Joiner's Musings

TK7SU cartridge in TP-60 plugin Thorens shell  A couple of years ago I resurrected my TD 165C manual turntable to advance my audio hobby. I quite literally dragged it up from the basement where it sat in a box for thirty plus years. At the time (2-3 years ago) vinyl recordings were starting to make a strong comeback. I guess people were not entirely pleased with the digital recordings of our new age and wanted to go back to the rich sound of vinyl. And yes, there is a difference! I was happy to see my turntable in action after almost thirty years and I was not in the least disappointed. Everything worked to a "T". Well, almost! Attached to the Thorens TP-60 plug-in shell is an  Audio Technica TK7SU cartridge (the tonearm is a TP-11) which was a very respectable cartridge in its day and what I would consider to be in the medium to high end range. However, I discovered that the my Shibada stylus has a bent shaft. It's not that I didn't know this. I was pretty roug...

A brighter future I had a couple of old 2D Maglites lying around the house and rather than buy new LED Maglites which are pretty pricy I did a little Amazon shopping and found 55 Lumen bulbs for around 10$ apiece. While my fingers were doing the walking I also bought a lower power 30 Lumen bulb for backup and that was about 3$. Yes, I could have bought a couple of cheap plastic  LED flashlights for around the same price of the LED bulbs but Maglites do last a long time and my decision seemed to be a more practical approach. I do have a 2D LED Maglite and to be honest at 120 Lumens it does shine much brighter but it was also relatively expensive. I found a 2AA LED flashlight also lying around that had leaked within the past year, one of those mini Maglites. I don't if you have ever had a flashlight battery leak in the flashlight itself but I can tell you that they are just about impossible to take out once they have become swollen inside. I tried vinegar, baking soda and not...

Canadian Time clock Escarpment looks good  I have had this clock for close to a year and a half and have never opened it up. Today is the day. I decided to remount my Canadian Time clock and in the process oil and clean it. In the end the idea that I had for remounting did not work out. The clock is on a large picture hook and I wanted to hang it on a toggle bolt since it is on a hollow gypsum wall. The bolt I wanted to use combined with a few washers could not fit into the clock hanger plate so it is back to the drawing board. The clock is time only so the good thing is that there is no second or third train to vibrate the clock off the wall (potentially). Clock Movement Maker's stamp Compared to the case the movement is very small but since it is time only that is no great surprise. I looked at the clock and it appears that the bushings are okay and so I assume that the pivots are fine as well. There is no obvious play in the clock. My guess is that ...