real time demo recording on the electric cylinder lathe

[THEVICTROLAGUY]

for being such a simple application this new machine is making simply excellent cylinder recordings, they are loud and bright with good crisp clean highs without distortion. total cost to build this machine was approximately $ 200, and took five full days of testing before i actually assembled it as you see it now. the phonograph itself has ONE MOVING PART the drive pulley, feed screw and cylinder mandrel are all one shaft with bearings on the ends.

i used a1905 Edison home B cylinder phonograph for the transport and an Edison ekonowatt electric motor from an ediphone dictation machine. the electric motor has a four weight governor mounted directly to the output shaft of the motor which is powering the phonograph via a neoprene "O" ring belt. the speed is infinitely variable via the governor with a top speed of 200+ rpm, however the lowest speed i can achieve before stalling the motor is 60 rpm. the normal speed of all of the Edison two minute cylinder phonographs is the standard 160 rpm.

the machine was assembled to the original bottom of the wooden case using pillar and plate construction, the design is wide open which allows access to all moving parts, cooling for the motor and no way to trap swarf. the machine is portable and quite robust. the pillars are t6 extruded aluminum tubing with 10-24 all thread rods running through the center and anchored on the bottom with washers and nuts, the top is secured with wing nuts to allow for instant removal of the transport.

this is a recording on brown wax using the diver and recorder i built. this machine will allow me to make much better cylinder recordings. the business is growing, last night we got out first cylinder order from mainland china !!! the cylinder featured in this video is going to china and is the first custom cylinder recorded on the new machine. simple but very effective, inexpensive and efficient.

[ejemmons]

Well done, cool and elegant. Bravo!!!