Make a Buzy Susan From a Damaged Turntable

Recently I damaged my stereo's turntable. I was having lots of fun listening to records and did something with a super-old record that I probably shouldn't have. I think one of the guests, Alcohol, may have been involved. Unfortunately, it hasn't been the same since. Nothing plays even remotely correct anymore.

I thought about what I could do with it, what I could turn it into. I don't really play cassettes or use the radio on the unit, so the entire beast is now a sacrificial animal of future delight. The first thing I thought about using the turntable for was a type of Lazy Susan. I think I thought of this that very same night, so you know it was a good idea.

: D

Ready and looky on to see how I achieved this transformation, my Latest Invention, The Buzy Susan.

The first part is easy. Just clear off the crap on top, lift the lid, unplug the unit and speakers, then pull the beast out.

Now you want to take apart the cardboard housing. Pretty straightforward, several screws is all that holds it together.

Oooh! Look how pretty inside! You want to save all this loveliness for future projects, especially the huge heat sink unit at the bottom for all those 1000+ LED projects.

The record player is connected to the unit with only a few connections. I followed them, removing part of the circuit board and took pictures, but really you can just cut them off at the point to give you the most length of wire.

Since we are not delivering sound from this anymore, we only need the power/ground wires, should be red and white.

I used a power supply to have a variable control over the speed of the turntable. Kinda important.

I hack-sawed off the arm to get it out of the way, naturally. I only needed the hub in a 2:00 position to get the table to spin.

The unit is rated for 12v, but 3.1 is plenty for my purposes, and even a little fast at that. I was able to put quite a bit of weight on there with no noticeable slowing of speed.

We don't want this to look like a record player, obviously, so I wanted to make a nice coverlet for it.

I took the length, width and height and found some fabric that would look great: kinda tableclothy and vintage-looking.

With the dimensions of the table, I added the height and seam allowance for hem and cut that rectangle out.

I first hemmed it 1/2".

I then pressed that out and folded 2" along all sides and pressed that as well.

To create a box you need to miter the corners. This is easy as from pressing the 2" you created the 45 degree lines to make the 90 degree corner.

Right sides together, sew along that line and press out. You should now have four, crisp corners.

I removed the grippy circle from the player for my template.

I then took measurements of the player to determine the placement of the circle as it is not in the center of the table.

I sharpied 3/8" outside of that as the grippy circle is that much smaller than the turntable.

I used pinking shears to keep everything simple and fray-free.

I cut out a little diamond to fit over the pin, plus a slit over the arm head unit.

Voila! Now you are ready to create your centerpiece!

All decorated with essentials, including yummy beer and its perfect companions(gotta have bunnies!)

Watch the video to see the demos on power and speed!