best-groove
Active Member
Hi everyone,
Did any of you run into trouble trying to align an SME arm using a current-production Michell armplate for Gyrodec? I certainly did.
For context, my turntable features a first-generation Michell armplate dating back to the early 1990s, where my Sme IV arm have sat for years without a single issue drop dead easy setup, geometry fell right into place.
However, when I recently tried to set up an SME 309 using a current-production armplate, I hit a brick wall.
As always, I followed SME's strict setup dictates to the letter: the arm wand must be parallel to the protractor and the cantilever perfectly perpendicular to the centerline.
Yet, no matter how the plate was rotated, it was geometrically impossible to achieve both conditions simultaneously on this new plate: either you get the arm wand parallel or the stylus/cantilever perpendicular, but never both.
To cut a long story short, I realized that Michell has shifted the mounting fixing holes by a couple of centimeters on their recent armplates compared to the older, correct 90s specs.
Rather than dealing with endless compromises, I ended up taking my old, correct early-90s armplate, using it as a physical drilling jig/template to re-drill the brand-new plate.
Once the new plate was corrected to match the old historical layout, the SME 309 dropped right in and everything finally collimated and dialed in cleanly.I'm curious: has anyone else here noticed that recent-batch Michell plates have a different hole layout or offset compared to the older ones when mounting an SME?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Did any of you run into trouble trying to align an SME arm using a current-production Michell armplate for Gyrodec? I certainly did.
For context, my turntable features a first-generation Michell armplate dating back to the early 1990s, where my Sme IV arm have sat for years without a single issue drop dead easy setup, geometry fell right into place.
However, when I recently tried to set up an SME 309 using a current-production armplate, I hit a brick wall.
As always, I followed SME's strict setup dictates to the letter: the arm wand must be parallel to the protractor and the cantilever perfectly perpendicular to the centerline.
Yet, no matter how the plate was rotated, it was geometrically impossible to achieve both conditions simultaneously on this new plate: either you get the arm wand parallel or the stylus/cantilever perpendicular, but never both.
To cut a long story short, I realized that Michell has shifted the mounting fixing holes by a couple of centimeters on their recent armplates compared to the older, correct 90s specs.
Rather than dealing with endless compromises, I ended up taking my old, correct early-90s armplate, using it as a physical drilling jig/template to re-drill the brand-new plate.
Once the new plate was corrected to match the old historical layout, the SME 309 dropped right in and everything finally collimated and dialed in cleanly.I'm curious: has anyone else here noticed that recent-batch Michell plates have a different hole layout or offset compared to the older ones when mounting an SME?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
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