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Trio Kenwood KD-1033 turntable main bearing service

  One of my first posts in this blog was regarding the servicing of the Pioneer PL12D turntable, and that has proven to be the most popular by a significant margin. The Pioneer PL12D had its competitors, and probably the most popular alternative was the Trio Kenwood KD-1033 turntable. I use both names (Trio and Kenwood) as the company operated under different names in different markets. In the UK they were Trio, possibly because the brand Kenwood was most famous here for food blenders. 95% of a KD-1033 is similar to  Pioneer PL12D, and servicing them is very much the same process. Both are belt drive , have an AC synchronous motor,  mechanical speed change , a main bearing, sprung top deck and rubber motor mounts. the KD-1033 uses a different type of anti skate mechanism, employing a thread and weight. The plinth is shallower with an internal cross brace. One aspect that is different is the design of the main bearing, and servicing it is a little harder than a PL12D. The ...
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Making an Apple Mac Mini rack from an IKEA UPPDATERA plate rack

 If you follow my recent posts, I've been deploying some older computers on citizen science projects, namely Fold@home and BOINC.

I now have 3 Mac Mini computers, one of which is the desktop machine I use for all my online activity. The other two were running Fold@home client software in a headless configuration (no connected monitor, keyboard or mouse)

I redistributed the various servers around the house and decided that all three Mini's should  help heat my office space, but how to arrange them ? 

The Mini is a very neat design, with air drawn through the edge circular base and vented out through the rear slots. The solid aluminium casework also ats as a heatsink . Mostly it's completely silent and you could be forgiven for thinking the Mini does not use a fan (it does).

While stacking them vertically is aesthetically appealing, this would probably cause heating issues as the heat from the chassis below would increase the temperature of cooler air flowing in the base of the one above.

So the next option is sideways stacking, like books in a library. The machines are quite happy to be used in this fashion. They are heavy enough to stand unaided in this fashion, but I was concerned that I might accidentally topple them, like dominoes .

Then I remembered an IKEA UPPDATERA kitchen system for organising drawers and stacking plates that we'd used and , like LEGO, we had some pieces left over. It consists of black based sections with holes into which long pegs are placed and rotated to lock. 

I found that one base section and 9 pegs made a perfect Mac Mini rack. It's not tight around the Mini's but that doesn't matter, it prevents them from toppling, and if I wanted a tight fit I could fit some wedges . I spread them out to maximise airflow.


my three mac Minis, supported in their IKEA plate rack

UPPDATERA is the brand of IKEA Kitchen organisers


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