Newb question. Vinyl recorder or other?

[meeks]

Hello, I have been reading this site for over a year, losing sleep to all of my google queries, and actively searching for a record lathe for several months now. I've read about as much as one could and I wish to get my hands dirty and cut some records and hopefully learn from trying instead of just reading about the process. The problem is I can't seem to find a lathe on ebay or anywhere else that can cut quality 7", 10" and 12" etc, other than the new lathes from vinylrecorder.com. Would anyone suggest or have any opinions on the vinyl recorder? Are they shipping? Do they exist? Would there be a more suitable entry level lathe I'm unaware of? Should I dive into the vinyl recorder? I check ebay every day and have been coming up with nothing for a while now. Sorry for my silly questions. I really want to get involved in lathe cut records and I'm just kinda stuck as to where to start. I gotta start somewhere so I figured this would be a good place to do so, hehe. Any help would be appreciated!

[mischmerz]

That's not an unusual situation. There are pretty much home-, semi-pro and pro-lathes out there. Most of them are vintage equipment. While home-cutters and semi-pro lathes are affordable and available, they mostly don't offer the support for more modern "HiFi" stereo cutting heads. I am sure you read all about the differences of the different kind of lathes and cutting heads, because those to elements (lathe and head) have to match to produce acceptable results. And - not to forget the third part of the equation: experience. You can't just take a lathe and cut great records. Especially not in Stereo. Let me tell you this: With a little patience and willingness to learn you will be able to cut really good mono records with a semi-pro lathe and a good cutter head. Learn about how to cut lacquers, experiences the pros and cons of a heated stylus, try cutting plastic. And you can do this without breaking you bank account. And once you can reliably cut good records, you are ready to go Stereo. Give yourself the time and pleasure to learn from the bottom up.

Michaela