Thorens TD280 MKII (+others) belt limiter

thingiverse

I own a Thorens TD280MKII turntable and really love the aesthetics of that machine. Unfortunately this model (and possibly also MKI / MKIII) has a really annoying design flaw which occurs quite frequently:When you start the platter, sometimes the belt slips from the motor pulley for whatever reason. I browsed the usual message boards and tried many things recommended from reducing bearing friction, adjusting the motor axis to trying various belt manufacturers and so on. Nothing really helped permanently.This easy fix seems to do the trick for me. Just press this limiter disc onto the motor pulley and so the belt is limited in its possible upwards motion during startup.If your belt slips from the bottom end of the motor pulley you can adjust the axle (by loosening the upper and left motor fixation scews quarter rotation wise) to give the motor axle a tiny tilt towards the platter axle. This will result in forcing the slipping direction to the upper side (where this disc limits the belt).If you don't know where the belt slips because it usually doesn't slip when the platter is removed, simply place the platter upside down on its mount and you can perfectly observer the behaviour when starting up with load (add mat + vinyl).This belt slip thing made me almost crazy and now I'm really happy with this easy fix and want to share it as this still seems to be a common issue.I recommend to sand down the side facing the platter (larger diameter) with 100 - 200 grid. If your hear scratching noises from the platter touching the limiter disc just keep on sanding until they're gone.No need to glue the limiter to the motor pulley, this is supposed to be a stable press fit.