Feickert Protractor - anyone use one?

More time for whisky and music :-)

The $250 Feickert does indeed measure spindle-to-pivot accurately.

A $2 ruler does also.

More money for whiskey and music!

Nice one Doug.
Having been in the building industry for 40 years, I can assure you than trying to 'eyeball' a hand-held ruler over the dead centre of a 4mm diam shaped spindle at the same time as 'eye-balling' a mark on this ruler over an ill-defined tonearm pivot hidden by the tonearm is no more accurate than a generic 2 point alignment card downloaded from the internet.

The Feickert 'locks' in both spindle and tonearm pivot and is attached to an aluminium 'beam' which has NO deflection compared to a wooden, metal or plastic ruler over the same distance.

It seems a little odd to be so adamant about 'thinner' etched lines and parallax error compensation of the mirror backed Wally and Mint protractors whilst at the same time proposing such an inaccurate method of effective length and overhang measurement?

Halcro,

with a custom made arc protractor, the need to be highly accurate at setting P2S doesn't exist. You just need to be close, 1/2 mm or so. Aligning to the arc takes care of the rest of the precision because the arc was drawn using the effective length. No futzing with overhang, it all comes out in the wash. That is why the lines are so important. And, the same tool is used to do the rest of the alignment so nothing moves during the process after the arc is being traced. It really is hard to explain, and much easier to demonstrate. There really is more than one way to approach things. I'm not saying any is better than the other. But some are definitely less expensive.

Henry,

FIRST
What Dan_Ed said.

SECOND
My TT spindle has a lathe mark that's dead center. Easy to see and measure precisely.

Your spindle doesn't have a center mark? You can make your own - for free.

How? Simple. Mark a dot, as tiny and precise as you please, on a square of Scotch Tape. Stick that on your spindle and spin the platter. If the dot oscillates it's not centered. Move the tape, spin again, reiterate until the dot remains stationary. Voila!

(It took me longer to type that than it takes to actually do it. It's so easy it's trivial.)

THREE
Your tonearm pivot point is "ill-defined"? No problem. Use the same trick. I've done this with Rega and OL arms and it should work with most arms where the bearing center isn't obvious or accessible to a ruler. Again, so easy it's trivial.

FOUR
Your ruler deflects over a 9-12" span? Even I'm not THAT cheap. Buy a sturdier ruler.

As I said, I've used a Feickert and I agree it's well made and measures S2P quite accurately. However, I can and do perform the same task with similar accuracy for 99% less money. So can anyone with a little thought and care. It's not the cost of the tools, it's how you use them.