The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Thanks for that insight, Mark. I'm still in the dark as to the bracket-spring that connects the stylus-holder to the backplate. Balázs's photos show a definite anchor wire to prevent fore-to-aft (Z-plane) movement of the stylus, but I'd like to understand the compliance of the leaf-spring part and h...

Thanks for the link, 2bit. I think that Balázs would have to tell us if his 10W units heat up at all, but if they don't, there would really be no advantage to going to bigger ones, and the extra weight in the head might present problems. Let's see what he says. By the way, are those available throug...

I feel like I dropped the ball, not getting back to Balázs after his last post, but anyone should feel free to chime-in here. That was a very good demo, and the material showed off response and separation. I guess I am not surprised at the performance, although it departs dramatically from what I've...

That seems very hopeful for long stylus life, Tasos; keep us informed and let us know when we might be able to purchase a sample.

Yea, progress! Keep us informed, and please post sound clips of your successes.

Great news, Tasos! I'll be watching and try to get one of the first ones. Do us a favor and post when you're about to release. This is exciting!

Your observation about noise at a faster groove speed is interesting. With more experience in cutting than embossing, I would precict the opposite, so there must be some other element of the physics at play here. Perhaps it's that embossing actually 'flows' material from the blank to form the two ho...

Estrada, I think you have achieved very good results, exceptional for embossing. You have obvious musical talent too; I like the chord progressions in your song. Musically, I actually preferred the embossed version. Re-channeling to mono and the 're-equalization' in the dub process brought out the p...

En Español: Hola señor y bienvenido al grupo. Lamento que mi español sea bastante pobre, pero estoy usando Google Translate para responder. Creo que obtendrá más respuestas a las preguntas si primero traduce al inglés con esta misma utilidad gratuita. Me sorprende que funcione tan bien como lo hace....

Hello, Estrada, Thanks for the note and info. Which ebelting product did you decide to use? I started with material that was too thin, thinking that a slightly 'stretchy' belt would absorb any "ripple torque" from the motor. Also, do you have a specific brand name or source for the driver board that...

Thanks much for the photos, they answer a lot of questions. Yes, I'm surprised that you decided against a speed reduction with a larger turntable pulley, it would have given some torque advantage as well. But if what you've got works, and the slower motor speed doesn't 'cog,' then great! Are the pul...

Very nice work; interesting your using a NEMA 23 stepper to drive the platter. Kind of goes against general advice on the group, but seems to work just fine. I'd be interested in additional details on your belt drive. I was trying something similar, but was not happy with the mechanics. Can you shar...

Sounds like a plan. I've got a feeling those injectors don't come cheap. Maybe a wrecking yard? Who supplies the piezo stacks? Maybe someone like TDK; should be possible to get just that part.

It would be good to know what sort of 'stroke' the injector has, either from direct actuation or with the aid of the Hydraulic Amplifier. It would seem to me that a squirt of fuel requires quite a bit of displacement, and that maybe even the 'short stack' might move a cutting stylus sufficiently to ...

That's a thought, although I have no idea how injectors work. If it's multiple pulses of fuel in small increments in a given time space, that would work for something relatively slow, like an automobile engine, but we need to move several thou at an audio rate, out to 15kHz. Certainly worth looking ...

Good, Balázs; we all look forward to your success and full information. Thanks!

Good work, XRC; thanks for the link to those drivers. Their datasheet shows only a flat surface to attach to, are you simply epoxy-ing to that, or did you drill and tap? Do you have an audio file sample of your results? Do keep us updated.

Interesting thread, Dan. Piezo actuators actually did work pretty well in the suitcase cutters of the 1940s, and Shure had a professional cutterhead (RC20 if memory serves) that gave quite commendable performance as long as the room temperature was livable. Recently I've looked into some TDK piezo t...

I'm not familiar with the song, so I'm not sure how it's supposed to sound. But if offered one or the other in this last test, would opt for the second cut, the one done flat. It sounds as if it could use some tip-up at the top, but the midrange and overall balance somehow seems more natural to me.

That actually sounds quite good, Epos, especially when I mix the two tracks to play back in 'glorious mono.' That seems to reduce the incidental clicks and pops from your old disc. You do not get the same 'burbling' and 'swishing' effects that I do when embossing. I attribute those artifacts to the ...