Rim Drive annual maintenance

[Letsmakeadeal]

To bad they don't have Sticky's on this forum,, This would be a great one to start with.....

I agree 100%, as with most of his other helpful tips and tricks.

Btw, that is the shiniest platter I have ever seen!

Brent - you definitely got some BLING goin on.....

[Stringreen]

BRF- Thanks for the information.... Where does one get these belts....does VPI sell them?

[930turbo]

BRF, Not to change the subject, but I notice that the foot towers on your HRX extend much less above the plinth than do mine. The towers on the HRX that I bought back in 2004 extend twice as high above the plinth, and this caused me no end of trouble with dropped counterweight clearance. It is disconcerting to lift the arm off its rest and have the counterweight hit that huge tower right behind the arm! All these years I had just figured VPI was characterized by great concept, poor execution.

Don't misunderstand me - I love my HR-X - but those towers... I sure would like a lower tower like yours!

I wonder if anyone knows the history of these damned things - was the transition from the high towers to a lower tower one of the numerous, undocumented changes that seem to have occurred to all the VPI products? Is there a reasonable way to get these new, lower towers retrofitted? One of the many irritants with VPI is that there has never been any followup to alert me to upgrades, product changes, etc - the upgrades I have are the result of hearing about them accidentally... Even this forum was an accidental discovery - and boy, am I glad I found it!

Hi YoungDave ,

Happy New Year . You can get in touch w/ the VPI Factory as Brf ( 997C4S) suggested , or get in touch w/ Harry W. He has a Facebook page . HW’s Workshop , I’m sure he can work something out for you .

930

[Brf]

BRF- Thanks for the information.... Where does one get these belts....does VPI sell them?

Yes, I believe that the most current VPI rim belts are now made from EPDM. You can also source rim drive belts from most O-ring suppliers.

[Johnny]

Just completed Brf’s rim drive maintenance. Wow!! Just Wow!,

Almost motivated to try the sapphire thingy and ball bearing upgrade. I’ve never had so much fun tweeting a table.

[Fast-n-Bulbous]

Thanks for posting this!

I have a SSM Reference with rim drive and I was wondering how one goes about cleaning and lubricating the bearing on the rim drive itself. Do I need to disassemble the motor unit in order to do this? I haven't examined it too closely thus far but it doesn't appear as though the black metal housing could be lifted off of the motor unit with the way the rim drive is mounted.

[Gary1955]

I had the SSM Reference rim drive before getting my current table with rim drive. To lube the rim drive bearing is very easy- Remove the motor drive belts then gently lift off the rim drive. Careful, it's pretty heavy. Clean the old lube off bearing with alcohol and replace with white silicone grease/lube- just a small to medium dab on the bearing. I also spread a small amount of synthetic oil on the shaft.