Calypso Silicone Oil Tonearm - Daniel's beautiful DIY Turntable

My friend and colleague Daniel built this beautiful direct driven turntable and used Calypso parts for his tonearm which might be inspiring to other DIY builders.

Take a look at his clever solutions for adjustment of damping, azimuth and height and enjoy the pictures of this highly individual and brilliant sounding tonearm:

The basic concept:
The tonearm is hanging at two threads. To prevent it from swinging, the grey 3D-printed bearing body is damped by silicone oil (100 000 cSt) in the black cup below. The cup can be screwed upwards and downwards to adjust the damping by changing the oil level.

Each thread can be adjusted separately by moving two grub screws inserted to the transverse beam which is screw threaded internally. If one thread length is changed, the azimuth is affected. If both threads are shortened or longered simultaneously, the tonearm height will be changed.


The counterweight assembly is also threaded for exact adjustment of tracking force



The tonearm tube is made from an old bamboo fishing rod. All Calypso parts are designed for a tube diameter of 10mm.


The tone arm rest was designed by Daniel and can also be found as 3D-printed part at Shapeways (www.shapeways.com/shops/turbolino). The upper part is 3D-printed and later inserted to an aluminium tube of the desired length.


Besides the tonearm, this turntable contains other unique features like a microcontrolled brushless direct drive and a nicely illuminated control panel, changing the color of "33" and "45" if the corresponding speed is selected.
Since everything is mounted on an IKEA bamboo chopping board, the overall appearance is still "Do It Yourself" but due to the fine craftsmanship, this turntable is an eyecatcher in a living room.

Thank you Daniel for providing and sharing the pictures!

 

Comments

  1. scottgpederson24 June 2019 at 23:31

    Beautiful work! Has a very clean Japanese/Danish vibe to it

    ReplyDelete

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