How to pack your turntable

Shipping your turntable to us can be safe and worry free, provided that it is well packed and some guidelines are followed.

There needs to be a minimum of 3″ between the inside of the outer box, to anything of any value inside the box, like any part of your turntable.

Any boxes should be sturdy and undamaged.  Recycled boxes are fine, as long as they are fully intact.  We recycle good boxes and quality packing materials.

A Handi-Wrapper is a good thing to have on hand, and one can be purchased at the local office supply box store in case you do not already have one.

A tape gun is another useful tool.  Be sure to use quality tape, and plenty of it.  We like to tape all seams on valuable packages. Try to avoid packing tape directly on any part of the turntable.

If your turntable has a transit strap, such as a Garrard 301, or 401,  the transit strap should be snugged up.  It should not be overly tight, just tight enough to secure the motor. Using a Handi-Wrapper to completely wrap the deck can act like a transit strap in securing the motor in case you do not have a transit strap.

For Garrard the 301 / 401, the speed selector should be set at 45 rpm to raise it away from the eddy brake disc, but to still maintain a lower profile than in the 78rpm position.  The tempo knob should be in the ‘all the way fast’ position to disengage the eddy brake magnet from the eddy brake disc as much as possible.

For the Garrards,  the platter should be packed so that there is no possibility of it bumping into the chassis part of the turntable.  We like a separate box for the platter.

We make bubble wrap ‘logs’ to shrink wrap to the underside of the turntable, and then bubble wrap wherever else you can.   We love bubble wrap for shipping turntables.

For the TD124,  either the platter can be separated from the bearing / chassis,  or spacers can be made to raise the platter from the chassis.  It the 124 is shipped with the platter on, please use plenty of bubble wrap or styrofoam ‘flow pack’  ‘peanuts’  to fill the void.  There can be no room for the deck to move.

You can ship the deck to us with the platter removed from the bearing, by removing the 3 screws that secure the platter.  Be sure to use a proper fitting screwdriver so as not to damage the original platter screws.   Please put the screws in a secure and very visible, sealed plastic bag.

With the TD124, we like the HandiWrapper, as it can be used to secure the motor quite well if sufficient numbers of well placed wraps are used.

The stock TD124 upper platter is very delicate. Try to find it, it’s own box.  It can also be shipped, wrapped the the sub platter.

UPS, FedEx, or USPS are all fine options for shipping your deck to our location.  Our location is very safe.

When we return your deck, most often we will use our own packaging. We use new boxes that are purcahsed specifically for shipping these turntables, platters, and other parts.

Please keep record of your tracking number, and, please let us know when you have a parcel headed our way.

We usually confirm arrival of your deck as soon as it arrives at our location, and contact you the same day to confirm safe arrival, and also any obvious issues we see. Feel free to reach out if you know that you have a package arriving here.

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