Record player from scratch!

I found a couple of records the other day and I wanted to listen to them but I didnt have a record player so i decided to make my own! you only need a few fairly common items for this project.

parts needed:
- CD drive motor
- Spacer to place the record on
- Power supply (3-12v)
- sewing needle
- 1k pot
- stiff wire or flexible metal for the needle
- receipt for the "speaker"
- A pumpkin
- And of course a record to play

Step 1: CD drive motor and spacer

this is pretty straight forward, you put the motor on a table and place the spacer on top. this motor i salvaged from an old DVD player that quit working, its not very powerful as far as torque goes so its not the best choice for this application but it will work. it can run on a little as 1.5 volts without a "load" on it but we will need alot more power to make this record spin. then i placed a plastic conduit washer on the top of the motor as my spacer. you can use anything for this, but this is what i had available.

Comments

[tinker234]

nice job i wonder if i could a make a case for this and pick up real needles off ebay for this i would love to try this on a less important record could i use a arm made out of balsa wood or sheet metal

[florlayamp]

you can make the arm out of anything you want to. the arm itself doesnt have to produce the sound. just attach any sort of material that transfers vibrations. you can even attach a microphone to the needle to amplify it.

[tinker234]

thanks i guess metal rod will do

[SweetStreetGX]

I honestly wish I could make that! It looks awesome! :D

[rimar2000]

Clever!

You can improve a lot the pick-up, using a disposable coffe cup. The needle can be sticked to or threaded thru the bottom. The cup can be foam (thermal) or PVC or even wax paper. You will not believe how good it sounds!

[Mr Cheeseo]

^this comment counterbalanced on a chunk of balsa would work amazing.

[lumpee]

My son was in the hospital after knee surgery,his buddy was in the same room after wrist surgery.The problem? Only one TV with earphones.The solution my son came up with? Two empty disposable coffee cups.Cut a hole in the bottom of each and insert one of the earphones in each.They each had an audible speaker to watch TV.Not a bad solution for a 14 year old boy!

[DamionLee]

Sounds like you may have a future Instructables Featured Author there. It never ceases to amaze me the solutions that people can find to problems. The coffee cup speakers are a doozy.

[Dekubaba94]

Doesn't everyone know this?

[jcomtois]

Fun project. "Real" phonograph needles are gemstones polished to a very particular shape, but steel needles were common for victrolas and pull-string talking toys. We did this as kid for making the sound: Push a straight pin through the bottom of a paper cup.

[Beergnome]

iIt is a great instructable! but yeah, don't do this to any record you may care about! that sewing needle will destroy those grooves in very short order!
I remember at the antique shop m wife used to work at they had a standing cabinet style Victrola hand crank record player. It used the old old OLD clay 77 rpm records purely analogue. volume control was achieved via opening or closing a couple of cabinet doors over the sounding board.

You had two types of needles for these records and record player. steel needles for the big bright sound, but would destroy the records pretty quick, and cut bamboo wooden needles for general playback.

That old unit would be part of my permanent collection of pointless crap if the antique store hadn't sold it the day before payday >:(
/ shakes tiny internet fist of rage!

[florlayamp]

im guessing any needle other than a needle meant for playing records will sooner or later mess up a record. them things are really tiny!

[Mac_Tonight]

As much as I admire this idea, I can't get my head around how this could cause irreparable damage to your records. Maybe just stick to thrift store finds and the like, but not things you would want to play on a regular basis.

[robot797]

it is way to fast
and a record player costs like 10-20 euros its no money

[florlayamp]

yes, the speed on the video is a little fast, i filmed it before adjusting the resistor properly.

[Retro Correct]

As cool as this is, I'm not sure that I could ever mutilate a record like this... Not to take anything away from this, because it is truly ingenious!

[porcupinemamma]

You are brilliant!!! What an amazing and fun invention. Loved that you included a video. Thanks so much!!!!!

[tjesse]

Get it! From scratch! lol

[lemonie]

I scratched Kings of the Wild Frontier doing something like this... Having the pumpkin or something similar would have helped the thing to work better.
It's nice.

L