The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

What? There's actually a manual? I've been looking for one for several years. If I can get a copy, pdf, carbon paper, blurry spy camera photos, or what have you, I'd be mighty darn happy!

Tim in Bovey

The K8 has been sold !

I have decided to sell the Presto K-8 that I've had tucked away for a few years. Who needs 5 record lathes? "No One" says my wife, LOL. I haven't touched this for about 3 years or so, and it's been at least 7 since I cut anything on it. Far as I know it's all original and unmodified. Motor/platter e...

BTW, is that a black polycarbonate blank? I looks like a lacquer!

Have you tried playing back on a different player? The issue could be in your playback cartridge, etc. I have just begun embossing with a Rek-O-Kut as well and am getting very nice results (I have a link to a youtube video playing a test disc posted around here someplace). I had to run my levels a b...

I do just the opposite. I speed up the playback to 78 and cut at 78, then slow down to 45 on playback. Works perfect (that's how that Chuck Berry test was made). Tim With ROK lathes, there is no capstan adapter, changing the speed was done with different sized idlers. If your lathe motor plate in fr...

I do believe that you can get an adapter sleeve for the motor shaft to create 45 speed, but I've never done that. When I make 45's I "cheat" a little bit, using a computer as my sound source. Using my laptop and free Audacity software is take a recording that I want to cut at 45 and load it into Aud...

I also have a Red-O-Kut lathe, which I was just preparing to put to use after a complete restoration about two years ago, right after the fire at the Apollo plant in California. Your machine (as is mine) was meant to cut lacquer record blanks, the 10" blanks you're thinking of would no doubt be lacq...

I see every now and then this talk of cutting records suitable for Victrola and other acoustic phonographs. Obviously the science itself tells you that if you can cut it, you can destroy it by playing it on a machine with tracking that heavy. However... I have been a member of the Antique Phonograph...

With the loss of a source of lacquer blanks I've been working on getting my Rek-O-Kut re-jiggered to emboss polycarbonate blanks. I'm using the embossing stylus and blanks from https://www.recordlatheparts.com When i first started I discovered I was embossing FAR to deep with WAY too much downforce ...

Back in the 50's Webcor made 45 hole adapters made of steel. I have found these to be the most stubborn, durable, and indestructible 45 centers ever made. I have bags full of them - having bought and hoarded tens of thousands of 45's over the years, I've accumulated a lot of various centers. I do no...

New movie "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" is a new movie out on Netflix. I won't get into the story etc. but I wonder about historical accuracy. Now, I know movies can't be perfect but for an opening scene, and an image/clip that is used as a main identifier of the movie, it's bugging me. The movie is se...

This is quite true. The use of specific parts cannot be required to keep a warranty in place in the USA, unless they are provided for free by the manufacturer. An automaker can't even specify a certain brand of oil, unless they provide it free. They also can't require an oil change at specific inter...

An airline would be standard pitch anyway, so a microgroove stylus won't make much difference. A short shank sapphire will cut better than any steel needle on most material. Actually, it would. Pitch and groove size are not related. A standard groove stylus is going to make you a big fat standard g...

Among my other money wasting habits is collecting NOS cutting stylus. Just added a Fidelitone stylus to the collection. Says it's made of "Permium" metal. Anyone know what Permium is? NOT "premium" but "Permium" Package states "The special Permium tip will record approximately 500 six-inch good qual...

The definition of "audiophile" is a person who is interested in high fidelity sound reproduction. You will find this definition in some form in every dictionary you happen to consult. The term was first used in the first issue of "High Fidelity" magazine, published in the summer of 1951. Most issues...

I assume in the end you did receive your machine back? eBay doesn't issue an automatic refund until the tracking shows that an item claimed defective or "not as described" as been shipped and confirmed arrived at the sellers address. I've been on eBay since they started, well over 20 years. Now, I'm...

According to the folks at Apollo Masters in California they blend their own lacquer coating for their blanks. "The ingredients, which must meet unusually tight specifications, are compounded in our Banning plant. The formulation and the process of preparing it are totally proprietary and not availab...

I really wish pressing plants would still use Egyptian Beetle Oil in their compounds. Not that far from reality, actually. Shellac was a major component of 78's. Know where shellac comes from? Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is pr...

Good to know, although I didn't know he stopped!

He redid an original Audax head from a Presto for me about a year ago.

Great guy, excellent work.

Tim in Bovey