Dec 4, 2019 16:35:20 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Dec 4, 2019 16:06:03 GMT 12 andrewp said:

Im sniffing interest from a member here....

No, but Graham has just devalued my Aura by about 50%!

Oh dear.. Just remember yours is a later model with the heavy flywheel and an arm and cartridge. . Does that make you feel better. ?

Dec 4, 2019 16:29:18 GMT 12 mijoh said:

Graham, The lid to the motor housing appears to be missing in the photos, did you see any evidence that still exists?

Don't let a motor lid put you off. I'm sure something could be made up fairly cheaply to fit. After all its only a 10cm disc

I just found that a coaster fits perfectly.

Add an RB300/303, with your choice of cartridge, and that would make an outstanding turntable for the money compared to say a new Rega or Project.

Dec 4, 2019 16:51:28 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Dec 4, 2019 16:29:18 GMT 12 mijoh said:

Graham, The lid to the motor housing appears to be missing in the photos, did you see any evidence that still exists?

Don't let a motor lid put you off. I'm sure something could be made up fairly cheaply to fit. After all its only a 10cm disc

I just found that a coaster fits perfectly.

Perfect, you can put the glass of wine you take to steady your nerves while installing an expensive cartridge on that! 

Dec 4, 2019 15:12:13 GMT 12 Graham said:

Just got back from Real Groovy where Chris let me have a good look over the poor old Aura.

We lifted the platter off and inspected the top bearing which appears to be fine. Nice smooth rounded shape with no visible wear and fits nicely into the rounded socket. It even still had a thick coating of grease on it. The lower nylon or teflon bush is still nice and smooth and appears to still be a good fit on the lower shaft with its oil bath still intact.

The main vertical support column is however loose in its lower mounting allowing it to wobble about so I couldn't check for run out of the platter. We tried to tighten the lower mounting bolt without success as I think it is well secured with Loctite. It wont be a problem to sort that out though in a workshop with suitable tools.

The motor runs fine with a borrowed 12v DC wallwart and the secondary flywheel run true and silent when spun by hand.

There is only one suspension spring, although Chris is having a look around as he is sure there were more. The squash balls are history.

It appears to have been designed for a flat belt from the motor to the flywheel due to the shape of the pulleys but the belt is missing.

There are a couple of main drive belts new in a bag, with approximately 2mm cross section. However although the platter is grooved for this type of belt the flywheel seems to be designed for a flat belt.

The mirror really needs to be replace but I guess a glass company could provide that easily enough.

The adjustable acrylic armboard has glue residue on its surface so it would probably easier to have another made.

So my verdict is that it certainly is fixable with a complete strip down to repaint the black components and reassemble correctly with new parts as required.

We should be able to source some springs if necessary and squash balls are readily available.

I cheekily offered him $500 for it but for some reason he declined my generous offer.

Chris said it was previously listed on Trade Me with a reserve of $2000 but bidding stopped at $1700.

This time as you know it was listed at $1000 but no takers.

He intends to relist but I think he realises in its present state it is not as valuable as he first thought.

I'm not in a position to buy it at present due to other commitments but if someone could get it for $1000 or less IMO it would be good buying.

I am still willing to carry out a full refurbishment for a friendly Dark Lantern price. I'll even go and pick it up from Real Groovy if necessary.

Cheers

Graham

Main bearing:
There may have been some early variations but the platter top bearing, as said, was a uni-pivot point, facing down onto a hardened steel flat thrust pad. The thrust pad was fitted with a V-shaped plastic 'guide cone' on top, to centre the point - as per below...and some pics of the bearing point & thrust pad (which simply lifts out of the top of the main bearing pillar.).







(Around the bottom of the platter shaft are 3 grubscrews for adjusting the tightness of the Teflon bushing-ring inside.)

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Hi Owen. It looked exactly like your second photo, but not going to a sharp point, rather it appeared to be more like a small radius about the size of the ball in a ball point pen. Where there different versions of this bearing ?

PSU:
(Not sure about Monsieur Citroen, but my Aura uses a 16vac plugpack.
IIRC, depending on the plugpack, under load (eg. at startup), the plugpack can sag to at or below the 12v reg's dropout, causing issues.
The mtr cct (mine anyway) input accepts to a Bridge Rectifier, 7812 regulator.

Drive Belts:
The flat drive pulley is usual, shouldn't be a problem with round belts as the platter grooves will keep them apart at a proper spacing - providing the motor-flywheel is at the same height & level.

HTH.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Yes, 16VAC here.

It was at one stage used on battery but the original owner felt that it performed better via the mains supply.

Graham - I think the unipivot points (like mine), in reality. were made with a small radiused point, but I'm not sure how small.
(I recall Dave talking about a batch of tungsten carbide points that were not radiused exactly how he wanted them & caused bearing failures in a few Auras.)

How were you able to see it (without unbolting it out of the platter as above)?
Possibly this Aura's platter design might be a bit different - like @sgh's on this thread?

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Dec 4, 2019 19:49:10 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Yes, 16VAC here.

It was at one stage used on battery but the original owner felt that it performed better via the mains supply.

Yes, Dave & I both tried batteries (12v lead-acid car battery) & we both went back to AC plugpack

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

We didn't unbolt the housing out of the platter but were able to get a good clear view of the shape with a strong light shining into the hole. The thrust plate and plastic guide stayed on top of the vertical support.
There was a limit to how much dismantling I could carry out.

I am on the same page as Graham. Happy to pay $500 plus restoration .

Dec 4, 2019 18:26:48 GMT 12 Citroen said:

this could be a new test for motor smoothness  

My Aura motor lid was a quite heavy metal affair. Can't see it made a jot of difference to the sound I would regularly leave it off if adjusting

Here we go again !!!!!

Reserve met, I see.

Yep, at present I own it.

I put up the opening bid to knock out the $1500 Buy Now.

Reserve is met so all the best with it!

If you get it Graham are you going to sell it to paulsaints ?

Or maybe bigdaddyshan?

Yes that's the plan. Paul has first option, but it all depends on the bidding on Trade Me.
If the price gets too high I'm not prepared to pay silly money for it !

OK, I won't bid then.

Dec 9, 2019 18:57:25 GMT 12 Citroen said:

OK, I won't bid then.

Sure, it would be silly for we two or another forum member to be bidding against each other. However if the bidding goes higher than Paul or myself are prepared to pay go for it. It's an open market.

I am curious - would people be buying this to restore and sell, or restore and keep?

I am a non-recovering audioholic, and Ivor is my higher power.

Graham offered earlier in the thread to restore the TT if someone else bought it and paid the restoration costs. I had some PM conversations with Graham that amounted to us both thinking that given the amount of restoration required that the asking price was then too high. Graham has secured the first bid and depending on the final auction price what is possible is that Graham will restore and offer it to me first. So it is being sought for restoration with at least one willing buyer (to keep) of the final result but there is still a way to go. What we feel is that it needs rescuing.

Exactly as Paul states above, I see this as a 'rescue mission' of a very special turntable.

I can't justify owning it but would love to see it go to a member of this forum.

My only interest was to restore this turntable.

I have one, so don't need another but hate to think that this one would languish and perish to oblivion.
It deserves to be restored and appreciated, and at the asking price and restoration cost I of course feel that Graham and Paul are being very conservative.

This is a very competitive $3000 turntable being restored for HALF that cost.

For those who were/are interested I do think its good to know who may or not bid and also know they are possibly buying for personal use. But hey its an auction.... and a free place for anyone to own it now as the reserve has been reache.d

And now interest from the other island...

Yes, it would be very expensive to ship to Australia but even a couple of hundred dollars is a small fraction of its worth.
www.trademe.co.nz/electronics-photography/home-audio/turntables/listing-2437460031.htm?rsqid=3ec48026eff942d0bd51b60303cef47d-003