Teak, any good?

RickeyM

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Yesterday, I saw a cutting board made of Teak wood and the size is just large enough to fit under my TT as a platform. I've seen component platforms made of many types of wood and I wonder is Teak any good? The platform, er, cutting board is .75 inches thick and I could use two to make a platform 1.5 inches thick. That is unless Teak has any undesirable sound qualities.

Any comments or opinions?
 
Not exactly sure how a couple of Teak cutting boards would be any different than any other type of dense hardwood for a TT platform.

But then I am not sure how any hardwood platform would act as vibration isolation unless there was some type of suspension between the two?
 
Teak is a hardwood variety and is dense so it passes that test as a platform for your TT.

However, regardless of how dense your platform is, it still needs to be isolated from vibration coming from the structure it is sitting on. There are ways to isolate that platform and I'd recommend looking up some of those.
 
But then I am not sure how any hardwood platform would act as vibration isolation unless there was some type of suspension between the two?

However, regardless of how dense your platform is, it still needs to be isolated from vibration coming from the structure it is sitting on. There are ways to isolate that platform and I'd recommend looking up some of those.

But of course, I have a few things to try out to isolate the TT platform from the surface under it :thumbsup:
 
I don't know, or understand, the whole deal with sticking a board under your turntable. But I do know with certainty that if your turntable will be on the deck of your sloop, teak is the way to go.

When I was a kid I lusted after a Cheoy Lee from Hong Kong. They couldn't outsail a Nautor Swan but their teak decking was second to none.

DLadyDeck2.jpg
 
Cheoy Lee

My father had a Cheoy Lee when I was a kid. As I recall... a 31' Ketch (if I recall?)

My main memories with that boat were hoisting myself up the mast with some sandpaper & paint so I could paint the tops of the main stays.... and then scrubbing the deck to clean it.... with a scrub brush....and a dang tooth brush...

Pretty yes.... but a pain in the hiney.

Regarding Teak as a base... I've become confused with that the older I get.

When I was younger, I had a nice slab of marble under my TT. Today I think, if something was resonating enough to vibrate the marble slab, would it not just be transmitted through to the TT?

So, if something is resonating (or volume too loud and the floor is shaking) won't that sympathetically vibrate the Teak and get transferred through to the table?

I don't use a TT anymore so it's not a big deal to me but it is something I've wondered about from time to time.
 
Regarding Teak as a base... I've become confused with that the older I get.

When I was younger, I had a nice slab of marble under my TT. Today I think, if something was resonating enough to vibrate the marble slab, would it not just be transmitted through to the TT?

So, if something is resonating (or volume too loud and the floor is shaking) won't that sympathetically vibrate the Teak and get transferred through to the table?

I don't use a TT anymore so it's not a big deal to me but it is something I've wondered about from time to time.

Regarding a base under a TT (Teak or anything else), the idea is to add something that would be heavy enough to stop vibrations from reaching the TT or to absorb those vibrations giving cleaner sound. Ever wonder why some guys construct very heavy plinths for their decks?

My turntable came equipped with gel filled feet, to absorb vibrations. The wood cutting board, er isolation, base is meant isolate the TT even further. If it makes no difference in SQ, well I've got a very nice cutting board to use in the kitchen ;)

Regarding earthquake level events (extreme partying or extreme volume :rockon: ), those will get through to the TT :p.
 
When I was a kid I lusted after a Cheoy Lee from Hong Kong. They couldn't outsail a Nautor Swan but their teak decking was second to none.

DLadyDeck2.jpg
Hey, that’s the deck of one of their Clipper series; I have a Clipper 33 in my pasture right now that I am restoring! I can tell you that the deck in the photo is new and not as built at the factory - it is glued, not mechanically fastened. The decks look wonderful when new but they require a crazy amount of work to keep up, and they wear out eventually.

As for the OP’s question, I would point out that teak, while a hardwood, is not particularly heavy, or dense. It comes in at around 45 pounds per cubic foot. Woods like maple or oak tend to be denser if that is the goal. I don’t know much about it, but Ipe, used on high end decks, seems really heavy and hard as a rock. Lots of choices, but teak would be so-so in terms of density. As for acoustic properties, I have no clue. It’s primary advantages are that it is dimensionally stable, and it contains a natural oil which is extremely rot resistant.
 
I recently got a board made of Aracia wood. It's a bigger, thicker cutting board than the Teak one and from what I've read it's also much harder. We'll see how that works out
 
Teak should work. Wood is good for vibration dampening, it's one of the reasons people still use them as camera tripods.
 
I made two platform's for my system and used damping panel's on the underside to kill any vibration .
 

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Teak should work fine.

The density of Teak varies by variety (Indian, African, Burmese) from slightly less than to denser than Oak (red or white).

Link to wood density chart
 
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Well, I believe the denser, the better. I use a two inch marble slab. But I believe a dense wood has its own benefits, since wood is a more lossy material than stone, and therefore less likely to ring. If I had some teak, I would try it!
 
Other dense woods are hickory, hard maple (often used for cutting boards), ash, oak (I find white oak to be very heavy in my neck of the woods), Osage orange (rare to find boards very big), and the pinnacle might be Lignum Vitae, which you really can't even get because it's endangered and banned for sale by international treaties. I have a chunk I got from a woodworker.

Here's a wood density chart: https://cedarstripkayak.wordpress.com/lumber-selection/162-2/

Teak ranges from about 40-60 lb/cu ft which is up there with the others I listed. Lignum Vitae is about 75. :yikes: Ebony is just below it, if you can find or afford ebony.
 
Cool, never heard of that one, and it's as dense as Lignum Vitae.

Cebil is another super dense south american hardwood that's not endangered.

I used Cebil/Katalox to make a ring box when I proposed to my wife, it turned out pretty and I was able to machine the stuff practically like aluminum.
 
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