my carbide stylus

[juba bc]

Hi, I am trying to make my own carbide stylus, I have managed to make the surfaces mirrored, but I still have a white noise ... suggestions on how to improve will be very welcome

[jjgolden]

very cool!
Are you using Heat?
Are you cutting in Lacquer or plastic?

[juba bc]

hi,I used a heater but I did not notice improvement, I'm cutting plastic

[markrob]

Hi,

Wow, that looks really nice! Can you provide any info on the methods you used to form the facets? My understanding is that carbide, while very hard does not take as sharp an edge as high speed steel. Have you tried cutting a lacquer blank? That would go a long way to validating the sharpness of your edges. Have you tried HSS? Plastic is pretty tough to cut.

Mark

[juba bc]

Hi Mark, I use a copper disk made of printed circuit board, and diamond paste to make faces and polish
I tried on steel with bad results ... I believe the diamond paste is not so good for polishing steel
I only have plastic to test, sometimes I get a quieter cut with carbide, but not always

[juba bc]

[markrob]

Hi,

Great job on the template style faceter. Lover your DIY approach to a lap. I'll have to give that a try next time I have a go at this.

Mark

[Fatrecco]

Hey, I tested carbide too. There exists many kinds of it. The Problem is the dimensions of the powder/corn from which is this material is made of. I taked very fine one and tried to polish or lap it. Under the microscope I see the surface roughness. But with HSS you can get very sharp edges and a mirror surface under microscope. But in plastic the stylus tip was always scheisse(shit). So you get a surface noise in PC and PET. You have to messure the stylus tip radius and check out how sharp the edges are. Maybe when you use not fixed grind powder/corn there will sometimes apear some kind of hill sourround the workpiece(stylus). This will distroy the sharpness of the edges while the surface is fine.

I started my stylus grind Project again and build a little grinding/polishing machine too. But still find no material to cut in without noise.

Sorry for my bad english, I hope you understand what I mean.

[juba bc]

Hi Fatrecco, thanks for the information, I'll try other abrasives to try on HSS
the carbide I'm using and the one of plotter blades

[sameal]

Wow!
That is pretty impressive!

[juba bc]

when I cut plastic with this stylus, I have an incredible sound, very sharp and with excellent treble ... but I have background noise

[The Shank]

when I cut plastic with this stylus, I have an incredible sound, very sharp and with excellent treble ... but I have background noise

Same moh scale’s hardness than rubin or Sapphire. It won’t work on plastic.

[tragwag]

when I cut plastic with this stylus, I have an incredible sound, very sharp and with excellent treble ... but I have background noise

are you able to try embossing?

[juba bc]

this stylus is short, I think I would have to do a longer to press

[grooveguy]

Congratulations, Juba bc,

You are doing important work here. There are limited sources of cutting sytli, and the more experimentation in this area, the better. Please continue your work and keep us informed.

With respect to your stylus, do you include "burnishing facets" in the geometry of your stylus point shape? These are important, as these burnishing facets polish the groove wall on a 'dynamic' basis; that is, as the groove is being modulated and as the groove exits the active recording area. This is a concept that is ignored by many who attempt to make their own recording styli, and a concept that is jealously guarded by those who make and sell styli on a commercial and professional level. There are AES papers on the subject, most penned by Frank Capps, who made styli for Edison, and by his daughter, Isabel, who worked with Peter Goldmark and others in developing styli for microgroove recording.

Keep up the good work!

[juba bc]

thank you very much for the comment here ... this is my great doubt, if these facets exist only for lacquer cutting or for cutting plastic too ... my focus here is only to cut plastics, and I have better results without the facets in that case

[ilium]

thank you very much for the comment here ... this is my great doubt, if these facets exist only for lacquer cutting or for cutting plastic too ... my focus here is only to cut plastics, and I have better results without the facets in that case

I'd really love to hear what something cut or embossed with this sounds like... any chance of hearing a wav or mp3 of an example cut?

[juba bc]

here I think you have an idea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIjNbc1HDkk&t=69s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQF7X8_Hh-Y

[ilium]

here I think you have an idea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIjNbc1HDkk&t=69s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQF7X8_Hh-Y

Sounds pretty decent!