Ropie's Restoration

[wenig watt]

 
Well,
this is the second time that your Lenco has burned itself into my memory. Cool thing that...

With best regards

Arndt

[RR1957]

Well,
this is the second time that your Lenco has burned itself into my memory. Cool thing that...

With best regards

Arndt

I absolutely agree with that.
How it was and how it is I will never forget.

Top! Brave!

[nigel]

Ha! Amazing, wish I had just 10% of the imagination and style 

[ropie]

Malcolm, René, Arndt & Nigel, all of you are an inspiration to me (and no doubt everyone else) for different reasons, so there's some of your DNA in this one too. But before this starts to sound like an academy awards speech I'll just say that: it lives!



The pink vinyl version of Loaded by the Velvet Underground was a present from my old friend Patrick from Hanover, who sadly did not make it through lockdown and died too young in 2021, so the first play was for him.

[eduardo]

Ropie the Youngish does it again. A deck suitable for framing.

Banana yellow, yes.


Form and chrome makes it a Googie?

[LFC]

I love it 

[ropie]

What I said above goes equally for you Eduardo and brother Chris  

I wanted to mention just a few of the things I cocked up along the way:

1. Originally I removed the existing armboard with a hammer, accidentally smashing the ring in the process, because I was going to install a non-SME arm. In the end I went with another SME arm so had to make a new armboard the same  



2.  However, I then decided to experiment by using a much harder material for the armboard (the pertinax stuff) which caused its own problems. For one thing I had to widen the hole with a wood file which took ages. Then I broke one drill bit and sheered off two screws trying to drill into it, leaving me with three useless holes in the armboard.  so I had to drill four new holes. Luckily the SME alignment system seems to have allowed for this necessary adjustment. I opted to drill all the way through with a larger bit and am using bolts to mount the arm instead of the stupid little SME wood screws.



3. After finishing painting the platter (which took 4 days) I rested it briefly upside down to clean some paint off the underside and somehow managed to put a ding in the not-yet-hardened paint  



4. I also broke a tonearm wire whilst checking the arm mounting, of course



However, I am happy with the result..



I have the SME mounted on the little rubber grommets just until the paint has cured for a while (probably a few weeks) then I will remove them.



The motor is quiet to begin with but becomes noisier after a few minutes so I need to probably give it a strip down and re-grease next. But the music sounds good!

[Devo]

Hi Ropie, your turntable looks very nice, but next time i should use spray paint which is so much easier to work with and dries much faster

[paulfromcamden]

Colour scheme is amazing Piero!  

I used to have one of these Vestax DJ mixers. I think you need to track one down as the perfect accessory  

[ropie]

Hi Ropie, your turntable looks very nice, but next time i should use spray paint which is so much easier to work with and dries much faster

Thanks Dennis. Spray paint is ok but I get a better finish with a brush and water based paint. It dries quickly so I could do 20 coats per day if I felt like it, but realistically 3 or 4. So 12 coats took 3 or 4 days + wet sanding. The paint will cure and go very hard over a few months and is very resilient to damage. The finish is completely flat, matt and very smooth. The real problem with spray paint is that it  absolutely stinks - and since I don't have any ventilation system (and it's too cold to do it outside at this time of year) I usually avoid using it.

[ropie]

I used to have one of these Vestax DJ mixers. I think you need to track one down as the perfect accessory 

Thanks Paul - that's definitely given me inspiration for my next amplifier!

[wenig watt]

Thanks Dennis. Spray paint is ok but I get a better finish with a brush and water based paint. It dries quickly so I could do 20 coats per day if I felt like it, but realistically 3 or 4. So 12 coats took 3 or 4 days + wet sanding. The paint will cure and go very hard over a few months and is very resilient to damage. The finish is completely flat, matt and very smooth. The real problem with spray paint is that it  absolutely stinks - and since I don't have any ventilation system (and it's too cold to do it outside at this time of year) I usually avoid using it.

I must say that the surface quality of your paint work is outstandingly good. Sanding lacquer is a lost art!

With best regards

Arndt

[Jonpw98]

That looks great Piero.

A quick question around the painting process: do you wet sand the final coat…..and if you do what grit do you use?

(I have a Garrard 301 plinth that I was going to paint high gloss black, but now I’m considering other options)

Thanks

Jonathan

[Tomcat1969]

Supercool Piero!

[ropie]

I must say that the surface quality of your paint work is outstandingly good. Sanding lacquer is a lost art!

The finish is not quite as good as I would like, but as my mum sometimes says, a man on a galloping horse won't see it (meaning it's good enough!) The finish I have achieved here is slightly better than I had with the white paint before. Yellow paint is very transparent though so it was tricky!

A quick question around the painting process: do you wet sand the final coat…..and if you do what grit do you use?

Yes, I wet sand every 4 or 5 coats depending on the paint thickness and the final coat is also wet sanded. You must use the black wet and dry paper. I usually buy the assorted packs so tend to start with a coarser paper and end up with the 600 (so not super fine but fairly fine). When you start to get a creamy paste as you are sanding that's when you know it's going well, but a very light touch is required. You can use a sanding block of some sort to help get a flatter finish, but if like my turntable there are curved surfaces it's easier to do the final pass without a block. At the moment I have a matt finish with a very slight sheen, which I like. If you want a glossier finish you'll need to polish the paint work after it has dried out for a few days, probably using some sort of polishing compound, but go easy with it! For a really glossy finish I have had good results with enamel paint - it's a totally different technique: a foam roller and no sanding required.

Supercool Piero!

Thanks Billy