3D printed toenarm on a Wanhao i3

I thought you might like to see this small project of mine.

I am a graphic designer and retired University Lecturer in Graphic Communication and I have always had an interest in both product design and music.

Some months ago I purchase a Wanhao 3D printer but rapidly found that printing other peoples designs was not very useful or rewarding, so being a vinyl lover of many years I thought designing a tonearm might be both fascinating and useful. Tonearm design with 3D printing in mind, combines geometry, aesthetics and challenges in accurate printing.

After trying a number of modelling software on the Mac, I eventually discovered Rhino Mac which is accurate and lends itself to a visual approach to 3D design. To me it is the InDesign equivalent of a 3D design programme.

The tonearms - two of them - mid-weight and light-weight work quite well. They track easily using Shure cartridges, they produce a musical soundstage with no apparent audio defects and I use them on a daily basis with many types of music. The mid-weight version is particularly suited to jazz and blues. I use a Technics SL1100 as my test bed and I compare them with my other turntables such as Transcripters Reference, AR, and Thorens.

No way do they compare to my SME tonearm but they also don’t cost several hundred pounds. They would suit vinyl lovers who like building their own turntables and wish to experiment with low-cost arms. They compare to a Lenco arm for their musicality. I'm sure that audio heads will snear and dismiss them out-of-hand. But bear in mind that as a collector of rare vinyl for 40 years, I would not subject my records to anything that might harm my vinyl! My other ongoing project is a complete modular turntable.

The arms are easy to build if you have an accurate 3D printer - all you need to complete the project is a few cheap bearings and some carbon-fibre tube. I am still unsure of whether to publish the stl files.

Cheers,

Alan
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