Technics SL-6 turntable refurbishing

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Phil Thien, Jul 11, 2019.

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  1. Phil Thien

    Phil Thien Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Well I started a thread a few months ago about possibly adding a turntable to my system, and recently I pulled the trigger on a Technics SL-6. This is one of the small (12.5" square) linear-tracking tables made approx. thirty years ago. They have great specs., but are limited to p-mount carts (and I'm okay with that).

    The SL-6 model has a track sensor and buttons 1-10 so you can program the tracks you'd like to play. I'd like my wife to be able to use this w/o difficulty. Specifically, I'd like to say, "wife, flip the album and start at track #2 please." Yes, this unit will be remote controlled in that way.

    When I got the unit, I went to clean all the old grease off (thirty year old grease is sticky) so I could replace it, and I discovered a broken part (namely, the plastic that holds the brass linear bearing was broken). I found another arm unit on eBay, hopefully it will be on the way soon and I can swap that part over.

    Also, the buttons are metalized plastic and pitted. Probably due to the use of household chemicals for cleaning (pretty common). I'll likely strip them and paint with a very close metallic nail polish using my airbrush. Nail polish with a lacquer base will burn into the plastic a little, should be quite a bit more durable a finish. But I'll need to be seen in the nail polish section of the store. I'll wear a disguise.

    So far I've started by polishing-up the dust cover. It had a few deeper scratches, which are gone as of this evening. I'm using the Novus stuff, I'll likely do the #3 (for heavy scratches) a couple more times just to make sure I haven't missed anything, before going to #2. It won't look brand new when I'm done, but it is going to be pretty close.

    I've always enjoyed DIY projects. When I built my last pair (or should I say, "most recent" pair) of subwoofers, I needed to use my airbrush to paint some areas of the enclosures. But I wanted a quieter compressor. So I found a $110 (shipping included) Mainoir Airforce compressor on eBay. These are super high-end compressors, similar to current Silentaire units (but even nicer). Mine was made in the USA approx. thirty years ago.

    They use a sealed compressor unit, like you'd find on a refrigerator or air conditioner. They're super-quiet.

    It was in rough shape. Covered in dripped polyurethane glue (do you know how difficult it is to remove polyurethane glue?), cracked pressure switch cover, bad gauges, all the wiring up to the compressor itself was shot (the insulation was cracking), the chromed handle was pitted/ugly, the oil (requires special oil) was pretty old. It took some time, but I got it all fixed and swapped out and now it gets regular use in my shop, and looks pretty sexy. Total investment, about $200 to $225. Replacement cost, about $1000 (yes, Silentaire and Jun-Air still make equiv. models and they're about $900 for the Silentaire to $1200 for the Jun-Air).

    Hopefully in a month or so, I'll be able to post a pic of a restored SL-6.

    In the meantime, here is my compressor.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2019
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  2. Hershiser

    Hershiser Forum Resident

    If I said “wife, flip the album over....” the whole turntable would end up going with it.
     
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  3. Phil Thien

    Phil Thien Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    She likes all the same music as I do. Any time I put something on, she wanders into the room and listens with me.
     
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  4. Phil Thien

    Phil Thien Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Worked on polishing-up the top for the SL-6 today. It started-off looking fairly trashed, and now looks like it has led a fairly pampered life.

    I'll move onto the buttons next.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. The FRiNgE

    The FRiNgE Forum Resident

    Good posting, as this describes the time and effort that goes into a refurbish job. If the objective is to simply to restore function, or back to mint cosmetically, the resto always involves time and money, knowledge and patience, multi-skills ... sometimes a good parts unit.

    Good luck! please keep us posted! :)
     
  6. signothetimes53

    signothetimes53 Senior Member

    Fascinating project, and post, thank you!

    I used to have an SL-5 long ago, loved it.
     
  7. Phil Thien

    Phil Thien Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Just an update, the part arrived today and unfortunately, it is split exactly the same way as mine.

    I think this may be a design failure, I'm thinking the (looks like brass) bearing expands (due to heating/cooling) more/faster than the plastic can accommodate, and as a result the plastic splits.

    I did purchase another linear jobber though, an SL-J33. And this one works and doesn't have any major breaks. Still push-button track selection. So I might end-up with a working analog portion to my system nonetheless.
     
  8. Armarra1

    Armarra1 Member

    Location:
    Melbourne
    Great project.
    I have an SL-6.

    Fully functional and loved albeit without a cover closed detector switch lever.

    I set the switch to always closed so the power switch needs to be operated if I intend to play selected tracks on new side... But the rest operates just fine.

    I'm curious as to how you polished the lid.

    What cloth did you use and did you use a machine or elbow grease.

    I've seen these get remote controlled, but for now I'm enjoying the device with technics amp and big technics speakers X 4.

    I've also put a hypereliptical shape stylus on it.

    I'm interested to learn more about p-mount options for this and the measurable and discernable differences.

    I've also got an SL-6 2000 which I know to be a base model for standard design TT.

    TIA.
     
  9. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Welcome.

    We have several P-mount cartridge threads here, just search P-mount in the top right search box and check Search titles only. The most recent and still current thread is this:

    P-Mount Cartridges
     
  10. johnny q

    johnny q Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bergen County, NJ
    @Phil Thien

    In regards to the sticky grease: To remove the old grease, can you enlighten me as to what your method was? For example, did you have to dissassemble the entire linear tracking mechanism (rail, gears etc.) and did you use any fluid to remove the sticky grease (e.g. alcohol etc?) Also - what did you use to re-grease it? I have heard white lithium grease works as does sewing machine oils. The original lubricant was a type of industrial petroleum - like an industrial vaseline. When it dries it resembles something like ear wax! :)
     
  11. Phil Thien

    Phil Thien Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    IIRC, I disengaged the drive and used alcohol on rags and cotton swabs, moving the carriage left and right to be able to access everything, even adding new grease and then removing it, so as to try cleaning the bore of the bearing (the old grease was very sticky so I wanted to remove as much as possible without complete disassembly). Finally I added new grease and worked everything back and forth for a while.

    The grease I have is some synthetic stuff intended for use on electronics and looks pretty much just like Vasoline.
     
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  12. Easy-E

    Easy-E Forum Resident

    Did you get the SL-6 to work?

    I have an SL-J2 which has the track selection feature etc

    But it doesnt play 10" records automatically

    The interwebs say that the SL-6 does - is that correct (if you got it going that is)
     
  13. Easy-E

    Easy-E Forum Resident

  14. Phil Thien

    Phil Thien Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Sorry hadn't seen your post.

    No, after I saw two tonearms with the exact same failure mode, I harvested the motor and platter and made my own tonearm, see my "My DIY tonearm project continues thread."

    I also sourced an SL-J33 which is a slightly newer linear tracker with an arm design that doesn't suffer the cracked plastic. But I only used that while completing my own turntable build.
     
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  15. Easy-E

    Easy-E Forum Resident

    Ah right - Does an SL-J33 play 10" records automatically? I see it has the track selection feature
     
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