Yet another Kenwood KD-2055 came across my bench tonight. I have worked on at least 6 this year.
This one came from a kid who had asked me to repair another table but he had the Kennie as a backup and IMO this is the better table, plus I know it quite well. So, the other one waits for some other day.
With an Ortofon OM5e (sub 5 grams) it could not be balanced as it was too light for the stock counterweight and 7 gram headshell. I changed to a heavier Stanton headshell and installed a new MG29 instead of chancing on an unknown stylus. The cartridge weights were almost the same but the shell put me in range.
I fine tuned a bunch of other things, including removing the motor transport screws that may never have been taken out! The pulley sat about 1 cm too high because of that; not good. The cosmetics are a bit challenged with a lot of corrosion on the aluminum bits around the arm and controls, but I am not being paid to do that.
However the arm rest clamp was missing the top half which I figured was important. Without it the stylus might not last long. Without a stock of similar parts on hand, I scouted around for plastic cylinders and brought out the Dremel.
I found a pen cap that seemed to be about right. After 2 minutes slicing with a cut-off wheel I had my tonearm clamp! The pocket clip holds it in well enough to test but I later epoxied it.
Kenwood Pen Holder by Buhduh, on Flickr
Kenwod By BIC by Buhduh, on Flickr
Ok, it's kind of ugly! But it works. The diameter is perfect. The arm will gently snap into place if I give it a push to the right. On auto-return it acts as a stop for the arm and prevents it from falling off the outside.
Since taking the pics I trimmed a touch more off, added the epoxy, and will trim more in the morning. If I have time I might even paint it with some black Varathane.
This one came from a kid who had asked me to repair another table but he had the Kennie as a backup and IMO this is the better table, plus I know it quite well. So, the other one waits for some other day.
With an Ortofon OM5e (sub 5 grams) it could not be balanced as it was too light for the stock counterweight and 7 gram headshell. I changed to a heavier Stanton headshell and installed a new MG29 instead of chancing on an unknown stylus. The cartridge weights were almost the same but the shell put me in range.
I fine tuned a bunch of other things, including removing the motor transport screws that may never have been taken out! The pulley sat about 1 cm too high because of that; not good. The cosmetics are a bit challenged with a lot of corrosion on the aluminum bits around the arm and controls, but I am not being paid to do that.
However the arm rest clamp was missing the top half which I figured was important. Without it the stylus might not last long. Without a stock of similar parts on hand, I scouted around for plastic cylinders and brought out the Dremel.
I found a pen cap that seemed to be about right. After 2 minutes slicing with a cut-off wheel I had my tonearm clamp! The pocket clip holds it in well enough to test but I later epoxied it.
Kenwood Pen Holder by Buhduh, on Flickr
Kenwod By BIC by Buhduh, on Flickr
Ok, it's kind of ugly! But it works. The diameter is perfect. The arm will gently snap into place if I give it a push to the right. On auto-return it acts as a stop for the arm and prevents it from falling off the outside.
Since taking the pics I trimmed a touch more off, added the epoxy, and will trim more in the morning. If I have time I might even paint it with some black Varathane.
Those are some nice tables. The plinth is very cool for sure.
