Fixing Broken Vestax PDX-2000 Feet (Part II, sort of)

In our last post, we showed you a way to use cheaper (and superior) Numark feet to replace your (inevitably) broken Vestax PDX-2000 foot or feet. Hopefully that's helped a few folks out.

Now we're going to show you a (rudimentary) way to possibly salvage those old Vestax feet (maybe we should have done this one first to save you a few bucks -- sorry). You'll need a gas stovetop/torch/serious lighter/flamethrower, a sweet pair of pliers and the parts listed below. Okay, enough talk, here we go.

*Disclaimer: take your PDX-2000 apart at your own risk. It's simple, but I'm not a certified Vestax repair herb, so be careful. Always make sure your turntable is unplugged before opening it up.

First off, you probably hear some rattling around inside of your table if you have a broken foot (or feet). That's probably just the broken end of the plastic bolt or nut that Vestax used. Yeah -- bullshit. Take off the bottom plate of your turntable. It's easy -- no pictures needed.

Take a look around and assess the situation. Are all of the feet broken, or just a couple? Count it out. Next, take a look at the feet to see where they are broken. Hopefully, the foot itself (i.e. black plastic and roundish black rubber blob insert are still intact. Most likely, the white plastic bolt snapped off. If you're lucky, it snapped at, or above the black rubber blob; like where the arrow is pointing below (ignore the metal bolt sticking out in the picture -- we're not there yet):

For this fix to work, you really need to have some white plastic inside of that black rubber blob. If you don't have any, you can stop reading this post and go to the Numark foot fix (however, you'll need to replace all four feet in order for your turntable to sit level).

Okay, assuming you have some white plastic showing, it's time to get some supplies. For each of the broken feet you have, you'll need the following: + one 1/4"-20 x 2" hanger bolt (it can be a little less than 2" long if you can find it) -- the "20" represents the number of threads per inch. As you can see in the picture, a hanger bolt has two threaded ends. One end is a wood screw, and the other will accept a nut (machine thread) -- this is key ($.31).
+ one 1/4" inner diameter and 1 1/4" outer diameter rubber neoprene washer ($.47) +one 1/4" inner diameter, 5/8" outer diameter, 3/8" height nylon spacer ($.45) +one 1/4" split lock washer ($.16)
+one 1/4" metal nut (to screw onto the metal bolt end of the hanger bolt above) ($.10)
I got all of these goods at the local hardware store. Next, rush home in excitement -- you're about to fix this shit. Bust down your door and crank on one of your stovetop burners (or torch) to high. Grab the first broken foot and set it next to the stove. Take that sweet pair of pliers and use them to firmly grab the machine thread end of the hanger bolt and hold the wood screw end over the hot flame for a while. The hotter, the better.
Once it's good and hot, screw the wood screw end directly into the center of the white plastic of the broken foot. Note: try to do this relatively quickly as the bolt won't stay hot enough to melt the plastic for long. Also, the black rubber blob is only attached to the rest of the black plastic foot with some kind of adhesive. If you turn the bolt too hard when it isn't hot enough, it will tear the black rubber blob from the plastic foot (at which point it's pretty tricky to undo your work and start over). Obviously, you don't want the screw to come out the bottom of the foot, but I haven't had that happen yet.
With a 2" long screw, I try to get the entire wood screw end buried inside of the white plastic. When you're finished, it should look something like this:
Okay, if yours looks like this (and nothing broke), then the hard part is over. From here, it's just a matter of assembly. Take the base of the turntable, and put the newly "assembled" foot up through the bottom. Place the rubber/neoprene washer over the top, then the nylon spacer on top of that, then the speed lock washer on top of the spacer and finally the metal nut on the end of the hanger bolt. Tighten with a wrench, and it should look like this:
Here's another view:
Do the same for the other busted feet, and then reattach the base of the turntable. Plug it in and cut it up. I haven't toured with this turntable (in fact, it hasn't even left my apartment), but it seems pretty sturdy. I don't really know what's inside of the black rubber blob (it's some sort of rubbery filler that's similar to those old disgusting sticky things that you could throw against the wall and they'd stick or "crawl" down the wall).

One possible improvement: you could probably wear some type of breathing apparatus if you don't like the smell of burning rubber.