Hi Folks

Should we start a request on Facebook and see if we can get some social networking site to help us convince SONY we need these replacement parts?

Just a thought and we pay fair money for the defective part clearly but we need their engineering help here?? There are hundreds of thousands of these Walkmans that need this fix

What do you think?

JM

We should figure out who produced this gear for sony theses days. I guess it was not sony itself - they had their suppliers. Hard to find out!

i like the MAKERBOT 3D printer idea.

there is one of these bots here in berlin at "open design city" and i actually know people who work there and can run it. all that's needed to print is a precise 3D model of the object. the question is now what it should look like! full plastic center gear and then glue the shim for the magnetic gear on top of it? maybe someone can thing of a design of a new center gear. then we just need a 3D model of it (i know people with 3D skills) and print a prototype.

I don't think that a petition will work as the original molds and equipment used to build the parts are long destroyed/sold off as most companies do (costs money to store them) or the machines have been converted to do different tasks.

I do think the 3D model is a great idea. I think that the metal insert can be sandwiched between two pieces of plastic to make it easier. While I do 3D work it's not for CAD design (I do cg entertainment).

Another way to do the rough cut is a CNC machine machining the rough gear out from metal. From the rough cut, it can be sanded/machined down to remove any imperfections, and master molds can be made. From there on the 2 halves can be injection molded, which is faster and cheaper for a large amount. Then the metal insert can be glued in.

CNC sounds great too.

...but can u do a 3D model? it can probably be converted into CAD compatible data the makerbot can read.

Just doing a 3D model won't do unless you have EXACT measurements for everything and diagrams. The best method to start off would be a 3D scanner. Another alternative will be to scan 2 sides of a gear and blow it up to correct dimensions in a CAD program. I use Maya, which is not really suitable for precise CAD work. You'll have to go through a lot of prototypes (you'd need a donor DD for testing) until you can get a perfect master. This will likely take  a lot of time.

How about a Facebook Group to get some support going from Sony? Anyone up for it? We could then email Sony and directly shame them into working with us. Their PR right now is looking pretty low? Its a freebie in terms of what it would cost us Facebook members and we may get them putting these needed parts back into production..

Like I said it will not work: the original molds and equipment used to build the parts are long destroyed/sold off as most companies do (costs money to store them) or the machines have been converted to do different tasks.

And even if they do have everything required to make new gears, to start production again for such a small number of spares (Let's face it, the market for these spares is considerably small) is incredibly expensive. Sony is not like Mercedes where they catalog and still make every single original spare part for their products.

And the whole hacking thing about PSN and such has NOTHING to do with the Sony audio division (Sony is so large, the branches can be considered nearly completely separate).

I bought a broken wm d-3 for 20 dollars off craigslist. opened it up and found the center gear was cracked. patched it up and it was working perfectly in a day. there is really no need to produce a new gear when the old ones are so easy to fix.

I too fixed mine in less than a day- what method did you use?

I used J B weld. I let it dry for a couple hours so it wasn't so runny. I then rotated the gear so it was in a workable space; I didn't have to remove anything extra or take the actual gear out. I plastered it on, flattened it and then then rolled it against another gear, to make the teeth. It says to let it dry for 24 hrs, I wasn't about to take any chances. pressed play with my AC/DC tape in and it sounded great. there is still a very faint click, though it doesn't affect the sound.

i wish sony were more like mercedes.

i have a few tape decks that i'd love some new heads for, just in case. and the side panels for the ta-f444esx and st-s444esx would be so nice to have. plus a new cover for my ps-x600 would be a dream, not to mention an extra headshell. an rm-j701 would be great too since it works on all the 333/555es# decks. oh, and that little headphone jack adaptor for the wm-701c/ex85/many others would be really nice. i'd love to use those walkman. i don't even know what they are like to use because i don't have that stupid stupid little stupid thing that i need to use regular headphones.

but yes, very helpful thread. i have a few dd based walkman and they all have the click.

Giving this thread a much needed bump.

Ive been talking to Dr Walkman via e mail a lot recently, as I have a few machines I would like him to look at. The discussion segued towards 3D printing, and like many, I got the impression (at first) that he was not 100% convinced of the approach due to past experience.

My company (Motion Associates Ltd) specialises in Laser scanning and we also do a fair bit of 3D printing with the Form Labs +1 SLA printer.

I have a new batch of their tough resin (http://formlabs.com/products/materials/tough/) which is ideal for such use as a gear.

So, in order to put my theory to the test, I am looking for a centre gear donor piece to laser scan and then 3D model for printing. 

SLA prints in the tough resin are rock solid and not brittle like the prints you get from a maker bot or any other extrusion method.

I think this would not only be a very interesting and viable test, but could be a new source for new reverse engineered parts.

Personally, I have two DDII, a DC2, a DD33 and two TCD3's (WM-D3) all in need of a fix. These are the machines that I hope to get to the Doctor in time, but having this tech at my disposal is just too tempting. 

The reason I am keen to find a donor gear is simply because Im just not confident I can extract one from one of my poor units without some form of mishap (im better with pixels than I am with PCB's). Some specs on the design of the gear would also help, especially if anyone has drafted one as a vector

Anyway, hope this was a worthy bump

Sure, thank you for the bump! ;-)

IMHO one of the best donor gear is the one you'll find in one of the repaired walkmans by Dr Walkman... so some kind of chicken-and-egg problem there, unless you send him one walkman alone for that purpose?

doublecee posted:

Giving this thread a much needed bump.

Ive been talking to Dr Walkman via e mail a lot recently, as I have a few machines I would like him to look at. The discussion segued towards 3D printing, and like many, I got the impression (at first) that he was not 100% convinced of the approach due to past experience.

My company (Motion Associates Ltd) specialises in Laser scanning and we also do a fair bit of 3D printing with the Form Labs +1 SLA printer.

I have a new batch of their tough resin (http://formlabs.com/products/materials/tough/) which is ideal for such use as a gear.

So, in order to put my theory to the test, I am looking for a centre gear donor piece to laser scan and then 3D model for printing. 

SLA prints in the tough resin are rock solid and not brittle like the prints you get from a maker bot or any other extrusion method.

I think this would not only be a very interesting and viable test, but could be a new source for new reverse engineered parts.

Personally, I have two DDII, a DC2, a DD33 and two TCD3's (WM-D3) all in need of a fix. These are the machines that I hope to get to the Doctor in time, but having this tech at my disposal is just too tempting. 

The reason I am keen to find a donor gear is simply because Im just not confident I can extract one from one of my poor units without some form of mishap (im better with pixels than I am with PCB's). Some specs on the design of the gear would also help, especially if anyone has drafted one as a vector

 

Anyway, hope this was a worthy bump

 

 

 

Mmmm I wil say it will not work!, one of my clients is a former clock repair man and I showed hin such a gear once and he said it will be difficult to replicate!

It is not difficult to produce the central gear by 3D. We only need the knowledge of 3D. The problem is we want other people who do not have any passion or interest in vintage electronic to make us the parts we need. 

Within few years eBay 3D business will be available for vintage electronics.

I will be starting Auto CAD course in spring 2016 and once i learn, will print the central gear for my Walkman and other members.

Hello,

well, now it loks like there is a "real" solution is coming in sight :-)

But actually i think it is not a good idea to use any repaired gear as reference / donor. The reference object can only be a part in its original condition.  I do not mean that the published repair methods (i.g. with extra tooth or grindig down the metal part) are bad in any way - they are just developed to get the best possible compromise using old material only.  At the end the replica should be as close as possible to the original gear.

So we should try to find a reference of these Gears in good condition, or as an (better?) alternative to draw it completely new with 3D CAD. Perhalps it would be a first step to laser scan an cracked (or repaired) gear to gain important details like the exakt shape of the tooth, but the actual CAD construction should focus more on the original shape...

Also in my opinion there should be minor modifications so that it is possible to attach the finished plastik part to its metal center.

Christian

"The problem is we want other people who do not have any passion or interest in vintage electronic to make us the parts we need"

Well, thats the thing... I do know 3D. Its what I do 7 days a week for a living. And, if you pop over to www.analogueoctober.com you will see that I am also a tape head. 

Agreed that a repaired part is not ideal in terms of replication. What I need to do is build a new part to the original spec and go from there.