JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

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Ant
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#1 JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Ant »

Ok. Next on the list to restore is my much loved JBE series 3 direct drive.

I have had this deck since 01/02/10, the reason I know the date is because I received it the same day as son number 2 was born, just after we got back from the hospital with him. Hence I have an emotional attachment to it.

I sold it once, parcel force smashed it, I got the remains back. I then had to refund the buyer and got nothing from parcel force who weaseled out of paying the compensation.

The damage was extensive, all 4 of the micro seiki microsorber feet were smashed beyond repair, so was the lid, the acrylic psu box was stove in on the top and the arm board was smashed off.

I managed to get it running again by making a new arm mount, attaching a set of 3 apple wood turned legs that were on the Lenco that I bought off Richard Higgins (that ended up as the first lenco conversion), popping out the acrylic top on the psu box (its still badly cracked but is at least it is flat), replacing a smashed fuse holder, the red power led that ended up detached, and the linear pot for the 45rpm speed adjustment control.

This was all done as a rush job just to get it back up and running, so it has stayed in a state, and most recently has been collecting dust on top of a wardrobe since I completed the Lenco demonstrator.

Whoever had it before me had not looked after it, and had done a number on the arm cutout which was originally for an sme 3009. These came from the factory specced to accept either the sme or with a wider plinth to accept a dynavector dv505. Which would be awesome. I want one. If you wanted something else, you could have a special order, but Ive never seen one with anything other than an sme cutout.

This is what I'm working with

ImageJbe series 3 by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

And this time i'll be doing it properly.

I have serviced the motor already, I did that after taking it to Simons to compare with his Ekos armed Lenco and the old mans Mayware armed Lenco, so thats sorted. The power supply has already been sorted, although I'm going to check it over again as one of the caps looked abit suspect last time I looked at it.

The plan is to put the 85mm diamond holesaw you can see in the picture, wot I bought just for this job, through the plinth to cut out the mess where the arm goes, and leave me with a proper hole that I can turn a proper arm board to fit in. I'll have to figure out how to get a water feed around the area to keep the holesaw cool and keep the dust down. I have a drill stand i can use with a my 110v drill and site transformer, and have a collar that fits around the drill neck that I can rig a splash guard to. I'll string the power cables up high and away from the water. Second, to remove the awful block connector from the psu cable and deck and fit a proper locking connector similar (but larger and specced for power) to the one I've used on the arm cables on the CX unipivots. Third to make a new set of 4 taller legs to replace the 3 cones that are on it at the moment that will use the original mounting holes, and fourth, to make a new acrylic housing for the psu. Doc I might pick your brains on this part on the best way to do it.
Lastly, I'll be refinishing the slate plinth to remove all the dints dents and scratches it has suffered over the years of neglect. I may also drill through the plinth so that the new arm board which will have a flange around the top edge can be bolted down, but that depends on how the board goes. The board and the legs will be made out of the same material to make it look as factory as i can. Ideally, I'd like to make the legs and board from black acrylic as the platter is a combination of a black acrylic disc and the aluminium discs, and obviously the psu box is also black acrylic; perhaps an oak plug that fits in the arm board hole and a 3mm black acrylic piece glued on top to form the surface that is seen and the mounting flange. Im sure I can get black acrylic rods cut to length for the legs.
We shall see.
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DSJR
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#2 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by DSJR »

That OEM motor had a terminal dynamic wow issue which I don't believe the makers (Matsushita) ever fixed. May be inaudible with a 1g tracker, but Garrard/Lenco it ain't I'm afraid - and I was there first time around. Good luck anyway.

Before KJ took on Linn (or Linn caved in and gave us the franchise in '77), the favourite KJ W1 record deck was a JBE/Mayware and Sonus Blue. Into a preamp able to take the massive 28k peak, which was around 10db I remember from tests, the sound from this trio was sublime. I also remember this arm and cartridge pair sounding great with the Trio KD550 (I think it was), which I think used the same OEM motor with the same characteristics.
Ant
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#3 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Ant »

Maybe not the motor, id have thought the issue would have been with the motor controller as it is pretty rudimentary. Never heard any wow out of it tbh.
I did use a sonus formula 4 on it for a while which I wish I still had
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#4 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Ant »

Ok, so ive gotten stuck into the restoration of the JBE this morning.
Firstly, it needed stripping down. Not much to it, as quite frankly there isnt much to it. 3 bolts and 2 machine screws......
ImageJbe series 3 restoration by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Next i needed a guide for the diamond hole saw as it doesnt have a central guide bit. so i cut one out of a scrap of ply with said holesaw in the pillar drill

ImageJbe series 3 restoration by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

I clamped it down with F clams where i wanted tho hole located, the 85mm size of the hole saw was selected so that it wasnt any bigger than it needed to be.. Using my 110v drill in a drill stand, and stringing the cables up high, i used the guide and drilled in about 2 mm without water so that i had a key in the slate. Then took the ply guide off, and continued with water. just drilled a hole in a bottle cap from one of the pop bottles in the recycle bin and squirted the water on as i pulled the drill stand handle down. locking the trigger off on the drill and controlling the speed with the dial on the trigger, it when through like a knife through butter. Leaving this

ImageJbe series 3 restoration by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

cleaned the plinth up and oiled it

ImageJbe series 3 restoration by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Then reinstalled the motor, legs and platter.

ImageJbe series 3 restoration by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

looks like it could be standard
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DSJR
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#5 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by DSJR »

It looks amazing. Well done you! :mrgreen:
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#6 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Ant »

Having the right tools For the job makes things easier
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#7 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Ant »

I took the case off the JBE psu box to get the measurements as its going to need replacing, so while i was at it i thought id trace the psu'
not much to it at all

ImageJbe series 3 power supply by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

heres the trace, perhaps nick et al could have a check for my errors, im sure there will be some around the bfy51, it is difficult to see some of the connections under the board for the pigeon poo soldering. Its not a pcb, its built on strip board. I cant find another trace for the psu, so it'd be handy to have as a resource. if it could be checked for errors and corrected if there are any, i'll send it to the guy who runs the website for the JBE

ImageJbe series 3 psu traced by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

no regulation, just a large cap for smoothing before the amplifier and thats it. The section on the left of the photo is the switches for 33 and 45 and the speed adjust pots. These are not connected to the board, they are between the green, blue and yellow wires coming back from the motor. The pots are both 5k linear
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ed
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#8 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by ed »

strange place for the led? is it deffo on the ac side of the bridge?
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#9 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Nick »

At first sight that doesn’t make much sense. if the d1 was a zener and the other way around and the supply to the turntable was taken from c2 it would make a little more sense. Or it could be some clever I have failed to understand.
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#10 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Ant »

ed wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2017 1:42 pm strange place for the led? is it deffo on the ac side of the bridge?
Yep its on the ac side so it could be used as a torch for the strobe disc
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#11 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Ant »

Have I drawn the transistor upside down? I thought the diode was there for stopping back emf
Edit: I think ive drawn half the right way up and half upside down
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#12 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Ant »

this make more sense?
ImageEdit by anthony cresswell, on Flickr
think theres still something wrong, theres no little tab on the transistor so i cant tell which way around it is
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#13 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Nick »

Doesn't make much sense to me no. The bridge is drawn wrong as well BTW.
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#14 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Ant »

ive had another look at it from scratch.
hopefully this is more like it, id missed a wire link amongst other thingsImageErrrr by anthony cresswell, on Flickr
not sure about c2 still though, the board is tiny and my eyes are shit....
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#15 Re: JBE series 3 restoration. Next on the list....

Post by Nick »

Closer to what I would expect, but I still think D1 is the wrong way around and will be a zener, T1 should have its base to the junction or R2 and D1, its collector to the +ve of the bridge, and its emitter to C2, and the bridge is still not a bridge.
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