Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

Hi y'all,
Just thought I'd chip in a few thoughts here. I've made a brass
screwdriver for adjusting pad/roller screws, so no magnetisation
problems. Yes it's obviously softer that steel but; if you have a few
stiffies - they can be eased by screwing completely out, giving
them a light touch with the edge of a candle and screwing back in.
Makes adjusting a lot easier but do check the underside for loose
specks of wax as you don't want these falling on your tapes!
A warning for those prone to taking off the pressure pad assembly
on MkII/M300s; the bolts and treads screw vertically into the
support pillars - but the tops of the pillars are chamfered at an
angle so the pads are held at the correct pitch. This means when
you screw down the bolt you are tightening down vertically onto an
angled surface and this will eventually weaken and even shear off
the bolt head leaving you with a stuffed pillar that you can't drill out.
Believe me - I've done it and ended up making 2 new pillars. It's
worth replacing those bolts every few times you undo them.
Bob's synch tape problem; signal strength could be the problem
here. I have a weak signal on station 5 and occationally it misses it
going one way but picks it up when it auto-reverses. But do check
if it's not working at all that the pulse head connections haven't
been damaged. It's very easy to bash one of the connection legs off
the underside of the head when you are removing/replacing the
keyboards.
And another thing while I'm rambling on. Be mega-careful when
tightening up the cycling motor clutch. It only needs pinching tight
by just enough so you can no longer turn the drums by hand. If you
over tighten you will bend or even shear off the pin that secures the
clutch plate to the gearbox spindle - result - the clutch is tightened
onto the body of the gearbox and this will cease the thing
completely. If you replace tapes and turn on and it won't cycle -
just blows fuses instead there's a good chance this is what you've
done.
Have fun

John
M300#005