[Joeztech]

As things turned out, I can not use the upper portion of the BSR-310 base as it is wider than the bottom half and it rides up as the phonograph door is closed on the top edge of the front pivoting steel brackets. Either the brackets would have to be modified or the sides of the upper half base would have to be modified to prevent the brackets pushing up the front of the changer base when the door is closed.

I wound up using a piece of left-over 1/2" birch plywood from another project and made a new wooden base for the changer. I used the old plastic base as a template for determining where to drill 1/2" holes for the changer hold-down screws and the internal cut-out for the changer mechanical items underneath. I drilled the 1/2" holes with the old changer base taped to the plywood so things would not shift. Once those holes were done, I moved on to drilling some entry holes for my saber saw blace and made the interior cut. I finished the internal cut shaping and sanding using a cylindrical grinding bit in the chuck of my Dremel tool. Some final sanding to get rid of any remaining burrs and roughness resulted in a decent looking base.

I found that a can of MinWax Special Walnut stain looked closest to the OEM stain used on the inside of the phonograph compartment and used that to stain the new wooden changer base. It is now curing in the barn. After a day or so I will apply some polyurethane varnish to the base and mout it using some screws and fender washers. The front of the wooden change base will also receive shims made of flat washers to equal the height of the rear OEM changer mounting brackets and screw heads.

The Bozak preamp I ordered has not arrived yet. It is coming USPS and the tracking number does not show up in their system yet - not sure why not. The Bozak preamp is supposed to work with loads from 100 to 100K ohm impedance. I am thinking of changing the 150K load resistor originally used with the phonograph function to a 47K ohm. Alternatively a test could be made with a variable resistor to find the best overall phonograph volume level compared to the radio functions.

I will take some more pictures when I install the wooden base.

Joe