How many of you played around with home-made dampers from plans in an audio magazine?
I'm using the general idea from
an article by Bob Graham from the Boston Audio Society.
The paddles (one vertical, one horizontal, made from cutup credit card pieces) are both sized around 2x2.5mm. They're attached via a large paperclip that I straightened, then curved around a Sharpie marker with needle nose pliers until the curve was smaller than what is required to fit over the aux weight of my Pioneer PL-630. It's a firm force fit.
To form the trough, I used
Sculpey brand sculpt and bake polymer clay.
I rolled out a 4" long, 1/2" diameter log of clay. I bent the needed curve into it then dug the clay out of the center with
a small round loop tool. Next, I placed the rough formed log of clay into my toaster oven and baked it per the directions on the clay packaging. Finally, I used my Dremel to thin out the walls, enlarging the actual oil trough area as much as possible, then flattening the outer walls.
The oil in the trough is
Team Associated (Radio Controlled car company) 60,000cst.
It's been in use about a year now and it's still working great. There is no amount of off-center pressing or warped vinyl that will disturb the monstrous tracking ability. The bass is a bit better behaved and the stereo image sounds a bit tighter and focused when the paddles are deployed. I'm able to run the highest compliance cartridges I've been able to get my hands on with incredible performance and no issues at all (on what's, at best, a medium mass tonearm) ATML150OCC, AT15SS, AT150MLX, etc.
I'm really pleased and building it was a fun way to spend a Saturday.
