Mating a Fisher 440 Amp to a 490-T Tuner

Today I took a 2' X 2' piece of Birch plywood over to a friend's house and used his table saw to cut a piece 16 1/4 inches deep and 18 inches wide. This matches the 16 1/4 inch depth of the Electra VI 490-T face panel. The face panel appears to be what I have heard called fruitwood stain finish with satin lacquer over that. It should not be too difficult to match the stain. I have the cutout area for the changer marked. I need to get a different blade for my saber saw to cut the curves in the plywood as some of them are rather tight. Most of my saber saw blades are the standard size and there is one size smaller that has a shorter front to back profile so it can cut tighter turns than the standard ones. I will get a package of blades in case I break some. I might need a drill abrasive grinding tool for some smoothing afterward.

One strange thing about the Elac Benjamin Miracord 40H, which was a special unit sold through Radio Shack, is that although there were holes in the metal base plate under the turntable for screws to tighten it down for transport, there were none in the changer and no way to secure it to the plastic base that came with the changer. The base even had holes in it for screws to pass through for that purpose. The changer must have been packaged with fitted styrofoam pads to keep everything stable in shipment. Once it was unpacked and assembled to the base there was no way to secure everything for transport unless the customer kept the original box and styrofoam. I may see if I can implement transport securing screws with this new wooden mounting board going into the custom cabinet I am making. Another method to keep the turntable cast and balanced top in place during transport is needed too. That part is so heavy that if it came loose and bounced around in the changer compartment it could cause a lot of damage, especially to the tone arm. A college bound student may not be as aware of handling a changer, so instructions to my granddaughter are in order for this.

Joe
 
Joe; Drill down into the base from the holes in the top. Then use some captive nuts (the ones with the spikes) from the bottom. Use the screws to hold down the turntable. Fiber packing tape across the platter and folded under the base should hold it down, or instruct her to remove the platter and put in a separate box.
 
Larry;
Yes those are called T-nuts and I even have a collection of them and may even have the right size to use. Thanks for the suggestions. I might be able to make a strap to go over the platter like you suggest, I am thinking of Kevlar or perhaps some stout cowhide. If I make the strap right, perhaps a slit in the middle to go over the spindle and keep it in place. Another idea I had was to make a wooden bar to slip over the platter and use some more and larger T-nuts on the underside of the mounting base and screws with wing nuts on the ends to secure the whole top of the platter to the mounting board for transport. I might see if I can find some metal clips that would secure the spindles to one side against the mounting base for transport or for storage when not in use.
Joe
 
Thanks Joe for the reminder of the name. I think in the 62 years I've been around, I've used them once or twice, and only in the last 20. The wooden bar sounds better, then use some all-thread, 4 wingnuts, 4 washers, and use the two holes in the plinth. Then 2 of the Wingnuts and washers are for the plinth to hold it to the baseplate, then the other two are used for the platter to hold it tight to the plinth. You could mount the clips on the wood bar, and a piece of cowhide on the bottom of the bar to keep the rubber mat intact (or just take it off and set it in the box with the unit.).

Granted my drawing would look better from my 6 year old grand-daughter, but you get the idea.

Larry
Platter attachment.JPG
 
Larry;
Thanks for the suggestions. To cut down on the physical number of pieces I plan to look for some of the wing nuts that come with a threaded shaft as one piece. That way it won't be necessary to keep up with so many small pieces. I think the wooden bar with some sort of pad on the bottom - TBD. I thought of adding some small canisters fitted into the changer base alongside it to put the spindles in when not being used. A screw-on lid could keep them in place. It depends on what sort of parts I can find for securing the spindles in the compartment. I would really prefer metal clips that they could snap into. I need to measure the OD of the spindles and look.
Joe
 
Today I accomplished two things. First I sanded and cleaned the base-board for the Elac Benjamin Miracord 40H and then applied stain. The stain I chose appears to be a very good match to the trim panel of the 490-T color. Second I received another three double height knobs. One was ideal for the tuning knob as the small part and the large part have no pointer ridges on them - just smooth with the fine grooves on the sides. The others have the pointer ridge. I had ordered a set of knob brights suitable for a 500-C or 800-C so I had more than enough to make a complete set of knobs. I cleaned and polished them, then installed them and took this picture.
Knobs Equipped web.jpg
Larry did the Electra use bright brass Phillips screws on the front panel to fasten it in the cabinet? Or were they a dark color?
Joe
 
Larry;
OK, I will stay with dark. I have some dark Phillips head screws on hand. If bright ones were to be used I would need to buy some.
Joe
 
I put another coat of stain on the base board for the record changer. I used Minwax English Chestnut #233 which is so close to the original Electra faceplate that I cannot tell the difference. It will have to dry before I can sand it and check for the finish before moving on to application of clear lacquer or polyurethane. I am not sure what Fisher used for the original cabinet finish.
Joe
 
Most likely it was a lacquer. My 64's top peeled like a lacquer would. I sanded it down, put some stain on it and 3 coats of clear poly. Can't rememeber what the stain was now but it was very close to the original in color.
 
Larry;
Thanks for that information. I have some satin clear lacquer that I can use for a final finish. Many US manufacturers used lacquer finish on console cabinets. There were exceptions of course. Lacquer brings out wood grain in a way that many other finishes do not.
Joe
 
Here are a couple of pictures of the changer base plus Electra trim panel and the right hand side frame which the 490-T is to be supported by. The changer base has excess stain on it now, which will have to be reduced. The frame has the outline of the 490-T chassis traced on it and some holes have already been drilled. Other holes at the rear of the chassis have not been drilled yet. The changer base is the same height as the Electra trim panel. The changer base plus Electra trim panel will establish the overall approximate width of the cabinet.
Joe
Changer Base Electra Trim web.jpg Right Side Vertical Frame web.jpg Right Side Vertical Frame front web.jpg
 
I took some more pictures and cleaned them up some to show details of how the 490-T chassis mounts. There are three screws that hold a bracket along the right edge of the chassis to a mounting board in the cabinet. There is one larger hole in that bracket (about in the middle) that a screw from the front trim panel goes through. There are two other screw holes that the trim panel use to fasten to the supporting wood mounting board in the cabinet. The back side of the trim panel has some wood routed away to allow for the metal bracket near the center of the right side of the chassis and its mounting screw heads to clear. It was all pretty well thought out by the designers. The back end of the chassis rests upon another board with two screws to secure it after it is inserted into the cabinet. Part of the rear chassis flange has two cut-outs where these two screws go.
Joe
490-T on Frame web 01.jpg 490-T on Frame web 02.jpg 490-T on Frame web 03.jpg 490-T on Frame web 04.jpg 490-T on Frame web 05.jpg
 
Today I received some Molex contacts to use in the connector shells that I had on hand for connecting the 490-T speaker selector switch to the 440-A speaker terminals. I elected to use the WS-1 RCA jacks as connectors for Remote speakers and the screw terminals normally labeled as for Internal Speakers as Main Speakers. The reason I changed the terminology is that the system will be used with bookshelf speakers and possibly extra bookshelf or smaller speakers. The bookshelf speakers is how it will be used as I deliver it to my granddaughter. If she ever wants to plug in extra speakers then she could use the WS-1 RCA jacks. The speaker selector switch on the 490-T radio tuner chassis will be able to select the main bookshelf speakers or remote speakers or both as its switch was originally designed to do.

Here is a picture of the two chassis interconnected complete with the speaker wiring cable and other cables. I am including a schematic of the wiring of the speaker switch too. The wire color codes I used are what came with the 490-T chassis that I have.
490-T to 440-A together web.jpg Speaker Wiring 490-T to 440-A.jpg
Joe
P.S.: I see that the schematic is pretty unreadable at this resolution. If anyone wants a better copy of the speaker switching schematic, I can send it separately in an e-mail.
 
This morning I managed to get the left side frame made. It is a mirror image of the one for the right side (which has mounting screw locations for the 490-T tuner/preamp chassis). I will soon go back to my lumber/hardware store to select the plywood I want to use for the bottom, front and sides of the equipment cabinet. Part of the back will be made from some masonite with ventilation holes cut in it and some metal screen to keep critters out of the cabinet but allow air movement. I may even install a cooling fan. The rest of the back will be made from a combination of some solid wood and plywood parts. I chose some torsional hinges at Rockler recently that will allow a top lid to be lifted for access to the record changer or tuner/preamp and keep the lid up until pushed back down. This will avoid complicated lid support arrangements of years ago which are subject to easy damage if not handled correctly.

Joe
 
Yesterday I bought some 1/2" plywood for the base of the cabinet. This morning I cut the base to the dimensions needed for the cabinet I am building. This afternoon I managed to get the two end frame pieces mounted using screws and glue. They are currently being held at 90 degrees to the base using clamps while the assembly dries. Next step will be to cut horizontal pieces for the top front and back frame pieces and using the 90 degree clamps I will bring out the 490-T chassis and test mount it to make sure I do not have any physical interference issues to deal with. Additional corner diagonal braces will be used to strengthen the framework before adding sides and front plus a lid. The sides front and back will extend about 5 inches above the top horizontal frame pieces to enclose the record changer and the controls for the radio-tuner-preamp chassis. The 440-A chassis will go under the record changer left of the 490-T chassis, exact location TBD depending on length of cables.
Electra Framework web 01.jpg
Joe
 
Joe -- Don't know how high the changer will be over the amp chassis, but you might play with the positioning the amp and changer first before finalizing the amp's location to make sure there is no hum induced into the pickup from the power transformer. May not be a problem, but I've certainly had instances where it was.......

Dave
 
Dave;
Yes, I have that concern. My plan is to put the power transformer of the 440-A as far away from the pickup as possible, especially since it is a magnetic pickup. I may have to try various positions before settling on final position. If all else fails I might have to change to a ceramic type cartridge - I hope not.
Joe
 
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