Building An Acrylic Turntable


Hey Folks,
While I'm slowly upgrading my Thorens, I've been cogitating over the idea of making my own acrylic platter and plinth. Having been exposed to the Industrial Design department in college, I have the courage to go through with it but I'm lacking knowledge with respect to turntable mechanics. Are separate motors and power supplies available on the commercial market or otherwise? What would you recommend with respect to design, weight, mechanics, etc... In other words, what would you do to a turntable if you were making it yourself or if you were having someone else make it according to your personal specifications? As soon as I get a clearer understanding, then I can begin on the preliminary drawings.
Thanks!
goofyfoot

Showing 4 responses by goofyfoot

Hey, thanks for the link! Both tables look like they can get the job done and that acrylic table surely came out nice. I forgot to mention but I'm planning to cast my platter and my plinth in a pourable form of clear acrylic. The 2 part polyurethane rubber mold will come from Polytek. This way I'll be able to make the plinth and the platter as thick, as large and according to any design I want, plus each piece will be solid.
My only knowledge about sound advantages in choosing acrylic is that it does not resinate, the very reason why my ASR amp and phono stage are encased in acrylic. Please keep in mind that I'm not machining acrylic but rather casting it instead. The only machining would be to bore or drill holes but a diamond drill bit will cut clean through any material. I'll try to find out more concerning what type of pourable acrylics are on the market.
I wonder where carbon fiber might fit into all of this? Would this be a suitable alternative to using slate and can acrylic be used in combination with other materials in order to make it more affective?
Well, here is the response that I received from Polytek regarding acrylic casting so it looks as though I might be back to square one;

Technically we do no make "Acrylics", we do have a water clear Polyurethane series called Poly Optic 14 Series, I will attach info. To make an absolute bubble clear casting of any resin, you need to vacuum degas and or cast in a pressure pot. For the mold rubber, you could use a 74 Series rubber with 2300 mold release or, a PlatSil 73 silicone like the 73-25. I will also attach this info. In the end if there is not and molded detail in part, I would just get it cut out of Acrylic stock.

So where can I buy acrylic stock and will I then have to compromise with respect to size and weight?

Thanks to all who have responded so far, I will have to triple back through URL's, etc...