We've been spinning a lot of vinyl here lately. I have grown tired of requesting that my children walk lightly through the room to avoid causing the needle to skip. Indeed, I would rather encourage dancing.
There are a number of ways I could've gone about this: a wall mounted shelf, a sandbox – style shock absorbing platform (which is cool), or any number of store-bought, often expensive solutions.
What I went for instead was using a couple scraps of 2 x 4 and four discarded squash balls. In the next few days, I'd like to come back and describe the simple process and provide a few images. May this initial post be a reminder for me to do so.
Okay, here it is! After living with it for a couple weeks, I now fully endorse this method of stabilization. No amount of youngsters dancing and tumbling has caused the needle to skip.
Some notes:
- This was just a prototype, but I may or may not ever get around to rebuilding it with anything nicer than 2x4 scrap from a decommissioned road-side futon frame find.
- The "double-yellow" dot squash balls are the best density of material for this purpose, and you can currently get them used from ebay for $1 per ball. They mail them media mail (which I think is technically a no-no? Is a ball "media"?) so maybe order more than 4 so they can fill a box.
- Used squash balls are better than new ones, because evidently squash balls come with some sort of gunko on them. They would still work just as well, just a little more gunky.
- This was dry fit with pretty tight cross-lap joint, no fasteners. It holds together firmly, and gravity helps as well in this scenario.
- The recessed holes were bored with a 1.5-inch spade bit on a cordless drill on a mortisser stabilizer tool thingy. It probably has a real name. The bit was a bit more aggressive than I would have liked, but it worked.
- The squash balls just barely squeeze into the holes and stay put perfectly.
Judith Browning wrote:that's great to know!
Kids are grown and gone but a little more shock absorption wouldn't hurt for ours as there's always rollicking grandkids.
Got the same brand by the way ....it's a good one😊
Do you suppose tennis balls would work as well or is it the density of the squash balls that make it work?
Grandkids sound fun. :)
My understanding is that tennis balls will not work, but rather make everything bouncier and way more precarious. The magic is exclusive to certain material densities and recovery rates, and 2-dot squash balls just happen to fit the bill.
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