Mostly-Printed Record Player (MPRP) is being designed to fit the following constraints:

• Being vertical — yeah, like Pro-Ject VT-E
• Easily obtainable parts — those that aren't 3D-printed
• Basic tools and skills — no lathe or PhD in engineering required
• Limited budget — under £100
• Decent looks and sound — subjective AF...

Being vertical

This is actually where it all started. I made a certain furniture planning mistake that meant only a vertical record player could fit the designated space. So I went to look around and couldn't find anything suitable apart from mediocre Chinese contraptions and aforementioned VT-E. Then, you know how it goes with dumb overly optimistic engineers, I thought "Pfft, I could build this in a month for half the price" and the rest is history.

Easily obtainable parts

I often get put off by my fellow open-sourcerers referring to particular brands or otherwise locally-produced parts, tools or materials, that would be cost-prohibitive or outright impossible to obtain in the UK, where I happen to live at the moment.

Not going to happen on my watch! Every part in this build will be easily obtainable from global retailers (cough... aliexpr... cough...) and will not rely on any local brands or metric systems.

Additionally, my models are fully-parametrised — one may think too-fully — so I am leaving plenty of room for adjusting to alternative bearings, fasteners and plinth thicknesses if you want to go wild.

Basic tools and skills

Okay, you will need a 3D-printer and should know how to use it, we can't avoid that, alright? But even then, no large bed, high-temp materials, or super-tight tolerances will be involved. I am going to run this on my A1 Mini (180mm bed) using a spoolful of no-name PLA, which, you should agree, is a pretty darn low bar. So you should be able to print it on anything out there that 3D prints.

Beyond that, you will only need a few bog-standard hand tools, a drill and a soldering iron.

In terms of electronics and code, my aim is to design this to be plug-and-play eventually, but first versions will definitely require soldering iron waving while casting "whythehellyou'renotworkamus" spells as depicted by Dall-e below. Smoke is optional.

Limited budget

I am leaving myself a bit of creative freedom as to how exactly this will be capped. E.g. whether buying a bag of rubies (hell yeah, this build will include rubies) to only use two of them means that the whole bag is included in the cost. But the general intention is to cap the cost of dedicated materials at circa £100, which is around €120 or $130 if the King is not your thing.

Of course, if I surpass that cap and no numerical hickory-pokery can help, I will come back here and amend the page as if it had always been the plan.

Decent looks and sound

The result of my work will stand in a very prominent place in my living room, so it will need to look half-decent and sound... listenable or I am a divorced man.

Can you trust my judgement? Of course not! Everyone's point of reference is different and yours is better than mine — I admit. So join in and help me make it better, your know how opensource works, right?