Voice Coil assistance needed

This is where record cutters raise questions about cutting, and trade wisdom and experiment results. We love Scully, Neumann, Presto, & Rek-O-Kut lathes and Wilcox-Gay Recordios (among others). We are excited by the various modern pro and semi-pro systems, too, in production and development. We use strange, extinct disc-based dictation machines. And other stuff, too.

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FLEX-RAY
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2020 5:51 am

Voice Coil assistance needed

Post: # 54775Unread post FLEX-RAY
Wed Jan 08, 2020 4:06 am

Hello everyone. I am a brand new member here as I just purchased my first record lathe a few weeks ago. I’ve been lurking and learning a lot from past posts but hit a snag and could use some assistance.

While doing my first major run of things, I looked away for a moment and when I glanced back my cutter head was smoking like crazy and the xray film I was getting ready to etch appeared to be moments away from bursting into flames. I immediately unplugged everything. When I opened up the head to assess what had happened the voice coil was horribly charred and split in a number of places. I have a pretty tight time crunch on what I was trying to make so with the help of my much more intelligent friend we did some research and I attempted to make a replacement voice coil. She helped me do the math to know how long of a copper wire to coil and all that and I pieced everything back together. I have sound coming through the head but it is barely a fraction of the volume the previous setup had. I am wondering if I wired something wrong or if anyone had any other options I should look into. My knowledge on this is pretty limited but I’m reasonably handy. I’m out of things to check with my troubleshooting.

Attached is a photo of how the head looks now
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symatic
Posts: 241
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2015 10:41 am

Re: Voice Coil assistance needed

Post: # 54776Unread post symatic
Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:56 am

I had my Presto 5C (which looked pretty similar on the inside to your head) re-coiled by Tod at Deepgrooves mastering, and I think he did a pretty decent job, although I've only ever used it for Embossing not proper Cutting so I never heard it's full potential yet...

Jesus from Agnew Analog/Magenetic Fidelity specializes in repairing and upgrading heads like this.

If you're state-side, another person to ask for advice might be Mike from PIAPTK, I'm not sure if he offers repairs as a service but he definately knows his stuff!

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Jccc
Posts: 376
Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2007 10:15 am
Location: San Diablo California
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Re: Voice Coil assistance needed

Post: # 54777Unread post Jccc
Wed Jan 08, 2020 12:54 pm

If you rewound it to the correct impedance and sound is coming through.

i would first check to see if anything is obstructing the armature of the cutting head.


if not i would send it in for repair.

If your stateside Gibb from west tech services is also great as well.

His prices are good and doesn't over
charge.


He repaired a Audax head and Fairchild head awhile back and even rewound it o match the output of my power amplifier.

http://www.west-techservices.com/

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