Project recordio from Wilcox-gay

[Lauranceisodd]

Howdy everyone recently I picked up a 7E40-7E44. It has a "the general industries Co." Motor in it. This thing is clean but a mess 5 wires are cut and don't lead to anything. By that I mean the Motor the playing arm and recording arm have them but there cut where the power source would connect I think. Needless to say I've been told the Chrystals are doa and I have no way to test it right now where should I start and what do I need.

[Angus McCarthy]

You've got a long road ahead if your goal is to rehab that unit into a working cutter. Step one, build a plinth/box for it to be mounted in. You'll need to fabricate some kind of switched power supply for the motor, and make sure the drive system is in working order - chances are this will only spin at 78. You'll also need to acquire an amp to drive the cutter, which since you say the crystal is dead, is a big hurdle. However, if you are handy at a small scale know what you are doing, you can actually replace the dead crystal inside the cutter cartridge with a modern piezo element. Alternately if you are lucky you can find a magnetic head (Astatic) that will fit the cutter arm. You can grind down old victrola needles into embossing cones pretty easily, and that may be your best chance going forward with this machine, considering the state of the acetate industry right now. Then it's a matter of choosing your blank material to cut/emboss on. I would suggest old CD-Rs as a first step.

To tell the truth, though, in my experience these units are good for cutting your teeth on and learning the fundamentals of disc recording, but not much else. They were never intended for hi fidelity. I wish you good fortune! I had a lot of fun with my first suitcase cutter.

E: this was the best result I ever achieved with my W-G machine, as an example: http://soundcloud.com/electrospinner/wilcox-gay-record-lathe-test