The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Technics-SL-1200-1210-Motor-Bearing-Centre-Shaft-Spindle-SFMZQ20-01A-/221206294456?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_Turntables&hash=item3380ec2fb8

which screws are the bearing screws? the ones that the block (with cutting head attached) pivots on? i've fined tuned those many times to see the effect, i think i understand the point that there is no lateral play but the head rotates freely. the screw for the cover is only attached on one side for...

Again, thanks for the detail. I long ago concluded the same thing about "the guilt of the knife" A bad stylus would result in continuous noise, not periodic noise. That makes perfect sense. I would like to hear back from Flo about why my cutting stylus is so far from the surface in my current setup....

Almost forgot, here are photos of the modified block where the head mounts. This was an attempt to solve the cutting angle issue.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94964778@N06/sets/72157633244373398/

One more thing, here are photos of the stylus used to make the noisy cuts posted earlier. The tracks I just posted were cut with a different stylus, long since broken.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94964778@N06/sets/72157633244245292/

These photographs should illustrate the distance between the stylus and the cutting surface when the Technics rubber mat is placed on the turntable and an acetate on the mat. The spring is loosened to its fullest extent, this is the lowest the head can go. The distance without precise measurement, i...

Going to post pictures of mechanical setup in a minute. Here is a recording of a plate I cut about 2 years ago when everything was working as it should. (Granted, I live in a polluted urban environment and it's impossible to keep the plates clean.) When freshly cut, I remember both sides playing ess...

thanks flo - will post pictures momentarily.

--carter

Dub Bull & Flo, Thanks for your responses. Dub, to your question. With the Vinylium overhead, the stylus is nowhere near the platter, so I have to add thickness to get the acetate surface up to the height of the stylus (even with the stylus screw loosened all the way to its further extent). Seems st...

VMSPoland, in brief, thank you for this incredible mindblowing explanation. I clearly have a lot of work to do, but at least now I understand where the actual problem is. I appreciate your taking the time to get into it. It's very important to me to resolve this. At some point I'd like to get away f...

btw, i read the whole thread on platter runout under "dial indicator platter lathe turntable" and maybe that's the situation. in my particular setup, I have to add quite a bit of support under the cutting surface to make the stylus hit the surface, and that probably increases the error in the platte...

Thanks for the information, it's a bit too technical for me and lost in translation.

Can someone help me understand what the spectrum analysis is saying about the noise?

I tried again after six months off, and the results are the same, bad: Here is a link to audio: http://archive.org/details/NoiseInVinyliumDubcutter4-13-2013 Both clips were recorded from first playback. Again, this is a Kingston Dubcutter with a sapphire stylus on a Technics 1200. I could hear the n...

in reference to my post from Sept. 18, I'd really appreciate thoughts and comments from anyone here who owns a vinylium dubcutter and has messed with the pivot pins where the head rotates. (the cutting head mounts onto a metal block that rotates on two pins, adjustable on each side, then on the top/...

Flo,

Thanks so much for posting this - really answers an important questions a few of us had been asking.

--Carter

yes, please post pictures...

If anyone has one of these they are willing to get rid of, I'd like to see how it's constructed.

I rereading what Flo says below about heating with the VC200/SC99. Has anyone done this? Did all units ship this way - heating disabled? I thought that by connecting the heating wires on the stylus to the screws it was heating. Can someone else clarify this explanation of how to enable heating? I do...

thanks opcode, and i'll assume it works equally well for both gem types.

On the topic of noise, I feel like I'm also getting noise due to material buildup on my styluses. How much of a factor can this be in signal clarity? I'm sure this is discussed elsewhere but I can never find topics quickly enough. There has to be a thread on cleaning diamonds and sapphires - where i...