The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Thanks guys, It's closing up this month. Lucky enough to have been asked to show the work somewhere else. There were a few malfunctions, I guess those are the things you can't plan on when assembling something in the garage and testing for 30 minutes when it is on display for 10 hours a day 7 days a...

I'm doing some final tests (and changes...jeeze...) to my mono head. Aiming to have it available before mid-year.

https://lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?p=63193#p63193

I haven't updated the thread in awhile, but something will be coming soon.

There is a signup list for notifications on my website.

Hi Pennstate! Not at the moment...There's a few things that I've since worked around and my model management has been somewhat subpar! I'm happy to explain some of the design decisions with you if you're interested. The linear rails are just 25mm L shaped extrusion - the pieces that fit over them do...

I'm not in Australia, but I am selling coloured polycarbonate blanks from NZ - including a transparent browny-black.

This forum is called the 'Experimenters' & Innovators' forum' not the 'Do Precisely What Has Been Done Before forum'

Great work farmersplow, if it's any consolation I've been use PLA printed bearings for my carriages and they're silent enough for me - Igus bearings would be a great step up for me.

Thanks for sharing your developments.

I use leadshine ISV57 servos, they are the quiestest I could fine and provide quite a lot of torque, i recently used one to spin a 800mm platter with 100kg+ sitting on them. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUr4jF4bhaI) At this point I think they may be overkill for the lathe. The benefit they have ...

I've been working on this collaboration for the last month or so - lucky enough to have been able to show it in the Ōtautahi/Christchurch Art Gallery in New Zealand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNFxESt3ZjA

Parts are all finished and here; the laminated pole pieces and new magnetic yokes seem to have changed the magnetic circuit quite considerably, to me the head sounds cleaner, but the impedance has increased from 8ohm to 10ohm, that's using the exact same coils which were in the prototype. I'm pottin...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_9zvdD25TrZhboYGzT6rgKBp85EimEsV/view?usp=sharing Sorry, here's a couple of test tracks - tone at the start is 1khz @ 7 cm/s Other two tracks are with one of my prototype heads which was hitting around 10khz, other track is one of the better prototypes. Tracks are em...

I'll be updating soon with an assembly video, but these heads will be available for sale next month. I'm waiting on a few other parts, along with boring stuff like damper material and potting compound. I thought I'd show this coil connection, I like it as the wires come in the back and the PCB seals...

I had some swarf from a souri blank tested a few years ago at a university lab - they said it was PET, not PETG, but then I spoke to a plastic manufacturer and they said there wasn't a whole lot of differencc.

To review the stylus movement in detail I made a macro video in slow motion by filming at 25 fps, lighting with a strobe light at 300 Hz, and powering the exciters with 295 Hz at 3Volts. The stylus is tungsten 1,6mm. Here is the video: This is such a great video! Amazing method/process to capture t...

Thanks for the feedback! It's been great watching your progress with the stereo head! The vocals on the Black Lips track seems to have a little distortion itself, but I agree, there does seem to be a sense of distortion. I will be experimenting with laminated pole pieces like the original presto, or...

About 12 months ago when i first started testing these heads I did a few experiments backing the stylus off a bit each time, I found the best length was 8.1mm from the polepiece/end of the armature...I've yet to go back and check it, but it is on my to-do list. Did a buuunch of cuts last night, tryi...

I've attached the new damper material, this is cut with my embossing needles, and one of the heads - I'm very happy with it and I do feel like I'm close to the end. The coils are 95 turns at 0.32mm. for a total of 5ohm @ 1khz with a turnover frequency of 250Hz- Another element I'm not happy with, th...

I'm tuning the coils at the moment. Interestingly 95 winds with .28mm wire gives me an impedance of 7ohm @ 1khz, with a turnover at 395hz adding a 1ohm series resistor would bring that up to 8ohm, and bring the turnover up to 500Hz, which I believe would be it into the correct ball park. Just to con...

I'm going to give one of those cheap red piezo phono pickups a go... I've thought it could be expanded to make a nice pre-test for cutting records - gauge if there is too much over-excursion etc. But time will tell. I imagine that coupled with a DSP could give a fairly good preview of what the final...

I've been having very weird responses with silicone dampeners in my mono heads, seems to cut out a big chunk of response - might be something to consider. It disappeared when I went back to neoprene, but next on my try list is soft urethane... But yeah, I've attached an image of the response with th...

I've moved from lighter fluid to brake cleaning fluid to clean my blanks - I think there is a drop in surface noise. It's a lot cheaper too - probably makes you twice as mad, but hey, we're trying to emboss records anyway... Palsun is the same brand of PC Peter King used, I think it was all UV prote...