Garrard Super Motor. Reinventing the wheel............

[Henry]

If you're looking for a very light and non-expensive oil, I recommend Wahl clipper oil. I have a 4 fl. oz. metal can of it that I purchased years ago for model railroad use; I believe that it comes in a plastic container today. Try barber supply houses, or ask your barber.

[emgcr]

Should anyone need to repeat the order for the pump cup-washers, here are the contact details for the extremely competent and particularly helpful firm of whom I cannot speak highly enough. If only more firms were like this. Everything, including design, is done "in house" and is based on state-of-the-art CNC technology throughout. No pattern making or moulds are involved. They are experts in the materials technology also.

DMR Seals
Unit 24, Julian Road
Roman Ridge Industrial Estate
Sheffield S9 1FZ
UK

Tel: +44 (0)114 2432777

Email: "sales@dmrseals.co.uk"


Website: http://www.dmrseals.co.uk/

Job Number: 0000127464.


If anyone should come across an original Garrard oil bottle, please take note of the quantity it contains and let the world know !

[Victrolacollector]

My grandfather always swore by Gerard Motors as being the best, he serviced many electric machines with these motors. He noted most of them seemed to be damaged by people playing around with them when the drive wheels went bad. He said they ran smooth even when the machine was turned off, the turntable would spin awhile before coming to a stop.

I wonder why these motors were not adopted by more U.S. companies? Must have been price, as many us companies went with Heineman.

[emgcr]

I recently needed to calculate measurements to fit three Garrard Super Motors into new wooden cases. The original templets and information had been lost---at least to me.

The following details might help others in a similar situation :


Centre line calcs for Garrard Super Motor---spindle to winder shaft.


Measurements taken on a vertical milling machine with DRO (Digital Read Out) using a partially dismantled motor.


Data.

Diameter of spindle shaft 15/32” = 0.468”. Therefore radius = 0.234”.

Diameter of winding shaft = 0.372”. Therefore radius = 0.186”


Measurement.

Origin along X axis from right hand side of spindle circumference…………………………………...0.000”

Travel to right hand side of winder shaft circumference…………………………………………………..2.095”

Deduct radius of spindle shaft..………………………………………………………………………………….....0.234”

Sub total.......................................................................................................................................1.861”

Add radius of winding shaft……………………………………………………………………………………………0.186”

Distance from centre of spindle shaft to centre of winder shaft…………....…....…2.047”

2 3/64" ..... (Very close to 52mm).


Note.

The vertical drop of winding shaft measured from top of wooden deck-board to centre-line of winding shaft = 2.000” (50.8mm) as specified on original Garrard Templet drawing.

[emgcr]

I notice, since the original link was given in 2015, the history of Garrard motors has been deleted.

This is what it showed :

A Brief History of the Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company.


Date. Activity.

1721 Garrard and Company appointed Crown Jewellers of London. One of their duties being the care and maintenance of the British Crown Jewels and the Royal Crown. They had an international reputation for craftsmanship in the design and manufacture of jewellery, gold and silverware. In 1952 they amalgamated with the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company of Regent Street, London.
1914 Garrard and Company were asked to manufacture precision range finders for the British Artillery because they had both the craftsmen and special machinery needed.
1915 They formed "The Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company Ltd" with Major S.H.Garrard as Chairman, and Mr C.E.Newbegin as Managing Director, to run a factory set up in the premises the White Heather Laundry in Willesden, London.
1918 At the end of the war, the workers returned to their previous jobs, and Garrard decided to continue to operate the company and they looked for consumer products to manufacture. They hired a young engineer, Mr. H.V.Slade, who became General Manager, who started the production of small lathes and boring tools. He had also seen a need for quality spring wound motors for the fast developing gramophone manufacturing industry. The first model, The Garrard Number 1 Spring Wound Gramophone Motor was produced and sales quickly followed.
1919 The White Heather Laundry had requested its premises back, and so the company looked for a new location. They moved to Swindon where there were plenty of skilled engineering apprentices from the Great Western Railway Company, the largest employer in the town.
1920 The development of the spring wound motor continued and as a result of its quality, silent running and price, it was used by the major gramophone companies, Columbia, Decca and His Masters Voice, and others such as Lugton, Selecta, Coppock, Itonia and Thompson, and Diamond and Butcher. The company had a policy that one model of every range should be the best obtainable. The "Super" Gramophone motor was the first of these prestige products - probably the best spring motor ever produced.
1920 - 1928 Other products produced at this time included motors for construction kits (Primus), a cine-camera/projector (Campro), and a device for playing records at a constant linear speed which almost doubled the playing time (The World Record Controller).
1926 Garrard became a public company to finance the expansion needed to meet the demand for spring motors.
1928 Development started on electrical motors for gramophones, which resulted in a belt drive motor called the Model E. Because there were few electrical supply standards at that time, it could be used with AC and DC, 25 to 100 Hz, and 50 to 250 Volts. Improvements led to the Model ED. As AC current became more common, the Models AC4 and AC6, the most popular electric gramophone motors of the time, were developed.
1930 The motor development programme led to the first Garrard gramophone. Previously it had only produced motors for its customers. They decided to make a super quality alternating current gramophone motor as a prestige model, just as they had done with the Super spring motor. This direct drive motor became known as the Garrard Model 201. It was taken up by the BBC and other broadcasters, cinemas, and it became very popular with HiFi enthusiasts. It was originally just for 78rpm records, but was later modified to play the 331/3rpm, 16 inch records used in cinemas. It was the first of what were later to be called transcription turntables.
1931 A subsidiary company, Garrard Clock Ltd was set up to manufacture and sell clocks using spring motors produced by the parent company.
1932 The first Garrard record changer, the RC1, was developed for shellac 78 rpm records by Mr E.W.Mortimer. These used AC current, but the RC2 series could use AC and DC. Subsequently a new dropping technique was obtained and the RC3 and the very popular RC4 was developed. About 4,500 were produced during the next 5 years. The development of radio tuners and amplifiers meant that electronic pickups could replace the old acoustic horn systems. This led to a big increase in the sales of radiograms, and record players. Garrard produced some arms and pickups for its turntables.
1938 The RC100 record changer, which could play both sides of each record, and also mixtures of 10 and 12 inch records, was produced for sale in the USA
1939 - 1945 Production ceased and large numbers of clock based mechanisms were made for mines, and other military equipment.
1945 Following the death of Major S.H.Garrard, all the links with Garrard and Company the Crown Jewellers were severed and The Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company Ltd. became a separate entity with Mr H.V.Slade as managing Director. Competition was fierce and a new record changer had to be rapidly developed - the Model TC30 (1946). It and similar models were produced around the clock as demand escalated. It was the last model to play only 78rpm records.
1948 The Model RC70 record changer was introduced to play the new 10 and 12 inch, 331/3rpm and 7 inch 45rpm vinyl records, as well as the older 78rpm records. It was the forerunner of the RC80 in 1950, which sold for many years. Large numbers were sold in the USA. New lightweight pickups and arms were developed for these records, and the RC80 was the first with a magnetic cartridge.
1954 The Garrard 301 turntable was launched for the serious HiFi market. It had beeen talked about in 1953 and a prototype was seen at the BSRA exhibition in May 1954. It finally appeared at a the Radio Show in 1954 in time for the September issue of The Gramophone. It has become one of the icons of design and performance. When fully restored mechanically they are again in great demand. They had grease bearings which were later changed to oil bearings. The enamel colour was changed from grey to white. Clock making was stopped due to cut price competition.
1957 Garrard released one of the first stereo pickups, the Model GCS10, when stereophonic records were introduced. The Model 4HF was in production until 1965, by which time about 100,000 units had been produced. The TPA 12 inch transcriptions pickup arm was launched in 1958 for use transcription units for playing stereo and mono recordings. It had height and stylus pressure adjustment, and a plug-in pick-up head.
1958 A serious factory fire occurred, but production was restored with help from a local company, the Plessey Company Ltd., which loaned factory space. A further small factory in Blunsdon was acquired to produce component parts.
1959 The new Autoslim series was launched with help from Plessey. The SP25 was probably the most popular model Garrard ever produced.
1960 Garrard became part of the Plessey Group of Companies with the name Garrard Engineering Ltd., and another factory was acquired in Swindon. There was also a factory in Wigan which exported to the USA via Liverpool. Mr. H.V.Slade died a year later and in 1962 Garrard, as part of the Plessey Components Group, came under the direction of Mr T.H.Pritchard.
1959 Garrard developed a novel Magazine Tape Deck, but it failed as it was more cumbersome than the Phillips Compact Cassette launched in 1963.
1964 The Model Lab 80 was launched as the first record changer which had the performance of a transcription turntable. It had many unique adjustment features including a wooden arm.
1965 The Garrard 401 was launched to replace the 301. It was produced until 1977 when over 50,000 units had been sold, and it is still treasured by enthusiasts around the world. The Model SP25 was launched with the Mark I version. It was so popular it continued for many years up to the Mark IV version. A disco version, the Disco 80 was also produced.
1971 The Zero 100 automatic transcription table was introduced with its revolutionary tangential tracking arm. Garrard received a series of awards for its development - The Queens Award, The Italian Mercurio d'Oro Award, and the USA's Emile berliner Award.
1975 - 1976 Garrard's first direct drive player, the DD75 began production. The GT 20/25 and 35 were introduced and they stayed in production with design changes until 1979.
1978 The DD range of products, DD1 30, DD1 31, and DD1 32 were introduced in the autumn using the garrard designed and produced direct drive motor. Improved versions of the GT seies were introduced - the GT 250 and 350.
1977-1978 Antony Hurden contacted us and told us about the research going on when he worked at Garrard in 1977-78. He wrote "They had an R&D team working up at the Kembrey Street site (mostly Plessey facilities). There were two teams, one doing hi-fi related work (including a very clever ‘click reduction’ system to avoid clicks when playing LPs), and the other, smaller team, worked to develop a video disc player. This was the fore-runner to the CD, DVD, etc. We built two working demonstrators, played the video disc to many people, but there was no money to invest in the technology. We took the idea around Plessey, including up to the Clark brothers, but they could not see the value of this technology. This was also at the time when I rang a major laser company to get prices for 10,000 lasers (we were hoping the product would be a success and wanted to know what it would cost). “Nobody will ever want 10,000 lasers”, I was told. The project was closed down, along with a lot of other work, in 1978."

1979 Garrard sold to Gradiente Electronica of Brazil.
1992 The small development team led by the Managing director, which had remained at Swindon, was partly closed down.
1992 Terry O'Sullivan had been involved with turntables since he got his first Bush Record Player in 1958. After lusting after a 301 in the 60's, he started building plinths in 1979 and bought his first 401 from the factory in nearby Swindon. He began to collect and restore 301s and 401s and in 1990 he set up Loricraft Audio, encouraged by his friends Julian and Nigel, who owned the HiFi shop in Oxford, "Westwood and Mason". Terry visited the Garrard development team at Swindon up till 1995, when it was finally closed down completely, and he still remains in contact with some of the owners and employees.
1997 Following the closure, Terry opened discussions with Gradiente and in 1997 he obtained the licence to use the Garrard brand name. Gradiente had always wanted development to continue and the later that year the award winning Garrard 501 was launched at the London Audio Show.
200... The small team of Terry, Nigel (yes, the innovative electronic engineer from the Oxford HiFi shop) and Martina (who has worked with Thorens and Ortophon) can be seen at the London, Frankfurt and Las Vegas HiFi shows, where their turntables are in great demand to drive high end amplification systems, and satisfied owners take their chance to talk about the history and engineering of these renowned turntables. You may even see me, Roger, the webmaster and unofficial progress chaser.


The information in this table has come from a variety of sources including Terry O'Sullivan himself, Roy Poulton, and Mr. E.W.Mortimer.

Swindon Council have their own web page about Garrard.


Here are web sites with collections of images of a range of models of Garrard turntables:
Marco's Garrard Turntable Collection




For information about any of this equipment, please contact :

Loricraft Audio
4 Big Lane,
Lambourn,
Berks RG17 8XQ
UK
Office Phone/Fax: +44 (0) 1488-72267
Workshop Phone: +44 (0) 1488-71307
email: mailto:terry@garrard501.com,%20jane@garrard501.com
web site: http://garrard501.com

Germany and other European countries should contact
Loricraft Audio Europe,
Martina Schoener,
Escher Str. 225
D-50739 Köln
Germany
phone: +49 17661556790
email: m.schoener@garrard.de


This page and all its contents, © 2012, all rights reserved.

....................................................................................................

For more details, Chunny's museum website is invaluable :

http://www.gramophonemuseum.com/garrard ... rd-history

[BassetHoundTrio]

Utmost precision, as everything you do! Would love to find one of those motors someday.

I recently needed to calculate measurements to fit three Garrard Super Motors into new wooden cases. The original templets and information had been lost---at least to me.

The following details might help others in a similar situation :


Centre line calcs for Garrard Super Motor---spindle to winder shaft.


Measurements taken on a vertical milling machine with DRO (Digital Read Out) using a partially dismantled motor.


Data.

Diameter of spindle shaft 15/32” = 0.468”. Therefore radius = 0.234”.

Diameter of winding shaft = 0.372”. Therefore radius = 0.186”


Measurement.

Origin along X axis from right hand side of spindle circumference…………………………………...0.000”

Travel to right hand side of winder shaft circumference…………………………………………………..2.095”

Deduct radius of spindle shaft..………………………………………………………………………………….....0.234”

Sub total.......................................................................................................................................1.861”

Add radius of winding shaft……………………………………………………………………………………………0.186”

Distance from centre of spindle shaft to centre of winder shaft…………....…....…2.047”

2 3/64" ..... (Very close to 52mm).


Note.

The vertical drop of winding shaft measured from top of wooden deck-board to centre-line of winding shaft = 2.000” (50.8mm) as specified on original Garrard Templet drawing.

[emgcr]

Additional information coming to light……………….

There are two basic models of Super Motor---the earlier with an external oil feed and the later with an internal oil feed---see photos. At least, I am presuming the external feed type is earlier due to the design deficiencies discussed below. There is also another variation I have come across---some top plates have Model BB inscribed which I have discovered refers to a longer motor spindle---plus 5/32” (nearly 4mm). This must have been to allow for different deck-board/plinth set-ups where internal or external brakes were used etc.

My experience to date with these motors has been limited to the later type with internal oil feed but a good friend and I recently had cause to restore the earlier type with the external oil feed. This was quite an archaeological undertaking as a previous owner many decades ago had used grease internally rather than oil ! Much of the grease had solidified meaning that a great deal of scraping was involved in the clean-up.

One pleasant discovery was that the oil pump washer was still complete, undamaged and in (potentially) working order. Very often the material degrades and breaks up. This one was supple and eminently useable. There are three parts to the oil delivery pipe which is external only at the top of the motor. The sump is connected to a long pipe which rises vertically through the top of the case and emerges at a height sufficient to allow the addition of a pipe with a right-angled bend internally threaded at both ends which, in turn, permits the addition of a shorter horizontal pipe of the same diameter then connecting to the reservoir through a clearance hole at the top of same. The problem then arises of how to make the joints oil-tight ? The first difficulty is in organising the right-angled bend to be tight on its thread exactly opposite the reservoir hole. This is more or less a practical impossibility and rather obviously why Garrard changed the design and went internal. In the latter respect, they also did away with screwed pipework in favour of tapered joints which could be tight in any desired position---good and necessary thinking !

There are thus three joints which need to be oil-tight---one either side of the right-angled bend and the third into the reservoir. The only way of achieving this is to use modern oil-resistant silicone sealants or Loctite. It is difficult to do this neatly but cosmetics are less important than operational perfection. The photograph shows an unrestored motor.

Having completely reassembled the motor, we then came up against the old problem of exactly how much oil to use ? As mentioned earlier in this thread, we have a picture of the oil bottle supplied by Garrard but unfortunately no indication of scale and thus quantity. From previous experience I thought 30 ml of (sewing machine) oil might be about right, however, it would now appear even that smaller amount could be too much since, when continuous winding takes place, oil leaks under pressure from the small required clearance space between the spindle and the cover-plate.

It would therefore seem logical to suppose that the maximum quantity of oil suitable for these motors is the volume identical to the capacity of the reservoir---and no more. This quantity turns out to be 9ml (Nine millilitres).

The pump is extremely efficient and will recirculate all the contents of the sump very quickly every time winding takes place. The fact that, with less oil, it would sometimes be pumping in a void does not matter in the slightest due to the frequency of winding. Oil quickly returns by gravity to the sump and pump.

This motor rebuild took place in Chicago and I was introduced to an excellent “Moly-graph” grease for the two main-springs---see photo. Although not available in the UK as far as I know, I managed to buy on the internet from the USA.

[Orchorsol]

Invaluable information, above all the correct volume of oil finally determined - well done indeed and many thanks Graham!

I'm fortunate to have two of these fine beasts, and parts put by from the batches that you had made. What great services to the hobby - very much appreciated.

[anchorman]

There are a couple of characteristics that oil should have in this application. First is to be resistant to oxidation. They probably used whale oil for this task. That was the best lil for clocks and watches. I’m not sure if synthetic oils produced today can yet match the positive qualities of sperm whale oil, which is resistant to oxidation, and can flow still at extremely cold temperatures.

Using modern oils, one should select an oil that is compatible with the metals used in the gear box. Some anti-wear additives that are fine for steel and iron gears and bearings are not suitable for use with copper alloy bearings and other parts. They can cause corrosion of these parts, depending on their chemistry. If you dig deep enough, major suppliers such as Exxon Mobil have very informative data sheets for their products, that go through all of the characteristics and qualities of various oils and greases that hey sell. There is a lot of difference between a relatively heavy oil such as 20w50 and a nice sea 10 spindle oil. I would imagine an sae 10 oil would be entirely suited to this purpose. I use mobil velocite number 10 for spindles on lathes and other machine tools, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same weight as used in most sewing machines too.

I’d love to see one of these motors in person, they look very beautifully made. I’m a bit surprised regarding the oil tubing that they didn’t use some sort of flare nut or a pipe Union to join so that things could be assembled more tightly. And with greater ease.

[emgcr]

Your comments are greatly appreciated, thank you. I think we are all gradually rediscovering lost knowledge as we go along and here is the full extract from page 7 of the Garrard instruction manual (referred to earlier in this thread) which is admittedly for a later model motor but which almost certainly has identical requirements :

“Thick oil should not be used to lubricate the motor bearings as it will cause the motor to appear weak or fail to start and it will then be necessary to dismantle the motor and clean away all traces of the thick oil. It is essential to lubricate the motor bearings with a good quality thin oil such as sewing machine oil.”

Regarding the tubing/pipework joints, you are absolutely right and I think Garrard quickly realised their design was not ideal and changed it. The second iteration incorporated tapered connections. I suppose the development of any new product, even coming from such an eminent company as Garrard, takes a while to iron out all the wrinkles.