Looking at the bearing wear on a Technics SP-15 spindle bearing PICS

Posted by tubesforever (M) on March 9, 2011 at 01:25:25

I get emails from folks running the upper end Technics platforms and thought it might be nice to show pics of an SP-15 bearing.

The stock bearing comprises a machined ellipsoidal ball at the base of the hardened steel spindle shaft and a space age plastic insert utilizing a self repairing formulation which flows at room temperature during rotation.

How long this table had been in use is not known, however it was used by a radio station in the Bay Area of California.

The wear on this SP-15 bearing is about double that of the wear on a home used SP-15. What's fascinating here is that you can see both the wear to the thrust pad as well as the flat spot worn into the steel spindle shaft.

What is fascinating to me is the debris field left inside the bearing thrust pad well.

I left it there so people can see just what years of use can look like when you utilize the stock vintage bearing.

I guarantee you that this was one very noisy turntable before it was retired.

The picture of the complete bearing shows the unique mounting plate used in the SP-15 design. This is quite a bit different than the modern SP 25/ SL1200 design bearing.

These are amazing Direct Drive turntables. It is fun to work on these incredible pieces of engineering.

Cheers!

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Topic - Looking at the bearing wear on a Technics SP-15 spindle bearing PICS - tubesforever 01:25:25 03/09/11 (7)

Technics SP-15 spindle bearing - M3 lover 12:22:22 03/10/11 (0)

RE: Looking at the bearing wear on a Technics SP-15 spindle bearing PICS - bjh 10:41:30 03/09/11 (1)

The stock thrust pad. - tubesforever 11:57:42 03/09/11 (0)

RE: Looking at the bearing wear on a Technics SP-15 spindle bearing PICS - lovetube 04:25:10 03/09/11 (1)

RE: Looking at the bearing wear on a Technics SP-15 spindle bearing PICS - tubesforever 12:08:17 03/09/11 (0)

RE: Looking at the bearing wear on a Technics SP-15 spindle bearing PICS - barhead 02:33:29 03/09/11 (1)

When you do take a look at your stock bearing - tubesforever 12:02:02 03/09/11 (0)

Looking at the bearing wear on a Technics SP-15 spindle bearing PICS

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