Borri: RCA/Univ heads, Fairchild lathe, GE motor, Varispeed

[shawnborri]

Working on a Rek-O--Cut Master Master Pro overhead, and a Fairchild 199 lathe drive. Have some questions. I usually work on making Edison cylinders but we are putting together a machine to record lacquers on. I need to know what the frequency response of an RCA 19822 head is. And what is the proper lubricant to put in the transmission on the Fairchild lathe, would a 10 W 30 motor oil work? . I am also wondering what kind of DC motor could be used in place of the old GE 1/5 hp motor. As would like to make it variable speed to record from 8 rpm and 120 rpm. Another recording head is A Unv. Manufacturing Co. of Inglewood California I ti s little mono cutterhead 15 ohms, and marked" Full Frequency Cutting Head" .

[Steve E.]

Welcome Shawn Borri, aka shawnborri! Known by some of us around here for his deep study of the compounds used in the original Edison cylinders!

Let's see how this thread goes, but you have asked so many different questions in one thread that it may go off randomly in several directions. I retitled it to make it less generic.

I'm guessing what you are calling "Unv." is actually a product of the Universal Microphone Co. Ltd of Inglewood, CA.

http://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_hersteller_detail.cfm?company_id=9090

"Universal Microphone Co. Ltd., Centinela at Warren Lane, Inglewood, California. Manufacturer of disc recording units and microphones in the 1930's."

[emorritt]

I was told by Len Horowitz to use nothing for lubricant but mineral oil, as it doesn't break down with age and become gummy as petroleum based products do. Even as light as 3in1 oil is (that's what I was using) it will still get sticky over time, which I have experienced. I thoroughly cleaned all lathe mechanisms that I have and have since used only mineral oil, with no further issues of the lubricant becoming sticky.

[shawnborri]

E. MorritI will use Mineral oil as stated, thank you! It has been awhile I still have photos of the horns you made for your recording setup. Steve E. That is a really interesting cutter head, the Universal Microphone Co. I think they were around in the late 20's early 30's too I remember my grandfather has some early 1930s radio magazines that had Universal Microphone Co. spring mount ring double button carbon microphones, and I remember a few of those ribbons at the Union Show. I found a link to the old carbon ones http://antiqueoutings.com/universal-microphone-company-spring-carbon-microphone. Thank You, I have made over 2000 lbs of metallic soap, or recording wax, and even re-created the white wax 1888 blanks for the museum in New Jersey.