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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Introducing (John Holmes-sized) "Universal Spindle" for Garrard 301 and 401








I'd wish to introduce my own "Universal Spindle" good... would say SPECIAL, for both stock 301 and 401, any vintage... it's an humble - sort-of - "back-engineering homage", with some improvements, most of all in materials quality and tight, ultra-precise to .000 mm machining, suggested by among the very best of ALL classic idler-wheel turntables spindles of the last decades.

I carefully dismantled and studied in details - pros & cons - my own, old original Shindo's, Commonwealth/Westrex 12D's, Garrard 301's and EMT 930st's spindles and every design had its caveats and merits... me and my machinist painstackingly made some prototypes and reached a stethoscope-friendly, extremely quiet rotating behaviour REALLY seldom heard and experienced... the rotation, after 78 rpm sudden stopping, is of about four minutes+ to complete stop... and most important, every original Garrard's platter can be used without any problem, plug'n'play:-)... it's a stainless-steel spindle with double luxury-quality bearings and super-flat/mirror-polished Delrin bottom, oil-feeding "chimney" and light molybdenum grease at bearings... a masterpiece... I'm herewith posting the very first (iPhone) pixes taken near the lathe which produced it.. and some more, shot shortly after, and showing a direct comparison vs. original 301's spindle and mounted on White Whale 301's platter... spindle measures 130 mm vs. 90 mm Garrard's original, as measured from underside of spindle pillar: macho and the boy:-)... aehm, meant "toy":-)))

Last but not least, I also made the disc spindle slightly longer/higher than original, for a more friendly use of clamps and additional and/or heavier mats; will ship with an oil-bottle and syringe to avoid troubles in transit and time-wasting when receiving it, while (light) molybdenum-grease will already be in place.

Best of both worlds - i.e. grease AND (compatible) oil.



As I made an extremely limited batch of these lathing and mechanic beauties, I guess this part should be of interest to (some) Garrard-lovers around, at VERY friendly price-tags and superb craftmanship and materials... the spindle has a stainless-steel mirrored-surface and guarantees a smoothness to be "felt" to be believed... a rare find, anywhere at any price!

I'll be selling my (original) Shindo's spindle, soon... it's THAT good, folks.

9 comments:

John said...

It would help your sale if you stated the sale price, because at the end of the day and after all your pretty words, people will either be able to afford it (based on the PRICE), or not.

twogoodears said...

You're right, John... IF only I wished to go pro and making one hundred a-month, having a list-price, an agent and so on... as I clearly wrote, I only made a few, doing so - i.e. to have one for me and a couple of friends - I sort-of covered the CAD/CNC programming, which was quite expensive, making some more, period... my Blog isn't eBay, my readers are often friends and the batch get almost sold-out, so... not justifying myself, but - considering the above - didn't see any problem when I posted about the spindle:-) .
Anyway, if you own a 301 and you're interested it's small secret I'm asking EUR 650 including shipping, oil, syringe, grease, stainless-steel screws and nuts BUT... I only have two left... first come first served...
Thanks for yr. interest, John.

John said...

Stefano,
that's a very fair price.
God, I should buy it but my Garrard is in storage gathering dust and after a long illness a 3 year old child and another on the way, I don't know when I'll get the chance to start on that project.

No need to get a agent Stefano, just list the price at the end of the article, even in small print ;-)

Thanks again,

John

twogoodears said...

Thanks a lot for yr. kind reply, John... I wish you ALL the very, VERY best.
Stefano

ikon said...

Stefano;
Greetings. I love the your spindle creation.Could I please, please have one. Ray is doing a chassis for me and your spindle would cap it off.
Ijaz

Drewshere said...

Hello,
I take they are all gone?
Thanks,

Drew.

twogoodears said...

Hi Drew... Hi Ijaz...
... only one left... please drop me a PM at stefanocelloATgmailDOTcom.
Thanks for your interest,
Stefano

Unknown said...

Hello,

May I know if you still have stock of this bearing and how much does it cost?

Cheers,

Fai

twogoodears said...

Hi Fai... thanks for your comment: please drop me an email at stefanocelloATgmailDOTcom.
Thanks for your interest,
Stefano