By James Grahame
Charles Altmann is a German DIY fanatic. His creations include a diesel motorcycle, natural sound hi-fi speakers and the Altmann DIY turntable. He says, "After the success I had with my homebrew tonearm, I decided to build a turntable that is able to fathom the sonic delicacies that the tonearm is able to produce.
Those who visit my sites regularly already know that I am a sucker for natural tone. Therefore the turntable is made to large parts out of wood. Wooden base, wooden motor base, wooden turntable-platter, wooden tonearm. Some ideas make this turntable easy and cheap to build. Depending on your local price for wood, and your ability to find some surplus parts, total cost can be as low as $50.
The turntable consists of two separate massive plywood-blocks (glued together from boards). One supports the platter and tonearm (main base), the second supports the motor (motor base). The platter is driven by a simple thread out of mom's sewing box. This way the motor is decoupled from the main base.
Between the main base and the motor base, there's a gap. By moving the motor base away from the main base, you can adjust thread tension."
Visit his site for pictures and a description of how a handful of Harley Davidson components ended up serving as a turntable platter bearing, along with details of his other ambitious projects.
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