My Garrard Lab 80 Obsession

I lost the other set of bearings once. The horizontal pivot has a full compliment of some itty-bitty bearing ball, probably a dozen if I had to throw a number at it. I was doing something and loosened the arm with the deck upside down. It dropped, the balls went flying. I got it back together with replacement parts, but what a PITA.
 
That bearing design was used for many years, through the SL95/SL75/AP75. Garrard seemed to think, "If it isn't broken, don't fix it."

Finally, with the development of the Zero 100 with its four horizontal pivot points, Garrard needed to reduce friction further, and went an outside supplier of precision bearings; the design was changed to a sealed bearing assembly which had lower friction than the loose balls. That bearing was also used in the lower-priced units on the same chassis: SL95B/SL75B/SL72B/AP96/AP76.
 
gadget73 said:
I lost the other set of bearings once. The horizontal pivot has a full compliment of some itty-bitty bearing ball, probably a dozen if I had to throw a number at it. I was doing something and loosened the arm with the deck upside down. It dropped, the balls went flying. I got it back together with replacement parts, but what a PITA.
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It's not a big expensive deal, a hundred 1/32" steel balls costs around $8.00, more or less, at Amazon.com!
 
Cheap yes, just frustrating to re-assemble. Bags of bearing balls are not expensive at all. I guess if you were feeling fancy you can get better grade ones but even those aren't all that expensive.
 
I thought the loose bearings on the Lab 80 were frustrating till I had to deal with the loose grain-of-sand size bearings on a Perpetuum Ebner !!!

gadget73 said:
Cheap yes, just frustrating to re-assemble. Bags of bearing balls are not expensive at all. I guess if you were feeling fancy you can get better grade ones but even those aren't all that expensive.
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under the tonearm, yes. "grain of sand" would be a fairly accurate description for those. The platter bearings are a cakewalk compared to the tonearm bearings.

The platter bearings I want to say are 3/32.
 
Yup, 3/32 for the platter bearings. I haven't taken apart the horizontal tone-arm bearings yet, but thanks for the warning.
 
Well, because of this thread I took the plunge and now have a Lab 80 MKII up and running in my system. It's been a fun project and I'm pleased with the results.
Got mine from an online estate auction for $50 so I didn't really know much about condition until I picked it up. Good news was that someone had already replaced the old lube with new graphite grease. Bad news was that some kind of disaster had befallen the cartridge tearing it loose from its plastic mount, breaking the arm off the anti-skating compensator and worst of all shearing the leads off the headshell. Idler was rock-hard.

Picked up a headshell, anti-skate gizmo, a rebuilt idler and a bag 'o bearings to redo platter bearing. A few deteriorated spots in the paint on the deck but a coat of wax helped - Noxon to get the counterweight and platter shiny. Lots of cleaning and lubrication. I only have a short spindle but have the full auto functions working well. Getting a little resistance from the trip mechanism in the last track of a record so I still have some adjusting to do. I would really like to find a tall spindle.

I'm very happy with this unit. Something about the looks of the TT that really grab me and it's more period correct for my system. Seems to perform perfectly fine with just a little rumble from the motor. May need to get more oil into the lower bearings.

Right now I'm running an M93E with the Pfanstiehl version of the N93E @2 grams. Since I didn't know how violent the changing cycles would be I wanted to start with something inexpensive - but I have to admit that after just a day of use it's sounding better by the hour.

A few things I learned:
  • Really impressed by the V-M Audio rebuilt idler. You know it's gonna be good when you open the package and smell new rubber (iphone app says I'm at 33.31RPM - Yes!).
  • My first use of Howard Restore-a-Finish and Feed and Wax. Now I understand why so many people use it.
  • For the anti-skate compensator I found 5/16"ID 1/16" thick O-rings at the local Tractor Supply Co. (hey - I'm in the midwest and they have lots of parts). Two of them fill the groove perfectly and hold the ball bearing.
  • Headshell wiring design is frustrating. I don't see any way to solder in new leads. Hated to buy a complete headshell just to get wires. I'm sure 40 years ago you could buy the wiring harness from Garrard but now it's a problem.
Liking this more all the time. My thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. Lot of great tips. Now if someone just has a sack full of Tripoise spindles and wants to get rid of one . . .

P2145143.jpgP2145147.jpg P2145139.jpgP2145148.jpg
 
Actually you never could buy a new set of wires/plug for the headshell of the Lab 80. If you broke a wire, you had to buy a whole new headshell. In 1974, in the USA, they cost $3.00 (a new idler wheel was $2.50).
 
Very nice setup Chilibrother.

Looks like University 312 Series 200 Diffaxial drivers behind those parabolic curtains.
I have the same speakers in a homebrew 5.3 cu. ft. bass reflex cabinet - I LOVE THEM...AND I am running my Lab 80 into these speakers. To my ears, they are a fantastic match. That Sphericon tweeter is something else!
 
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malden said:
Nice setup @Chilibrother ! I like those baby Karlson enclosures. What's behind the grill cloth?
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Thanks! Right now nothing - it was empty when I bought it last year. If I get the Knight Kit amp and tuner restored then I will need to find something.

You're right GP49 I hadn't looked at the P/L. Still, not a robust design. If the pins protruded 1/8" into the headshell you could use leads with female clips on both ends.

SFBayArch said:
Very nice setup Chilibrother.

Looks like University 312 Series 200 Diffaxial drivers behind those parabolic curtains.
I have the same speakers in a homebrew 5.3 cu. ft. bass reflex cabinet - I LOVE THEM...AND I am running my Lab 80 in these speakers. To my ears, they are a fantastic match. That Sphericon tweeter is something else!
Click to expand...

I'm sure your 312's sound great in a cabinet that size. I agree - I always thought that if George Jetson had a stereo it used Sphericon tweeters!
 
@Chilibrother

I can't tell from the photo whether you're running your Lab 80 thru what appears to be a tube amplifier in that console, or the JVC receiver driving those gorgeous Karlson University 312 200

Also, I like how you took the foil badge from the back of your driver and affixed it to the front baffle! Makes for a nice logo plate.
 
SFBayArch said:
@Chilibrother

I can't tell from the photo whether you're running your Lab 80 thru what appears to be a tube amplifier in that console, or the JVC receiver driving those gorgeous Karlson University 312 200
Also, I like how you took the foil badge from the back of your driver and affixed it to the front baffle! Makes for a nice logo plate.
Click to expand...
Right now everything goes through a rotation of JVC/Onkyo/Yamaha SS receivers. The mono Knight setup in the console is on the to-do list. I really should have a tube amp - actually considered a Fisher 500B similar to yours.
And thanks. To recap the 312-200s I had to carefully remove the badges. Started to put them back on and thought they were too nice to spend another 50 years hidden in a cabinet.
 
Hi everyone!

I'm new to all this craziness... picked up a Lab 80, late Mk 1 edition with enclosed tonearm, on Craigslist few weeks ago. It was cheap and looked cool so I figured "why not?", which is when I discovered this amazing thread. I'm still working my way through it, but I figured out pretty quickly that the idler would need rebuilding, so that part has been restored by V-M. I've also done as much cleaning and re-lubing as I could without dismantling it. However, I still have a list of things to fix to get this thing to a serviceable condition.

1. It spins up instantly, but the speed tops out at 32 rpm and stays there. I've oiled the platter bearing, and all the ball bearings and washers are in there. It spins freely, but there is still some noise coming from that bearing. I think I will need to remove that large gear which blocks the bearing to completely clean it out. I've also added some turbine oil to the top motor bearing. But I suspect in order to correct the speed I'll have to remove the motor to fully clean and lube the motor bearings. Any tips on how best to do that? Anything else I can do to get it to the correct speed? I've cleaned the inner platter rim.

2. I only have the manual spindle, and really don't care about most of the auto functions. But auto-return would be nice and that doesn't work at all. The tonearm damping mechanism doesn't work either, I have to gently lower the headshell by hand. I'm guessing damping fluid is needed here? From what I understand, engaging the manual play switch should raise the tonearm a bit so it can be lowered by the damping mechanism. I guess there's a linkage that needs to be looked at there...

3. I get sound through both both channels, so that's good, but there's a lot of hum even with the ground wire connected. I'm guessing cleaning and tightening the cartridge clips, which were a bit loose, should help there. I'm using a Shure M91ed with LPgear vivid line stylus, and that cart performs beautifully in my main table, so no issue there. I'm also hearing rumble through the speakers... so I'm guessing the main bearing friction is getting picked up by the cartridge.

So that's where I'm at. I'm invested enough at this point to dig in further and really get under the hood of this thing.

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