The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

I tell everyone who's even remotely interested in records about Mike - we first met 15 years ago when he cut some 5" records for a music project of mine, and we reconnected when we were both working with Joyful Noise Recordings a few years ago. I attended his lathe cut camp in September 2023 and bou...

I have never cut with diamond, I just emboss with sapphire using old Prestos and ROKs, but from what I understand from reading this forum religiously for a couple years now is that PC is harder than PETG and will damage and wear out a diamond needle prematurely. Perhaps someone else who cuts regular...

Hey bud, welcome to the group. No, don't cut polycarb with diamond - pc is for embossing with conical sapphire/tungsten styli. For diamond cutting, use PETG discs.

Check out piaptk's Newbie Starter Guide, it'll set you up pretty well!: https://lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8328

Hello friends! As I near my second year of cutting, I tried my hand at my first-ever 12" release. It's a "community album" of music by artists on my label, as well as friends and fans of the label. It accompanies a DIY music magazine I've been putting out for a few years called Hit the Decks. After ...

Gorgeous color combinations on these!

tl;dr definitely not a scam! i mean, the refund period lasted for like four years. I was the 3rd backer on this project in 2019, one of the super early birds. It's such an exciting idea. But time went by, I learned about modern lathe culture (with the help of this forum) and I asked for, and receive...

Hello all, I came across this discussion about ElasticStage on Reddit, and figured I'd put up what the co-founder has to say about their business. I'd love to know what Souri has to say about his comments!: https://www.reddit.com/r/kunaki/comments/1hcp5g5/comment/m6bqc5v/ I'd like to jump in as quit...

Same to you, and best of luck with your lathe in the new year!

Hello Thomas, very happy to help you test the machine out if you'd like to just ship it over to me here in America, not a problem at all. All kidding aside, very impressive as usual, it's as beautiful as it is technically proficient. Excited to hear more samples, what a testament to craftsmanship!

Sounds like fun, Claypole! I do a lot of stuff just for the fun of it and to learn how to do it well. Tape to vinyl is a good story to tell while selling the record, too Welcome to the group!

oh gosh, when did Softwax close?! They've made a handful of records for me, and it was such a treat to have a plant in driving distance. Dang!

Oh yeah, that's a Presto 6D (DSP?) overhead. Got one of those at home, I like it a lot. Not as stable as the 6N, but a good, solid overhead carriage.

wow, that sounds really clear and strong! and i'll second the comment that it's a very attractive, chunky lathe. great work!

So glad for it to finally be time to think about Halloween again, haha. Such a great time of year here on the east coast. I haven't noticed anything, and in fact, my friend who does the UV printing is surprised by how well PC takes to it. The pumpkins were about 11" x 10" and show no signs of warpin...

Oh, I had, funny that it doesn't come up for you! Maybe because you're newly in the forums, you're not seeing everything yet. Here's the full link:

https://www.lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=896&p=65462&hilit=aluminum+tape#p65462

Well, I don't have a horse in this race, but I remember reading something else on this forum that might aid in your process.

Hey Mud, it's the material you're using for your records. Sapphire sounds terrible with lots of plastics, but pretty wonderful with Polycarbonate, it gets very low surface noise. Here's a link to piaptk's starter guide, tons of great information on embossing, and yeah, he recommends only using PVC w...

Love the record, love the black cat. It's everything you could want in one photo!

My partner and I are planning a trip up to NYC in a few weeks, we're planning to visit the Museum of the Moving Image, they have an operational Vitaphone on display. I wonder if they'll have one of the lathes, too? We're pretty stoked to go see it.

Hello Stephen, how interesting! It looks to me like the kind of lathe they would have used to create records for the Vitaphone in the 1920s, an early movie projector system that used one motor to drive both the record player and the film reel so they'd be perfectly synced. Here's a video of them mak...