No. It is not wrong to rotate the protractor. There are 3 steps, and you have to rotate the device or the whole platter between 1 and 2 and again between 2 and 3.
Question about how to use Feickert Protractor
Greetings from Oregon,
I'd been following the discussion about the Feickert Protractor and finally decided to order one. I'd been using the GeoDisc for setup, and I wanted something a little more precise. I have been working with the protractor this evening, and the directions on the second step are not entirely clear. The first step is easy enough - set up the protractor with the gauge pin over the pivot point (easy to find on a unipivot) and adjust the cartridge to the bulls eye in the geometry you want (I'm using Baerwald). Moving to step two things become unclear
My first question:
Step 2 says "..we don't need to aim over the pivot point anymore. Please rotate the Protractor so that the stylus tip touches the cross hairs at step 2." The picture shows the stylus sitting right on the target. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not physically possible. The cross hairs at step 2 are a fixed distance away from the cross hairs at step 1. There's no way to rotate the protractor to make this happen. You have to move the tonearm over to step 2, right?
My second question:
Assuming that I'm moving the tonearm over to the lines for step 2 on the protractor, should the stylus fall right on the bullseye as it did at step 1? Mine doesn't, but I assume there's nothing I can do about it without having the whole tonearm assembly remounted. It's a VPI Prime, which doesn't appear to have any adjustments for pivot-to-spindle distance.
I hope the questions make sense, as it's not easy to explain without having the protractor in front of you. Hopefully, someone with experience using the Fleickert can help.
Thanks for any advice!
Scott
I'd been following the discussion about the Feickert Protractor and finally decided to order one. I'd been using the GeoDisc for setup, and I wanted something a little more precise. I have been working with the protractor this evening, and the directions on the second step are not entirely clear. The first step is easy enough - set up the protractor with the gauge pin over the pivot point (easy to find on a unipivot) and adjust the cartridge to the bulls eye in the geometry you want (I'm using Baerwald). Moving to step two things become unclear
My first question:
Step 2 says "..we don't need to aim over the pivot point anymore. Please rotate the Protractor so that the stylus tip touches the cross hairs at step 2." The picture shows the stylus sitting right on the target. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not physically possible. The cross hairs at step 2 are a fixed distance away from the cross hairs at step 1. There's no way to rotate the protractor to make this happen. You have to move the tonearm over to step 2, right?
My second question:
Assuming that I'm moving the tonearm over to the lines for step 2 on the protractor, should the stylus fall right on the bullseye as it did at step 1? Mine doesn't, but I assume there's nothing I can do about it without having the whole tonearm assembly remounted. It's a VPI Prime, which doesn't appear to have any adjustments for pivot-to-spindle distance.
I hope the questions make sense, as it's not easy to explain without having the protractor in front of you. Hopefully, someone with experience using the Fleickert can help.
Thanks for any advice!
Scott
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- 19 posts total
Step 3 is a final check. It's not absolutely necessary but serves to corroborate your first two measurements. If steps 1 and 2 are done right, then step 3 should line up automatically. I was having a hard time getting everything kosher when I was installing a new cartridge before realizing that my tonearm P2S distance was about 3 to 4 mm off. |
I agree with Simao, but with the caveat that I own the older version of the Feickert Protractor. Mine has a base the size of an LP, whereas the newer version uses a base that is about half an LP, in size. Those who own it will know what I mean. The first step is to establish stylus overhang by first placing the poointer over the tonearm pivot and while in that position, you cite the stylus on a dot (on mine) that establishes overhang. On mine, these markers are inscribed in separate arcs running from the label area out to the perimeter, depending upon the effective length of any particular tonearm. The markings are labeled with respect to the P2S distance, not with respect to the actual pivot to stylus distance, which I find confusing if I have not used the protractor in several months. For example, if P2S (pivot to spindle) is 230mm and effective length (pivot to stylus) is 245mm, you adjust the cartridge so the stylus falls on a dot labeled "230mm". Weird but correct for mine, so far as I can tell. Then the next step is to rotate the disc template so that the stylus tip will fall on a dot confined by the innermost of two grids. You want to hit the dot and align the cartridge edges with the grid lines. Ideally, you are aligning the cantilever, if you can see it. You are essentially done at this point, as Simao suggests, but to maximize accuracy, for step 3, you rotate the disc again so that now the stylus tip falls on a dot within the outermost grid lines. This is kind of a test that you didn't disturb P2S in step 1. I don't know how different is the newer version from my older version to use, but I find mine to be quite versatile. |
Never tried an old version of Feickert But this new version is much better and simplified to use This is the MANUAL: http://www.feickert.org/fileadmin/bilder/Downloads/Protractor_BDA_2011_mail.pdf |
- 19 posts total