Ant's Latest Lenco Build

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simon
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#31 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by simon »

3 coats of Danish oil on the veneer and it's done. Top banana.

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andrew Ivimey
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#32 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by andrew Ivimey »

Wonderful - impressive - sh@@...y!!!
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#33 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by Dave the bass »

Like, Plus 1 and a thumbs up. Niiiiice work Ant.
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cressy
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#34 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by cressy »

Thanks guys, it was a long slow process. Having done the walnut one and the one mi dad has, most of the groundwork had already been done so there wasnt much to work out from scratch. There are one or 2 slight differences between this one and mi dads one.

Firstly. The motor plate is slightly larger to leave abit more metal around the bearing to control flex in the plate. There is also an aftermarket bracing plate available for standard ones which bolts on above the bearing mounting to stiffen the chassis which was taken into consideration when cutting the plate as its an option that could be fitted later.

Secondly, as simon wanted she who must be obeyed to be able to use it, the linkage to the on off switch was modified to keep it as far away from the rear of the arm as possible. Which is why the orientation of the motor plate is roughly square to the back edge as opposed to at more of an angle on mi dads. There is around 90mm of clearance on this one as opposed to bugger all on mi dads. His had to be further modified to fit the mayware to make sure it wouldnt foul the lever.

Thirdly the spikes are different on this one as there was not very much adjustment for levelling it on the originals. The ones on this one have 2 parts to them and the bottom half of the spike can be screwed in and out to level the deck.

The shape is different as the angle of the straight face is set by the arm position. As the ekos has a shorter spindle to pivot distance and a wider mounting collar, the angle change means the deck is abit wider.

Everything bar the motor went pretty smoothly. Now the motor was a big issue. The deck was perfect cosmetically when simon brought it, but the issues were lurking underneath. The first problem was that the motor was tight to turn so i didnt fire it up before i'd stripped it down. Which turned out to be a good thing. When i pulled it apart, there was evidence of a large heat buildup and the bearings at both ends were spinning in the case as they were seized up solid. I had to soak the nose bearing cradle and the rear bearing parts in a bowl full of degreaser for a couple of hours to get them apart. Luckily the aluminium castings were ok and werent scarred where the machining for the bearings had been done.

It turns out that the switch was fused on. The spark surpressor cap had gone so was bypassing the switch so the motor was always on. Hence the heat buildup. As the idler is pulled away from the platter, it looked as if it had stopped, but was spinning all the time it was plugged in.

It appears that when the cap went it took the switch with it. The switch itsself is quite clever, it has a floating metal dumbell shaped contact that bridges the switch contacts to turn it on. This runs in a little track cast into the switch body and is held in place with a spring loaded pin that sits between the switch lever and thin central bar of the dumbell. I had to prise it off the contacts where it had welded itsself on.
So with the switch mended and cleaned up, the vap removed and the motor serviced and rebuilt with new grease and the thrust pad sorted, it was back in business.

Christ knows how long it had been running constantly for. Could have been an electrical fire waiting to happen. So check the surpressor cap if you have a lenco.

Greg said he reckoned that the one mi dad has could easily take a better arm, i think he has been proven right by simons experience with the ekos version.
Cheers ant
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#35 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by Ali Tait »

Lovely job Ant!
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#36 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by Mike H »

WOW! x 1,000...


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#37 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by simon »

Yeah Ant's done a very good job with this. It did seem a bit of a shame to carve up an original L75 that was in pristine cosmetic shape but it had to be done. There's a lot of hours in one of these plinths, no little skill, and a large dose of Ant's learning from his previous builds. :-)
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#38 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by cressy »

A little off topic, but i found another deck i didnt know o had today. A teac ts130 twin idler thing. Wonder what i can do with it........
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#39 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by Cressy Snr »

Had an interesting day yesterday at Simon's place comparing the three Ant turntable projects, i.e. Simon's Lenco, my Lenco and Ant's JBE with drilled RB251 arm, plus my amps, Simon's 300B WE91 monoblocks, WAD Phono II, and a balanced Buffalo DAC.

We got through a lot of gear, a lot of music and the day was rather enjoyable.
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#40 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by IslandPink »

Nice work all round. What's the going rate on the 'worthwhile' Lencos these days ? - I mean EBay prices for 'project' units for example ?
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#41 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by Cressy Snr »

One of the comparisons we did was with the two Lenco conversions, to test how the two polar opposite arm/cartridge philosophies performed relative to each other.
We had the Linn Ekos, rigid, highish mass arm with low compliance MC (Kontrapunt B) vs the low mass, floppy arm, Mayware Formula 4 with high compliance MM (Shure M97eX)
The results were interesting.

The Ekos/Ortofon had more "jump" factor on the Mussorgsky Living Stereo, "Pictures At An Exhibition, whilst the music flowed along with the Mayware/Shure, with less attack on the jumpy bits. The Linn combo was vibrant and sparkling, whilst the Mayware was mellifluous, with a satisfyingly "big" bold presentation. The differences were merely ones of presentation.

Both systems presented the music beautifully and got to the heart of what was going on, with equal enjoyment being gained.
The so-called night and day differences, the mags woud have had you believe, in the early eighties were just not there to the degree they talked about. Make of that what you will. Granted the Kontrapunt is a far more expensive cartridge than the Shure and it gave more detail etc as it ruddy well ought to have, considering the price differential, but the music remained intact whichever engineering philosophy was in the driving seat. We got the same results with Frank Sinatra on "Songs for Swinging Lovers" and "Come Fly With Me" Both systems let the music out.

Our Ant's other project; the JBE direct drive TT with the drilled out RB251 and Ortofon MC10 cartridge was interesting. It didn't have the heft of the two Lenco motor units, but still delivered a mellifluous performance on the same tracks. Everything timed properly and the presentation was far more lifelike and effortless than the combo had been capable of with the standard RB251, so the mods to the arm were well worth doing.
Last edited by Cressy Snr on Sun Jul 31, 2016 12:28 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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#42 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by Cressy Snr »

IslandPink wrote:Nice work all round. What's the going rate on the 'worthwhile' Lencos these days ? - I mean EBay prices for 'project' units for example ?
Couldn't tell you Mark, but no doubt Ant will be along later.
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#43 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by cressy »

for this type of conversion the ideal is a nasty looking one. i.e cosmetically in bad shape. it'll put off alot of people if it looks like shit, be abit cheaper because of it and wont make a blind bit of difference. secondly, it wants to have a good motor spindle that isn't corroded or pitted. personally i would completely strip and rebuild the motor anyway, even if it is in good shape, a service will do it a world of good. something with a metal idler, the plastic ones do sound a little worse.
and lastly, something that has its linkages intact. other than that, i can look like its been at the bottom of the canal. basically, you don't want a 'good' one.

the ebay rate has been inflated recently, you're looking at 70 to 100 for a ratty one and 150 plus for a cosmetically good one. tbh i think i might have had something to do with that when i sold the lenco i rebuilt into the ash plinth earlier this year as i got 275 quid for it :oops: . there has been all sorts of crap go for good money since
thing is, that one was a complete ground up restoration where every little thing had been stripped, checked replaced or rebuilt so was like brand new on a brand new plinth. alot of them havent been touched in years and probably have some issue or another that needs addressing...........
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#44 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by cressy »

I thought yesterday that the jbe could have performed a bit better, the 2 lenco's were clearly better.
So i had a look at the motor as it has never been touched. The date sticker says 1979 for the build date so it had not been opened up for nearly 40 years. There was practically no lubricant left in the bearing, and what little remained was a milky puddle in the bottom. Looked like what you might see under the oil filler cap on an engine with a blown head gasket. Whatever oil they used will have been hygroscopic, hence the milky water/oil mix left in there.

So cleaned it out and checked the condition of the bearing shaft and phosphor bronze bush which surprisingly were both perfect. There is a small mark in the thrust pad as you would expect after nearly 40 years, but i couldnt figure out how to get it out. It looks like it is put in before the bush which means i probably couldnt get it out anyway.
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So with a little machine oil in the bottom and on the shaft i put it back together and she rotates quite abit smoother.

And seems to have regained its mojo.

Quite happy with that :D
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#45 Re: Ant's Latest Lenco Build

Post by Greg »

cressy wrote:Motor is half way between 8 and 9 o'clock rather than near 11 o clock in standard form
Hi Ant,

Having just picked up a GL75 for a very nice price, I've been reading here the various threads detailing your Lenco conversions. I am tempted to ask you to do a 'job' on my own new acquisition. Please can you explain the above quoted statement. Why have you changed the orientation of the motor? It seems to me your change does nothing to reduce motor interference with the cartridge, so why the slight orientation change?

Thanks in anticipation,

Greg
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