Built my son a fantasy turntable

My 16-year-old loves all things Soviet at the moment, I think because he plays that army in his World of Tanks multiplayer. And he loves Russian revolution and Lenin, and he also really responded (like all boys) to WWII stuff, so I thought I'd built him a fantasy Russian military turntable from a Lenco B55 idler drive I couldn't pass up for $30.

It came with a plastic Japanese arm that was put on in Italy, as this table was released toward the sad end of Lenco. The drive mechanism is all by Lenco and the body work (some pretty oxidized paint, guys) done in Italy. As Lenco closed down, the Italians still had all these tables and put these Japanese arms on these for use in dance studios and recital halls as an all-in-one vinyl sound system. But the guts are the good Lenco motor and idler. Simplicity itself.

I instantly said "no-no" to the Japanese arm and put on a suitably military-spec looking milled aluminum Rek-o-Kut arm- I wanted a tank-like arm. I love the look of these arms which are cheap (except for the $%^%&* headshells) and with cleaning of the bearings is turning out to be one of those float-like-a-butterfly pieces of heavy metal! I love when you have a big chunk of metal and balances it out so it's like picking a daisy. I learned that from my Grado. The only hassle with this arm is fighting cable twist and antiskating. Just a pain to position the arm and screw it on the table.

. Anyway, I digress. I just like making things for my son.

Oh, yes. Translation: 'Sing to the Motherland, home of the Free." from the Soviet National Athem's chorus. And I can't tell you how many hours it took me to space and spray on those mini-stencils. I will tell you: Six hours.





The most expensive part? Headshell, natch. $100.

 

The people's turntable. Translate the Russian inscription for us.
-Bill

 

That's a great-looking turntable. Your son must be absolutely delighted.

 

"Fantasy" as in it's a fantasy if it actually works?

 

Is good, solid looking turntable comrade! Now for records to play on it. In Russia, Beatles very big! But cover art copyrights, not so much.

 

Dang nice looking table, your sons lucky to have you. Hope he gets many years of enjoyment from it as i suspect he will, Even if he does grow out of his Soviet interest that he currently enjoys.

 

Your son is lucky. Well done.

 

Such Western Capitalist decadence! Comrade Lenin is twisting and frugging in his grave!

 

Didn't they drop those imperial fractions and the turntable means it when it says 33rpm?

Excellent job

 

In Russia, records play you........

 

Very cool gift. I gave my Son a Technics SL-10, pretty simple for a digital kid to use.

 

Too freakin' cool.

You really need fabricate a Leninco label!

 

Have you posted it on Lencoheaven yet?

 

Very creative and very nice work!

 

How cool!

 

Dad of the year!

 

all kinds of awesome !!

 

No problemo! I actually upgraded the bearing myself today by adding a half millimeter Delrin thrust bearing plate that wasn’t on this model but was on later models. This model it turns out upon opening it up has a locked bearing running on a copper plate (boo) which had about a fifth of a millimeter divot. I had ordered some Delrin thrust plates from Germany but they got lost in the mail but it turns out if you buy the right kind of Boss Or Dunlop guitar picks ($5 for a bag of 10 which you need a fraction of one ) they are made of Delrin so I cut myself a little circular thrust plate it about a half inch in diameter from a .5mm thick Boss Delrin pick and it worked perfectly. I just ran Turntabulator and got a reading of 33.33 the most perfect reading I’ve ever gotten — first time outta the box since I started This crazy project!


And people are right about that mobile one oil for turntable spindles. Jesus I’ve never seen a platter spin like that. That Mobil one is fantastic. Polymer.

 

Nicely done, there's nothing like making something with your own hands, making creative decisions, then watching it go!

Then, more importantly, making something like that for your son is what it's all about.... good man!

 

That is great!

 

Nice work! Etched slogan doesn't make a lot of sense, however...

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I speak a fair bit of Russian, and the text does not say what you think it says. As in, those aren't lyrics from the Soviet anthem. For instance, "бесплатно" is free, as in no cost. "Свободный" means free, the adjectival form of "свобода" as in freedom. "Петь" is definitely the verb for "to sing," but the original 1944 lyrics use "славиться," which has been translated as "sing," but is really "glory to." There are other grammar/spelling/character errors, too. Seems you got a bad machine translation.

What you were going for, I think, was this:
"Славься, Отечество наше свободное,"
Which is basically "Be glorious, our free Fatherland."

 

OP, the first line in Soviet Union Anthem's chorus actually reads:
Славься, Отечество наше свободное

Your's (if, say, it were written with added quotes referring to a song's name / line), i.e.:
Петь "На Родину, домой" бесплатно!

would be translated into English like a military order:
Sing "Coming back home to Motherland" free of charge!

 

Nice work Comrade!
Now you need to score some Soviet x-ray records for him.