3D Assembly
Designed in Solidworks, this ‘Record Player’ is a clever disguise for a four-bar linkage, simulating the circular motion of the tone arm. The four arms of the linkage (with their appropriate McMaster-sourced fasteners) move with no interference, and the head of the tone arm is variable in path radius with a slot mechanism — this means the stylus can travel in a spiral path, just like a real record player. The assembly utilizes various mates to ensure easy, realistic, and frictionless movement.
Engineering Drawings
Two drawings accompany the previous assembly, the first being an exploded view. Typically seen in assembly instruction booklets, these views are tremendously helpful in seeing where every component is aligned. Here, the order of all fastener parts is clearly shown relative to the player base. All assembly parts are labeled according to a key at the bottom right of the drawing.
Page two of the drawing highlights the isolated four-bar linkage mechanism with three distinct isometric views.
Animation
I used Solidworks’ animation tool to demonstrate the linkage in action from a top-down view. In addition, I added a trace path on one of the joints of the linkage which shows its range of motion.