How To Repair Pioneer Pl-530 Turntable

I recently bought a PL-530 off ebay. The turntable suffered some damage during shipping and the tonearm is a scrap wobbly. I took the turntable autonomously and the plastic tonearm base was cracked, but the cracks are very minor. I reached out to some repair places, and nobody would touch information technology. I was thinking I'd attempt myself. I was going to start past putting some Vaseline or cooking spray on the spiral threads, and then put the screws in the threaded inserts. I'chiliad and then planning on putting a piddling epoxy in each of the holes in the plastic base, trying to work that in the cracks a little, and pushing the inserts back in. My hope is that having the screws in while the epoxy cures will go on epoxy out of the threaded insert, and the vaseline/cooking spray will help the screws come out. Any thoughts? I have attached some pictures of the base as-is.

Post by **dcairns** » 30 Jun 2022 14:39

I merely completed a repair on that exact problem on a an Ebay PL-530, as well damaged in aircraft. My base had a repair attempted before. I can simply gauge it was a long time ago as the epoxy had become rubbery (probably a poor quality epoxy). So I had to clean out bits of quondam epoxy first. I put some candle wax on the inside finish of the brass insert to go along epoxy from intruding as I glued. I also got some longer screws to put in as I worked so I could brand sure the inserts were straight. I used JB Weld every bit the epoxy, it cures kind of brittle but very strong, which is practiced for this. The brittleness is compensated for by the tension strength of the carbon fiber where needed.
I tin as well suggest wrapping the tone arm in paper towels or plastic bag and masking taped to the base. This will prevent glue on fingers getting on the visible parts of the tone arm etc.

On the rear insert, lightly sanded the back area where the brass insert cracked out (don't become too loftier on on the plastic base as it does get visible upwards higher) and put some epoxy dabbed around the outside of the brass inserts and some glue on the cracks. I put some wax paper over the dorsum to handle leaking glue from the cracks and used a hose clamp to concur things tight till it cured. I then took some carbon cobweb nearly ii inches long and wrapped it effectually the dorsum side and added more mucilage and covered with wax paper, then put masking tape around it all, front end to back to requite some gentle pressure to hold the glue every bit it cured. The carbon fiber should help keep the insert from breaking out again.

On the front end insert, I dabbed the insert with some glue, glued cracks in the plastic and and then pressed it together with a forest shim (wrapped in wax paper) jammed in the gap between the cue piston and the contumely insert and let that cure.

I then went back and filled the hollow between the cue piston and brass insert with epoxy to prevent the insert from keen out again. I too filled the two half circle hollows on either side to prevent cracking from the insert area.