The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Hmmm! I'm sure anything's possible. Perhaps you could mess with the motor or electricity in some way if you were that sort of whiz (which I am not...I would fry myself if I tried, and I bet you would, too). BUT...most record players seem to control speed mechanically....that is, by changing the way ...

When Gib Epling ... http://www.west-techservices.com/ ...fixed mine, he put a 1/4" line into the microphone jack, so I could switch my crystal mic in and out with a line input. He also made a special line input cord to plug into that jack, which had some sort of resistor in it to make the impedances...

It could be a lot of things. I don't know anything about your particular lathe. But likely contenders: 1) A very dull cutting stylus. Buy a new one from Transco or Apollo. (See the links section). That'll run you about $80. 2) Cutting depth set wrong. If the stylus is dull it will cut shallow anyway...

I'm aware of people melting old cylinders to make new cylinders. I also know that some crappy-sounding 70's pressings used ground-up, recycled vinyl that had the paper labels mixed in, but lordy, I'd personally be afraid of messing with molten plastic. But sure enough, I think it can be done.

Eventually, yes, but I don't want to delay you, so I'll try to describe it as well as possible. UNDERSTAND: Doing this using your Recordio COULD DAMAGE the crystal to the Recordio! The crystal is not supposed to get heated beyond 120 degrees, and I believe that I am doing just that. I'm doing this o...

That is SUPER COOL! And only $24 plus shipping? I gotta get one. and yes, recording an EP using a plastic cup, very cool. ****** from http://library.thinkquest.org/19537/Line.html : 1893 Emile Berliner realized the need and business potential of inventing a process that could inexpensively duplicate...

Does silicon/latex harden enough to make any sort of a stamp? And when I hear "resin" I think "tree sap" or bugs in amber...or is that rosin? and I think of it as brittle but sticky. I'd think that would zap a needle if you tried to play it, but I agree that it could look good. This is a good topic!...

Tell me more about this kit! Does it use an acid/etching process? My limited understanding of Berliner's discs is that they involved a process akin to lithography, with the sounds burnished into, what, animal fat? Am I making that up? Something crazy like that. And that the records sounded abysmal. ...

Update: I plugged in my 300mA adaptor and kept it at 3V. It made the stylus VERY hot to the touch. I tried cutting into an acetate using it, and lo and behold, the thing was MUCH less noisy than before. I feel I am reaching the upper end of the possible fidelity I can get out of my Recordio. The cry...

I delayed responding in the hopes that someone else would. It's sad to come to the page and see my name as the "most recent entry" for each thread. I hope that this site catches fire more (crosses fingers)! Amok, there are no dumb questions here! Yes, indeed, one cuts the edges off the plate and use...

What sort of lacquer?

OK, here's a biggie. Solo plates. This is part of what got me excited about the possibilities of cutting. The day after I learned one could cut these, I ran outside towards the "party store" and immediately bumped into a friend who used Solo plates for mask-making (costume designer), and she helped ...

I didn't like the CLEAR solo plates for cutting. The shiny ones seemed to screech more as I cut 'em. I had my best luck with the dull side of the purple "signature" plates.

Now, what am I looking at here? Is this cut into a Solo plate, or is this a pressed Evatone run? The lock hole tells me you probably cut it yourself, but...how?

Does that sort of thing dull out your cutting needles quickly? If you glue the 45 adapter on a CD, can you play it as a CD?

I love the cut of yours I saw somewhere...I think it was plexiglass, and it had a different hole for side 1 and side 2.

Two of the freakiest records in my collection are called RRR-100 and RRR-500. They are a 7" and 12", respectively, of 100 and 500 locked grooves. Amazing. They were mastered by Paul Brekus at Aardvark. It's a good site with lots of info on the process: http://www.aardvarkmastering.com/ The compilati...

http://www.vinylrecorder.com/index-e.html

Anyone try this thing out?

This one's pretty funny, yet quite useful. It's flash demonstrations of record cutting principles in very odd Germanic English that a 6 year old could follow. http://www.vinylrecorder.com/faq.html "With exact stylus temperature noise can get reduced enormous!" Actually, this is an interesting-lookin...

This board is hiccupping. Use a fine wrap of wire to heat up the cutting stylus when recording a record. Use some sort of variable power supply to make the heat adjustable. Adjust for the quietest grooves when cutting silence. Are you using steel needles to cut records? Hi Amishman35! ;) Welcome!! ...

I'm just starting to experiment with heating my cutting needle, in the hopes that I can get less noisy and destructive results when cutting vinyl. Mr. Kim Gutzke recommended getting a 500mA AC to DC converter/appliane adapter, setting the voltage to 3V, and attaching the wires from the needle to it....