The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Nice one, I'm on it now!

yeah I know, just hard to tell whats fact and whats people trying to blag money out of me!

lol somebody told me i would have issues with UK safety regs if I were to import a boiler from another country, i wasn't sure if this was him trying to make me buy his boiler though! i think i should try and source a press hopefully in the UK somewhere then worry about the boiler after. Thank you al...

i mean, i just heard that if you do import boilers, they need to go through safety checks and upgrades to adhere to UK safety laws??

i did see that, but I heard you run into problems with the pressure and steam side of things if you buy them from another country, because of differing safety laws in the UK. Is that right? Who are the 3 plants? I know Vinyl Factory & Total vinyl. Would it be best to not go to the vinyl factory, as ...

wow, that's great! what manual press would you recommend? i had been considering not doing the galvanics, as some of the mastering houses I know do that anyway. is it really just more hassle than it's worth?

Yeah i know it won't be any walk in the park, but i am sharing with the costs with a few other people so it may not be quite as bad. we are all artists (v small time!) and have all had singles pressed. We are just all in love with vinyl, and want to try and do everything ourselves. I suppose the onl...

lol, I actually just found out about dmm after doing some searching, unfortunately on wiki tho! :) On the whole, i think i understand the general process, but there are just a lot of little questions which have come into my mind about little parts of the process which i can't seem to find the answer...

I dj, it's not my job, but I dj most weekends. I generally just love vinyl and want to make sure I am making the right decision before i spend tens of thousands of my hard earned cash. i mean, i know RI do great vinyl. some of my friends had some of their records pressed there and i thought it was g...

I also read that record industry in holland had their vinyl made toluene free, which bought it into EU environmental guidelines. What exactly is toluene, and what actual difference does it make to audio quality? i have had record industry vinyl before, and i quite liked it.

So what is the actual make up of PVC for record pressing today? What is most important to get optimum sound on the record? Is there another additive that could be added instead of lead of cadmium? Seems if records used to sound better because of these, shouldn't somebody find something to put in the...

Also, thanks for the diagram, bought up some interesting points for me. I was going to ask this at a later date, but recycled vinyl - has anybody ever pressed just using 100% recycled vinyl from discarded edges? Is there a huge drop in quality to use 100% recycled? I hear a lot about using virgin vi...

I have thought about galvanics, we found some baths, and I found out about the process as much as I could. But where do I find the chemicals? Is there a company who sells it in the UK?

Oh by the way, we won't be doing bootlegs! We all make our own music and DJ all over, just want to do short runs of our own stuff. All of these plants in the UK that have gone under, where did their equipment go? Do you think we could pick some of it up somewhere?

wow, thats amazing, thanks so much for the insight! we actually knew this would be costing us a lot of money, but it's just fulfilling 5 vinyl obsessives dream, not for commercial profit. A vintage car obsessive would buy an old car knowing he would have to spend thousands on it to keep it going, it...

Cool, i'll track em down! But, is there any machines that are known for being better or worse than others? i've been looking online, and its really hard to find some kind of comparison between presses.

Thanks for getting back. Is there an actual quality difference between machines?

Hey again, got another Q. We found a toolex alpha 12" machine we think we will buy, are these any good? I read somewhere they break down alot?? We dont really know which machines are best. Also, do toolex do a 7" press too? Do you have to buy a separate press for 7's?

This is my first post. A few of my friends and I have decided to buy a press, mainly for our own enjoyment. Wondered if you guys could help us sourcing the raw vinyl. Do we need a specific type, and what wholesalers sell it? We are in London, but suppliers all over europe would be cool!