I participated in a crowd-funded 3D printed turntable. For a small fee, I was sent all of the parts needed except for the 3D printed parts which comprise most of the unit. Obviously the cartridge, motor, belt, the Lexan platter and all the bolts, nuts and screws along with an aluminum frame stiffener were included in the kit. I had to print the rest.

It was a fun project and the results are pretty amazing.





A short video of it playing an album.

You have the best hobbies.


aside: A sentence I never anticipated hearing: "I printed a turntable".

That is so cool. Congratulations on your new turntable!

That’s great!

Mark, wow! How cool!!!


WTG,

quote:

aside: A sentence I never anticipated hearing: "I printed a turntable".

I was thinking the same thing!!

That is so cool!!

Did you print it and then wire it?
Was it a kit?

Are the signal connections phono curve or line out?

I’ve noticed some turntables now have standard line out connections in addition to — or maybe instead of — phono curve. And USB.

Thanks all. I have so much fun doing things like this and when they work out well, like this one did, it makes it really fun.

Yes I did print it. I started out with a black and purple color scheme but after a couple of failed prints of the largest part of the chassis, I switched to Brown/Terra Cotta. You can see the original color scheme in the tonearm base on the video. Those parts printed successfully so I used them.

I did wire it. It came with all the required wires, and connectors that use screw terminals so no soldering was necessary. I am planning on going back through and doing some EM/RFI shielding. I am not experiencing anything out of the ordinary but source signals need to be as "clean" as possible to get the most out of the system. I am going to start by just using regular aluminum foil (Thick stuff not the generic stuff.) to line the inside of the base of the tonearm where all of the wires from the cartridge meet and go out to the RCA connectors. Most analog systems always have some low level noise/hum. There are many ways to reduce and even eliminate it. There are always challenges. Right now I have the gain on my phono pre-amp set to the lowest setting and I am getting zero noise. But, to get the same output level, I have to turn the volume up more than I do with my other turntable. I will be playing around with it.

It is a straight connection from the cartridge to the RCA connectors which produces phono output. You need to have a Phono Input on your receiver/pre-amp or a dedicated phono pre-amp like a Schiit Mani or similar.

Nothing fancy here. Not even a cue lever. You have to manually cue the record and lift the tonearm off the record when it is finished playing.

Thanks