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Have a Victor UA-7045 tonearm coming

I've been searching for either a Victor UA-7082 or a UA-7045 tonearm ever since I purchased my Victor CL-P2 plinth with two arm boards.
The rear arm is almost ready to go, it's a Audio Technica ATP-12T mounted in a custom aluminum armboard. I also had to machine a bracket to add a Jelco JL-45 tonearm cueing device and a tonearm rest. This should be perfect for my low compliance DL-103.I have been looking at both models of the Victor arms and have posted WTB on several forums, watching Ebay but nothing nice has come up. So for the past month I have been keeping an eye out on the Japanese website Yahoo Buyee and finally saw something I liked. It's a clean looking UA-7045 that should work out nicely.
https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/v741873067?_=cnZxVG5GZVlFQTA3VEZVTDBjQnRCS1RGYWtnTW1ZOTZORUVmb2R...=I won the auction this morning for $202.81, way cheaper than I've ever seen one of these go for. estimated shipping is around $50.00 via DHL. It takes up to two weeks for the seller to get the arm shipped to Buyee and they will inspect and repackage it for shipment via DHL. So in several weeks I'll have this in my hands.
Since I know the spindle to pivot distance I will machine an armboard for it in advance.
Anybody familiar with this series of arms knows all about the rubber damper in the counterweight stub that degrades and causes the dreaded tonearm droop where the weight starts hanging down.
There are two types of this series of arms, those that have the droop (most) and those that will develop it soon. Aging rubber and gravity never let up. Every arm will eventually have this problem.
I've talked to my friend Elliott about this as he had one of these arms for a short time. He sent me a sketch of a rubber piece that he made from hardware parts that he used to fix his. Between Elliott and the internet I found enough info to figure out how this comes apart but I'm not entirely happy with the fix. Since Victor can't supply the rubber dampers I've been thinking about possibly making a mold and casting them out of urethane. I have samples of urethane coming to me from a supplier so I can compare the hardness of the rubber bushing to the urethane samples to find a close matching durometer value.
The mold will be a simple affair, machined out of aluminum. I need to dig out a vacuum pump buried in my garage to see if it works and I found a vacuum chamber on Ebay for 50 bucks.
Once I get the arm I'll pull the stub off and get some critical measurements and work from there. I can even do a temporary fix on the stub until I have a decent result as I have never cast urethane before.Anyway, I'm very excited to be getting this tonearm and at least one member here (chakster) talks very highly of it.

BillWojo




billwojo

Showing 5 responses by chakster

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Just to tease, this is NOS Victor UA-7082 with NOS MC-L10 cartridge. 
And again, this NOS sample does not have any problem with rubber grommet (just like my ex NOS 7045). The armlift is also nice and smooth. This long tonearm is so beautiful and easy to use and adjust. Yet another image of the same NOS Victor 7082. Why vintage tonearms are so beautiful while most of the new tonearms even for 10 times higher price are so ugly?  
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
I only said "MOST OF THEM" speaking about modern tonearm design.
But those modern arms, that I like, are about 5-10 times higher in price.

So it’s hard to argue that Japanese vintage tonearms are cheaper, and, at the same time, beautiful! Technically many of them are superior to their modern competitors.

Victor tonearms are amazing and inexpensive (say under $1500 for NOS, I do not discuss those broken samples that goes almost as a free gift). Don Griffith compared his Victor 7045 to Graham and preferred Victor, search on audiogon and you will find his posts.

Modern tonearms are ugly and very expensive, some of them are nice, but still very expensive.


chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
If you’re happy it’s fine, but NOS condition is something different (must be a box, manual, all parts together and perfect working condition). After your first message in this thread I realized than the price is low because there is a defect described by yourself:

the rubber damper in the counterweight stub that degrades and causes the dreaded tonearm droop where the weight starts hanging down.

It’s pretty common for UA-7045 and 7082 and this is why a perfect sample without this defect is not easy to find and normally twice as much in price. A true NOS sample in the box is very hard to find even in Japan.  


chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 

Greg, you can buy working turntable and working tonearm without any restoration, just look and buy properly working units, they are cheap. Victor UA-7045 tonearm cost no more than $750 in perfect operation condition, if you want victor turntable you'd better look for TT-81 (also cheap). 

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 

If you already purchased then what’s wrong with the tonearm? Counterweight is a common problem. Simple test for you, just set the counterweight like this and you will see if it’s broken or as good as new (like on my picture):

 

 

If your counterweight is not in line with armtibe then you must replace rubber grommet. 

After several posts from other people from the USA I realized the prices are extremely high for simple refurbishing job (tonearm). Where you from? In our old Victor thread people discussed where in the states they can refurbish Victor turntables.

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