work ok for a while, but now the speed is fluctuating once again.

This turntable was fairly decent when I originally bought it, not high-end by any means but cost c. Stg£150 IIRC. Now that I have spent even more trying to get it going again I am reluctant to just throw it out & buy a new one. Does anyone know of someone in Dublin who would be able to repair this?

Slaphead07

Wheeker wrote: »

Hi there, I have a c.10 yr-old Sherwood PM9800 turntable which I wanted to get up & running again. I have now bought 2 new needles, a new belt & a pre-amp for it. Having made all that investment I now find that the speed fluctuates on it .

I found out online about oxidisation etc. so I opened it up & sprayed all the pots liberally with electronic switch cleaner. It seemed to work ok for a while, but now the speed is fluctuating once again.

This turntable was fairly decent when I originally bought it, not high-end by any means but cost c. Stg£150 IIRC. Now that I have spent even more trying to get it going again I am reluctant to just throw it out & buy a new one. Does anyone know of someone in Dublin who would be able to repair this?

Given that you can buy a new Project for about €220 it doesn't make sense to repair it. Since you've replaced belt and carts it's probably a motor or power supply issue. Not cheap.

earpiece

A common problem with belt driven turntables that suffer from fluctuation in speed is lack of bearing lubrication below the platter... you need to be careful as to what type of oil you apply though..... something more viscus than sewing machine oil is required, suggest a neumatic tool oil of some sort.
Worth a try and is of low cost.... after that, possible capicitor decay if it's an AC motor turntable.

Wheeker

Thanks for the replies guys. TBH I really can't justify spending €220 on a new turntable. I have a lot of vinyl that I wanted to transfer to my PC. I suppose I could buy a cheapo USB turntable, but my current turntable would be better quality & I've already bought the pre-amp & my PC has Audio-In jacks i.e. I'm all ready to transfer without USB! I thought that it might have been worth say €50 of repair costs if it just needed a switch or motor replaced, though I did realise it would be hard to find someone who would repair it.

Sure, I will give it a go at opening it up & oiling the bearings. I've read elsewhere that (new) car engine oil can be used to oil the bearings.

Hifi Keith

There are hifi repair places about in Dublin shouldn't be hard to find online.

Speed issues you would imagine should be the motor or a wrong sized belt has been fit, by far the most common complaints with turntables that have been sat up is belts stretching/disintegrating or motors packing in due to the bearing lubricant becoming solid and almost glue like

I would not use engine oil the viscosity is not right and will put undue force on the unit. Have seen a linn sondek with engine oil in it which was plain silly

The likes of the lenco usb turntables are awful and a false economy in that they will damage your vinyl

earpiece

Try this juice:

http://www.hifigear.co.uk/michell-synthetic-main-bearing-oil.html

DublinWriter

Wheeker wrote: »

I found out online about oxidisation etc. so I opened it up & sprayed all the pots liberally with electronic switch cleaner. It seemed to work ok for a while, but now the speed is fluctuating once again.

I had a similar problem with a 35 year old Sony deck I was restoring.

The trick for me was to break open the rheostat/pot, spray the circuit tracks with switch cleaner, give them a good auld scrub to remove the oxide and another spray of switch cleaner for luck. All worked fine.

The Sony is a workhorse for me and is I use it as a reference when I test Linn or EMT decks. It only cost €35. There comes a point when a restoration project really isn't worth it economically unless what you are restoring has some special nostalgic value.