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Have anyone replace VPI SSM belt with string?

Most heavy platter tables like Verdier or Micro Seiki use silk or string to drive the platter and reason is obvious. VPI SSM or HRX both have heavy fly wheel that motor has to drive. I can hear my VPI SSM belt noise when it is not perfectly clean and will wobble and shudder especially running at 45RPM. This is more obvious on the two small belts driving the flywheel which much more work than the long belt driving the platter.

Has anyone tried using string or dental floss to replace the belts on VPI tables? I know for SSM or HRX, making two identical length strings for the motors will be extremely difficult and that means different load for each motor. But is this idea feasible at all? Are there any downside to the string?
semi
dertonarm
1,042 posts
 
I am running a VPI SSM w/HRX & SDS with special bavarian linen thread. Works nice. Good grip, small knot (made the way Micro Seiki suggested), very quiet, very dynamic and stable sound. Much more presence and low level dynamics as compared to the stock belt as well as a premium industrial precision belt of german origin.
The super low elasticity linen thread wins in all parameters in this set-up.
emorrisiv
313 posts
 
Just did a experiment with some ordinary poly-cotton thread on the HMW 19. I got it working which was the main thing,but it is a hair slow (checked with a strobe and by ear).
I imagine some better thread and with more adjustment I can make it right. Therefore outboard here I come!

e
shiprepair
16 posts
 
I have a Ludlum turntable and the platter is driven by dental floss. This is very easy to do as the platter drive capstan is remote from the turntable and you can move it as far or near to the platter as practical.

Just take a length of unwaxed dental floss, join with a reef knot, put around the platter and the capstan and adjust motor speed as per a strobe platter.

The dental floss is terrific as it seems to last and last and because it is so thin and light it doesn't transfer any vibrations from the motor. I did use 2lb weight fishing line initially but sometimes I would forget to turn it off at night and it had parted by morning. I think it was the heat.

Great turntable. Silent as the grave. No rumble, nothing.
shiprepair
16 posts
 
Concerning the turntable above it is not Ludlum it is a Lumley turntable.

Sorry for the typo.
semi OP
649 posts
 
wow, didn't expect this old thread to revive after 3 years.

I sold the SSM and got a SSM Ref with rim drive, PRAT was definitely improved. I also picked up a Nottingham Hyperspace and have been playing with strings, no luck so far with what I have at home. sounds like cotton string is the ticket to get good grip and just enough stretch to couple the motor to platter.

can someone share the "proper" way to tie the knot?
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