The Impal-o-Phone Model 2
This is the base of the new Impalophone Model 2. It still has the same mandrel assembly, but the motor was stripped out of the school player and mounted on a home-made base. The base is made of scraps from the shop and deck screws.
Here is the Complete Impalophone Model 2. The tone arm is a little over 5 feet long, from the back of the counterweight to the tip of the headshell. The tone arm was made from (from headshell to counterweight) a piece of trim wood, a piece of telescoping whip antenna, the tone arm from a frapped Dual turntable (thank you so VERY kindly North American Van Lines!), and the center mount and 1 short radial from a Radio Shack discone antenna. The cartridge is a Stanton 500AL, wired for vertical reproduction. The stylus is a conical (I KNOW, NOT THE BEST, but I can't afford a spherical stylus right now) used for playing 78rpm discs.
Another view, looking more at the thing head-on. It is currently playing an Edison 4-minute Amberol.
The back end of the tonearm. The tonearm is mounted on an empty CDR spindle (pack of 100). The counterweight is aided by an Amphenol BNC-SO239 adapter, in lieu of a proper weight. It was suspended from the discone center, but undulations in the cylinder surface caused the hanging counterweight to start swinging all over the place, causing more bouncing, causing more swinging... you get the idea. Not a pretty sight.
Here is a closeup of a 2-minute cylinder fully on the mandrel. I shaved a BUNCH off of the mandrel to make it more on-center as well as to get the slight taper found on real mandrels. Cylinders play much better now.
Here are some more close-ups of the player in action:
This is the rear view of the base, showing how the motor from the school phonograph is mounted.
Still, there are more improvements to be made, but the Impalophone plays at an acceptable level now. The next list of improvements would have to include:
More as things develop.
