Aden's Sanyo TP-626 Plinth Building Thread Extravaganza
- Thread starter Aden
- Start date
Aden
Active Member
It's just as exciting for me too! Mostly because I'm sort of making a lot of stuff up as I go.
Adventure!
Aden
Active Member
Update 2.5: Haze - An Inquiry
"More clamping and gluing!" he ordered, and so it was done.
I split a piece of wood after not paying attention and screwing in a screw too tightly. The good news is that this gave me the opportunity to create this stunning work of modern art:
Started on the dustcover today. Here are some before photos:
Applying Brasso and buffing, using pieces from an old cotton shirt and copious amounts of elbow grease:
After about an hour of this (half hour per side), I can tell that most of the medium to light scratches are going or have gone away. However, looks like the Brasso left a haze from the buffing, even after wiping away the remnants of the solution and buffing afterwards with a microfiber cloth.
For the people that have done dustcovers this way, what's the solution? Just keep going? Or should I pick up something like PlastX to finish it off?
or maybe I could just keep it this way and go for the crazy frosted glass look
"More clamping and gluing!" he ordered, and so it was done.
I split a piece of wood after not paying attention and screwing in a screw too tightly. The good news is that this gave me the opportunity to create this stunning work of modern art:
Started on the dustcover today. Here are some before photos:
Applying Brasso and buffing, using pieces from an old cotton shirt and copious amounts of elbow grease:
After about an hour of this (half hour per side), I can tell that most of the medium to light scratches are going or have gone away. However, looks like the Brasso left a haze from the buffing, even after wiping away the remnants of the solution and buffing afterwards with a microfiber cloth.
For the people that have done dustcovers this way, what's the solution? Just keep going? Or should I pick up something like PlastX to finish it off?
or maybe I could just keep it this way and go for the crazy frosted glass look
Last edited:
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
The haze is Brasso remaining on the surface. If you wait long enough it'll dry completely and you can just wipe off. For some reason, though, it takes a LONG time on plastic so I just wash it off with soap and water. If the cover still looks as if it could use some more polishing you can do the Brasso thing again. Brasso will bring the plastic to a high luster. Then, if you want, you can wax it with automotive wax.
John
Aden
Active Member
Tried rinsing it off with some Dawn and the hose, didn't work. Do I just need to scrub it really hard? I also let it dry for a day and then tried wiping it with a microfiber cloth; still no change.
I might just leave the dustcover off for the near future and then spring for one of the mid-end restoration kits when I feel richer.
Aden
Active Member
Update 3: The Form Comes Together
aka: Aden Makes a Rectangle!
A few small updates before the next "phase" begins. Putting it in its own number because, while about the same amount of work as the last update, it looks like I did more. And that's what counts.
So I punched a hole in the back for wiring using a drill and some creative use of a hacksaw blade:
And then, while at Ace, I was struck with the idea to add an on/off switch to the table, because it's one of the types that's always on. I'd have to unplug it in order to move the arm over the platter and not have the platter move since it's a semi-automatic table, so this would be much more convenient. Depicted is my not-having-a-router woe:
Looks messy, but it came out alright in the end. The back wall with the wiring hole and the switch installed, which I will wire up later on:
And finally, we're working in three dimensions! I know you're all probably sick of clamping photos, but I do not care.
I did pretty okay with the measuring and everything lined up well. Took the belt sander for a spin to clean up some of the joints.
Added some screws to the bottom for reinforcement
And some more screws to reinforce the corner joints, and I have my skeleton!
Next steps will include adding sand to the pockets and sealing them off, cutting and attaching the base board, and finally getting to work on where the table will actually sit.
The cost so far:
From previous: $56
Rocker switch: $5
Total: $61
aka: Aden Makes a Rectangle!
A few small updates before the next "phase" begins. Putting it in its own number because, while about the same amount of work as the last update, it looks like I did more. And that's what counts.
So I punched a hole in the back for wiring using a drill and some creative use of a hacksaw blade:
And then, while at Ace, I was struck with the idea to add an on/off switch to the table, because it's one of the types that's always on. I'd have to unplug it in order to move the arm over the platter and not have the platter move since it's a semi-automatic table, so this would be much more convenient. Depicted is my not-having-a-router woe:
Looks messy, but it came out alright in the end. The back wall with the wiring hole and the switch installed, which I will wire up later on:
And finally, we're working in three dimensions! I know you're all probably sick of clamping photos, but I do not care.
I did pretty okay with the measuring and everything lined up well. Took the belt sander for a spin to clean up some of the joints.
Added some screws to the bottom for reinforcement
And some more screws to reinforce the corner joints, and I have my skeleton!
Next steps will include adding sand to the pockets and sealing them off, cutting and attaching the base board, and finally getting to work on where the table will actually sit.
The cost so far:
From previous: $56
Rocker switch: $5
Total: $61
Last edited:
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
Aden, I'm feeling really badly about this. I can't tell you how many dust covers I've done with Brasso, including the one for my Sanyo, now someone else's. The results have always been great.
Whatever has happened to your dustcover, I'd have to think that it's only on the surface and that polishing it now with some plastic polish like Novus will resurrect it.
Earlier today I was in a hardware store looking for something else but while there my eyes fell on some Brasso. I noticed that it now comes in a plastic bottle, not the steel container that I have. I also noticed that they no longer recommend it for plastic. That being said, the Wikipedia entry for Brasso does mention its use for plastic and even for polishing scratches out of CDs and DVDs (something I've done too).
Given that fact and the haze that has developed on your dustcover, I'm wondering whether they've changed the formula and not updated the Wikipedia entry.
John
boreas, don't feel too badly. I'm still using 'Brasso' on library DVD's but use 'Nu Finish' to finish. I'm sure Aden's cover can be saved. And regarding your last point, your probably right. Companies are always changing formulas. They better lay of my ketchup though or there will be trouble!:grumpy:
:thmbsp::thmbsp: Aden!
:thmbsp::thmbsp: Aden!
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
Looking at Aden's photos, this appears to be true. The Brasso shown squirted onto his dustcover appears to be a thick cream, not the watery liquid I have. My can of Brasso is perhaps 5 years old but the packaging and product are identical to what I used in the Army (censored) years ago. Nevertheless, something has changed.
Absolutely! I was so concerned about the dustcover that I didn't applaud the work you're doing.
John
Aden
Active Member
Oh no, don't worry about it! Definitely not your fault. They might have changed their formula; this was the only type of bottle I saw at both Lowe's and Ace Hardware.
So I'm betting that what it's doing is acting as a more coarse abrasive and leaving tiny microscopic scratches where I polish, which is what is causing the haze. If that's correct, it probably did the job of Novus #3 and #2, saving me a lot of money, and I should only need to grab a bottle of Novus #1 or PlastX to shiney it up. That's the theory anyway.
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
It may have done the job of Novus 3 but not Novus 2 which is the fine polish. Novus 1 is just wax and won't remove any scratches. I'm not familiar with PlastX but if it's not an actual polish (that actually removes material) it isn't likely to finish the job by itself.
John
Aden
Active Member
Update 3.1: More Plans
aka: Aden scribbles nonsense onto a plank of wood
Can't get much done today as I need the circular saw for the next steps, which I can't use at the moment. But here's my plans for the inner portion of the table, drawn on the base of the inner portion of the table because I think it'll make things easier in the long run. It's something at least!
And then the rest of my workshop time was spent staring at what I have so far and thinking a lot.
aka: Aden scribbles nonsense onto a plank of wood
Can't get much done today as I need the circular saw for the next steps, which I can't use at the moment. But here's my plans for the inner portion of the table, drawn on the base of the inner portion of the table because I think it'll make things easier in the long run. It's something at least!
And then the rest of my workshop time was spent staring at what I have so far and thinking a lot.
Aden
Active Member
Update 4: Somewhat Tedious
aka: Aden can't think up a witty title right now
Made a lot of cuts today, glued a lot of little bits together today. It took a while.
So!
After a small excursion with the circular saw, we have a bunch of rough cuts that will eventually form the structure which the actual table will sit upon. I stress the word "rough" here.
This is another instance in which it took a long time to do something that doesn't seem it should take too long, mainly because of glue drying times and having only a few clamps to work with. Good way to pass a day. The Sanyo's spring damping system will sit inside the larger inset holes.
This base platform will sit higher in the framework when the bottom layer of sand is added.
In other news, ordered veneer today (really should have done that earlier). It's an inexpensive cherry that I might stain depending on how it looks when it gets here. The ironic thing is that the veneer and the related supplies cost more than the working turntable, but it's necessary in order so that all of this work doesn't look like crap in the end. Such is life
The cost so far:
From previous: $61
Veneer: $15
Veneer glue: $15
Veneer softener: $6
Total: $97
Thankfully that should about wrap it up as far as cost goes (undecided as to dustcover polishing still), barring some egregious oversight on my part. Which usually has a 50% chance of happening.
I'd like to note that, yes, I could have gotten a much nicer table for the money that I am spending here. But I enjoy this work. Don't know why, but I do. It's just a nice feeling to be able to look at something and say "I built that".
aka: Aden can't think up a witty title right now
Made a lot of cuts today, glued a lot of little bits together today. It took a while.
So!
After a small excursion with the circular saw, we have a bunch of rough cuts that will eventually form the structure which the actual table will sit upon. I stress the word "rough" here.
This is another instance in which it took a long time to do something that doesn't seem it should take too long, mainly because of glue drying times and having only a few clamps to work with. Good way to pass a day. The Sanyo's spring damping system will sit inside the larger inset holes.
This base platform will sit higher in the framework when the bottom layer of sand is added.
In other news, ordered veneer today (really should have done that earlier). It's an inexpensive cherry that I might stain depending on how it looks when it gets here. The ironic thing is that the veneer and the related supplies cost more than the working turntable, but it's necessary in order so that all of this work doesn't look like crap in the end. Such is life
The cost so far:
From previous: $61
Veneer: $15
Veneer glue: $15
Veneer softener: $6
Total: $97
Thankfully that should about wrap it up as far as cost goes (undecided as to dustcover polishing still), barring some egregious oversight on my part. Which usually has a 50% chance of happening.
I'd like to note that, yes, I could have gotten a much nicer table for the money that I am spending here. But I enjoy this work. Don't know why, but I do. It's just a nice feeling to be able to look at something and say "I built that".
Last edited:
Aden
Active Member
Update 5: Playing with Sand
aka: No, I'm actually not dead!
It's true: this project is really still alive. Those who bet "four updates" in the quitting pool, sorry. :c
The reason for the delay is mostly work-related. Just didn't have time. On a positive note, my veneer arrived, so I am all set to carry this out to the end. Let's get right down to it.
The table fits into my plinth. That's good. Always nice to check these things.
Cut and attached the bottom plank that everything sits on, made out of a 3/4" birch ply.
I'll take a break from the turntable for a minute for a small math lesson. Get out your pencils and paper. 1 q-tip + 1 q-tip = 1 SUPER Q-TIP.
The SUPER Q-TIP is used to coat the inside corners of the sand pockets as additional protection against sand leakage.
Speaking of sand, my hazy dustcover has a new temporary use: acting as a container to hold sand until it dries out. The sand is play sand bought at Ace for 5 bucks.
The sand pockets are further insulated using cut out pieces from a plastic painter's "dropcloth".
Filling the pockets with sand, taking care to make sure that it's compacted and stamped down so minimal settling will occur. Then the excess plastic is trimmed with a razor blade.
And finally, the wall caps are glued (and screwed in, but that's not shown here). That finishes off the walls save for touching it up with the belt sander to correct a bit of warpage and overhang.
That's all for now! The plinth currently has a nice weight to it and feels very solid. Would make a good backup weapon if anyone ever tries to steal my records.
The cost so far:
From previous: $97
Play sand: $5
Dropcloth: $2
Total: $104
aka: No, I'm actually not dead!
It's true: this project is really still alive. Those who bet "four updates" in the quitting pool, sorry. :c
The reason for the delay is mostly work-related. Just didn't have time. On a positive note, my veneer arrived, so I am all set to carry this out to the end. Let's get right down to it.
The table fits into my plinth. That's good. Always nice to check these things.
Cut and attached the bottom plank that everything sits on, made out of a 3/4" birch ply.
I'll take a break from the turntable for a minute for a small math lesson. Get out your pencils and paper. 1 q-tip + 1 q-tip = 1 SUPER Q-TIP.
The SUPER Q-TIP is used to coat the inside corners of the sand pockets as additional protection against sand leakage.
Speaking of sand, my hazy dustcover has a new temporary use: acting as a container to hold sand until it dries out. The sand is play sand bought at Ace for 5 bucks.
The sand pockets are further insulated using cut out pieces from a plastic painter's "dropcloth".
Filling the pockets with sand, taking care to make sure that it's compacted and stamped down so minimal settling will occur. Then the excess plastic is trimmed with a razor blade.
And finally, the wall caps are glued (and screwed in, but that's not shown here). That finishes off the walls save for touching it up with the belt sander to correct a bit of warpage and overhang.
That's all for now! The plinth currently has a nice weight to it and feels very solid. Would make a good backup weapon if anyone ever tries to steal my records.
The cost so far:
From previous: $97
Play sand: $5
Dropcloth: $2
Total: $104
Last edited:
Aden
Active Member
Update 6: Almost Done!
aka: It's actually done but I'm holding out on you
Still going! Had a week or so of visiting time from the significant other (who actually hasn't left yet) for Thanksgiving, so my antisocial workshop time allotment was cut drastically. Hence lack of updates. The table is actually mostly completed right now, but I'm going to delay the final series of photos until tomorrow - when I will finally have a small Expedit to put the TT on and my records in.
So now we get to feet. Inspired by a thread I read here, my feet will be made of rubber cane tips and plastic caps, attached to the table by a bolt and nut. Got these materials before I even got the wood for the project, finally get a chance to use them. The caps were eyeballed for size at the store, but thankfully fit very snugly into the cane tips so a return trip wasn't necessary. Even though I would be returning to Ace about 10 more times throughout this project. Ahem.
Drilling through the plastic caps, which will form the tops of the feet, and making sure a bolt fits through snugly:
Filling the top caps with sand, being sure to pack tightly:
And with a lot (seriously, more than you'd expect) of struggling and finagling with the caps and cane tips to get them put together, we finally have some nice heavy sand-filled feet!
However. After actually mounting them on the table, my opinion was that they were entirely too tall since the table was going to be large as it was already. Can't really see the tall-ness in the photo.
So I had to undo all my struggling. It's alright. One of the things you learn as a musician, artist, designer - you can't be afraid to nix something just because it took you a lot of work. So the feet are again separated and trimmed down.
And then are mounted again on the table. They look a good height this time. And I'm in luck - they're all almost exactly the same size so the table remains level. No messing around with washers to get a level table.
And with that, it's on to everyone's favorite part of a project: veneer. My chosen veneer is a nice inexpensive cherry from veneersupplies.com. The great thing about cherry is that it's already a beautifully-toned wood. I'm not going to hunt around for stains, instead favoring simple tung oil when it's all applied.
I am doing this veneer application job on the cheap. My "veneer cutter" is a sharp utility blade from a pack that cost 2 dollars. My "glue roller" is a piece of wood. My "pressure roller" is the backside of that same piece of wood. No vacuum press, just clamps. And my platen setup is a big piece of rough lumber to distribute pressure and a thin piece of leftover scrap plywood to keep the contact surface smooth.
This is the first side of veneer pressed on the table, before I learned to use the plywood under the main platen:
Cutting off excess veneer from a pressed edge, need to trim the fingernails soon:
I didn't really know how to go about doing a 45° corner, so I just kind of made up a method. Experienced veneer people can tell me how much I was off the mark. I first pressed a panel and then cut it to 45° exactly where it would end up on the finished product:
I then pressed another panel over the 45° cut (by this time I have learned to use the plywood under the platen). Didn't put glue over the existing veneer though, duh.
Afterwards, the second 45° angle is trimmed and matched exactly (okay, not exactly, but close most of the time) to the previously cut piece. You'll see how it worked out on the next update.
But one last photo for this one, showing the amount of pressure I needed to put on these clamps in order to press a side cleanly (i.e. no bubbles, ripples, etc). Yes, the clamps are normally straight. No, my hands were not okay afterwards. Yes, they became okay after some amount of time.
The first few panels I pressed did indeed get some ripples, which you might be able to make out in some of the photos. Thankfully I was actually able to carefully sand them out using a sanding block, 120 grit, and paranoia.
The cost so far:
From previous: $104
Utility blades: $2
Feet supplies: $5
Total: $111
aka: It's actually done but I'm holding out on you
Still going! Had a week or so of visiting time from the significant other (who actually hasn't left yet) for Thanksgiving, so my antisocial workshop time allotment was cut drastically. Hence lack of updates. The table is actually mostly completed right now, but I'm going to delay the final series of photos until tomorrow - when I will finally have a small Expedit to put the TT on and my records in.
So now we get to feet. Inspired by a thread I read here, my feet will be made of rubber cane tips and plastic caps, attached to the table by a bolt and nut. Got these materials before I even got the wood for the project, finally get a chance to use them. The caps were eyeballed for size at the store, but thankfully fit very snugly into the cane tips so a return trip wasn't necessary. Even though I would be returning to Ace about 10 more times throughout this project. Ahem.
Drilling through the plastic caps, which will form the tops of the feet, and making sure a bolt fits through snugly:
Filling the top caps with sand, being sure to pack tightly:
And with a lot (seriously, more than you'd expect) of struggling and finagling with the caps and cane tips to get them put together, we finally have some nice heavy sand-filled feet!
However. After actually mounting them on the table, my opinion was that they were entirely too tall since the table was going to be large as it was already. Can't really see the tall-ness in the photo.
So I had to undo all my struggling. It's alright. One of the things you learn as a musician, artist, designer - you can't be afraid to nix something just because it took you a lot of work. So the feet are again separated and trimmed down.
And then are mounted again on the table. They look a good height this time. And I'm in luck - they're all almost exactly the same size so the table remains level. No messing around with washers to get a level table.
And with that, it's on to everyone's favorite part of a project: veneer. My chosen veneer is a nice inexpensive cherry from veneersupplies.com. The great thing about cherry is that it's already a beautifully-toned wood. I'm not going to hunt around for stains, instead favoring simple tung oil when it's all applied.
I am doing this veneer application job on the cheap. My "veneer cutter" is a sharp utility blade from a pack that cost 2 dollars. My "glue roller" is a piece of wood. My "pressure roller" is the backside of that same piece of wood. No vacuum press, just clamps. And my platen setup is a big piece of rough lumber to distribute pressure and a thin piece of leftover scrap plywood to keep the contact surface smooth.
This is the first side of veneer pressed on the table, before I learned to use the plywood under the main platen:
Cutting off excess veneer from a pressed edge, need to trim the fingernails soon:
I didn't really know how to go about doing a 45° corner, so I just kind of made up a method. Experienced veneer people can tell me how much I was off the mark. I first pressed a panel and then cut it to 45° exactly where it would end up on the finished product:
I then pressed another panel over the 45° cut (by this time I have learned to use the plywood under the platen). Didn't put glue over the existing veneer though, duh.
Afterwards, the second 45° angle is trimmed and matched exactly (okay, not exactly, but close most of the time) to the previously cut piece. You'll see how it worked out on the next update.
But one last photo for this one, showing the amount of pressure I needed to put on these clamps in order to press a side cleanly (i.e. no bubbles, ripples, etc). Yes, the clamps are normally straight. No, my hands were not okay afterwards. Yes, they became okay after some amount of time.
The first few panels I pressed did indeed get some ripples, which you might be able to make out in some of the photos. Thankfully I was actually able to carefully sand them out using a sanding block, 120 grit, and paranoia.
The cost so far:
From previous: $104
Utility blades: $2
Feet supplies: $5
Total: $111
Aden
Active Member
Keeping this as a separate post since it's not an update and I want it to stand out:
My motor is still slow, causing the music to be slow and off-tune by between 1/2 and 1 step. Experiments with increasing the diameter of the spindle using tape proved ineffective - not because of the adhesive properties of the tape, but because any type of tape I used increased the diameter too much. So I guess the adjustment has to be extremely slight.
So what I'm wondering is if there's any way to adjust the motor speed by other means. People who have owned this table, have you ever had to do this? Not finding any obvious speed adjustment screws or anything on the motor assembly.
I did freshly oil it and it didn't have much of an effect. Haven't tried a wide belt yet.
My motor is still slow, causing the music to be slow and off-tune by between 1/2 and 1 step. Experiments with increasing the diameter of the spindle using tape proved ineffective - not because of the adhesive properties of the tape, but because any type of tape I used increased the diameter too much. So I guess the adjustment has to be extremely slight.
So what I'm wondering is if there's any way to adjust the motor speed by other means. People who have owned this table, have you ever had to do this? Not finding any obvious speed adjustment screws or anything on the motor assembly.
I did freshly oil it and it didn't have much of an effect. Haven't tried a wide belt yet.
Last edited:
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
I overhauled my motor and it was slow after that too. It ran cooler but was still slow - rock steady but a touch slow.
There's no way to adjust the speed of the motor unless you can up the CPS of your house current to 62 or so.
I did have a thought that I never tried. It was to get a wider belt. Still 25" but 1/4" wide rather than the spec 3/16". That would bring the lower edge of the belt 1/16" farther down onto the bulge in the capstan and, so the theory went, increase platter speed slightly. Worth a try, I think.John
Aden
Active Member
There's no way to adjust the speed of the motor unless you can up the CPS of your house current to 62 or so.
Yeah, I'll give that a shot. If that doesn't turn out to be it, I'll be playing around with actually coating the thing in a thin layer of glue to increase diameter and then slowly scraping it away until it's the right speed. Fun!
Thanks for all the advice