The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

I have made some progress on my Emory Cook inspired press for making my blank discs. I have a steel plate with some angle brackets bolted on to make the shape of a 7” square. This will be sandwiched between a 7” pusher plate and two heated aluminum blocks and placed in a shop press.I just got done d...

It seems that like a lot of newbies, myself included fall into the trap of attempting to restore a recordio or similar General suitcase cutter which are unfortunately very hard to get up to original specs and utilize a 90 volt crystal that needs to be serviced at WestTech. They’re constantly raining...

Exactly what it says. I’m curious as to ways to bump up the volume on my Presto without burning things out. Should I look into getting my 5C cutter head rebuilt, which seems already well functioning despite its age, or do I need to upgrade to a better head? What is the upper limit before I fry somet...

Hello! Wondering what exactly this pin and jack system is on my K8. I might be building an external box to feed audio into.

Tom The Phonocat wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 31, 2022 5:03 am

I have 2 Neumann styli, but both have not been tested and probably need resharpening and rewiring. But can let go cheap.

Regards,

Would those be presto compatible?

It works it works it works it works. The Presto was all ready to go when the amp arrived, I just needed to throw on a disc. I started out with a couple CD records to test. Then I used a steel cutting needle with a recycled styrene record and was able to crank up the volume enough to escape the noise...

Lookin for leads on where to get a sapphire cutting stylus, mainly for the purpose of plastic picnic plates.

- Kat/Rai

Finally managed to test everything out, was just waiting on an amplifier. CD’s work well, aside from the pitch being a bit off.

Now comes the learning curve I suppose.

Ok! cutting the brown wire and then putting shrink wrap on seems to have done the trick. I got a platter!

Started working on the presto today. After doing some poking around, I’ve confirmed that the motor indeed can be isolated entirely from the amp with just cutting the brown wire. For the longest time was under the impression that the power switch on the control panel runs the motor too but it looks l...

Hello, just wondering if there’s any documentation of which Presto K-8 serial numbers were made in which year.

Any major differences between this and the original Gakken?

Hi. This thread is amazing! Did you get anywhere with the polypropylene? Let us know if you have any new developments. I'd love to be able cut with recycled non pvc blanks. Best wishes Nik Thank you so much! and thanks for your interest! I do have some updates to provide actually! I picked up a Pre...

Hi, Looks to me like the motor runs right off the AC mains. From the schematic, it looks like the amp and motor each have their own power switch and can be run independently. Mark Sounds good! I just recently ran an unamplified audio source (literally an iPad) into the head and it’s faint of course...

Hi, Just connect right to the wires going to the cutter head. No need to get into the K8 amp at all. Any 50 watt or greater mono amp will do fine. Might want to put a in line fuse holder and start with a 1/4 amp fast blow fuse until you get the hang of how much power you can throw at the head. Mark...

Also, what type of solid state amp would you recommend?

Hello! Just picked up an as is Presto K8 and am looking to use a modern amp on it. Where do I need to reroute things in the schematic so I can use a modern amp to drive it, and what tubes would I still need, if any?

Thanks!



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Hello! Looking for an M41 or similar. Might need the transformer too. Do I need a special transformer to go with it as well or can I just feed audio direct from a modern source?

- Kat

Re-read the patent, looks like the T-shirt press would be good for the pre heat stage but not the final press. Looks like I’ll be doing some budgeting in the meantime to get everything together.

I could get custom CNC’d parts for the book mold but I’d like to see what improvisation could be done too.

Hi, I used a coffee grinder to grind up some craft store beads back when I did my testing. You don't need much pressure since you don't have to move the plastic. Alright! Per your original post, looks like you used polystyrene too. I’ve found I could potentially do this for cheap with a T-shirt pre...