My improvements and video to the Walthers's $29.00 turn table


NYC_George

NYC_George

Well-Known Member
Ziggy asked me for my list of tips on how to improve the Walthers $29.00 turn table. So I decide to end the year the right way and help everyone out, maybe? When I bought the turntable a few years back I found out one thing it was all most impossible to assemble. So I decided to do it my way. President Kennedy said " Were not going to the moon because it's easy, were going because it's hard. And that was the case with this turntable project. I decided not to solder the black and red track leads to the brass ring and not use the bass springs as in the instructions. I soldered the leads right to the track and ran them right down through every thing were I could just attach the track power. They just turn with the table and will work fine as long as you don't go round and round to many times. I mean as long as you go back in the opposite direction now and then to unwind the wires. I didn't like the railing that came with the kit. This was the easiest fix. I made my own out of plastic. The table didn't hold it's position when an engine came or went. What I did here I don't think anyone's up for. When I use to hostle in North White Plains the turn table there had a lever you pulled a pushed that was connected to a scissor that controlled two other rods that held the track in position when a engine came on or off the table. So that's what I try to do. I moved the control house from the end to the middle of the table. Then I connected two rods down the outside of the track. When I turned the table by hand I stopped at the track I wanted and moved the control house forward. The rods moved and held the table in place while the engine was moving. After the engine left the table I moved the house back and the rods retracted. It worked but, now with some other improvements and the motor kit I don't use it any more. The next problem was that the table dips as the engine moves on or off. I added a metal wheel and axle to one end of the table. I not going to go through every step but if you need to know I'll show you how I did it. It's shown in on of the photos. To also help the table from tipping I put to shims under the large gear wheel. What that does is stabilize the table. The gear can't tip now tipping the table. Between adding the wheel and the shims the table rotates better and is much more solid when an engine comes and goes. The last thing I did was to add a decoder to operate the table. When nothing happens in the video for a few seconds it's because I'm not use to using the decoder. The one other thing that has to be done is hook in a double pole double throw switch to the track power of the table. When you turn 360 degrees you'll need to change the polarity of the track. I uploaded 4 photos and a 8MB video if you want to see it in action. It's in a Windows format. For the Mac people I'll try to put it on YouTube tonight. Search for jvtrains that's the search word for my last and future videos on YouTube.


Here's the 8 MB video link

http://mysite.verizon.net/swal/turn_table_1.htm

YouTube Link -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRctWSm9hJI


NYC_George
 
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Very nice work. I did some of what you describe, but mainly adding shims under the large metal washer above the ring gear. I kept the brass power rings and wipers and fiddled with them until they worked reliably.

There are two principle flaws in this kit: the basin, or pit, is not round at its circumference, so the bridge binds in places. Also, that execrable pivot and bearing at the bottom of the pit doesn't keep the bridge stable. Hence, the shimming that you and I did.

I must say that once I got it together and installed, it worked quietly and well hooked up to an unused DC controller. I just never did get the roundedness problem solved before I gave up and situated the round house in such a way that I didn't have to rotate engines mor than about 80 degrees....'cuz I couldn't.
 
Table shims etc.

Hi Selector,
I solved the pit problem by trimming and sanding the table at both ends. I forgot about that problem it was the first thing I fixed. I'll do a longer video with the table going around 360. Your right about the shims. I did that last, it should have been first. The table works fine now that everything fixed. I'm thinking of maybe doing some thing about the indexing like adding some type of sensors to detect where it needs to stop. Maybe adding some metal on top of the plastic rail to detect where the table is located. I'll have to think about it. Maybe I'll work some thing out that cost all most nothing. That's why I have the $29.00 version. I don't like spending $200.00 on a turn table.

NYC_George
 
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