The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Thanks guys, that's great info. So much has been written about almost every other aspect of Jamaica's incredible contribution to music, so it seems weird that there is so little info about this side of things. I mean, Jamaica is the only country I can think of whose capital city even has a lathe nam...

Does anyone have any info on what lathes were used in the Jamaican music industry, when and by whom. I am particularly interested in the heyday of dub, but info on any period would be great. My research so far is a bit scrappy... I read for example that King Tubby used a lathe that he possibly acqui...

Maybe, maybe not. If you reduce the heat and the weight, the angle might actually be OK.

The dashpot works perfectly well if you stay within the correct heat/weight/angle range.

Is this still available, I remember Frank at the Carvery was looking for one.

Show me a plot from any lathe anywhere that looks completely flat from 20 to 20khz and I will be very surprised. This is standard for feed-forward cutting heads, and not at all uncommon for vinyl in general. Learn to embrace the imperfect perfection of the medium.

Sometimes the alignment of the drive coils in the air gap is the issue. Try loosening the bolts holding the drivers in the place and adjusting their position slightly. This will slightly move the drive coils relative to the air gap, so be careful and listen for an improvement in sound. Once it sound...

I had tooling made up at this company and anyone can use it:

https://lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9796&p=62669&hilit=labels#p62669

Hey Obi, happy Star Wars day! So first off, technically what we are talking about here is the "rake angle" not the "back angle". I must confess I am a bit of a stickler for nomenclature at the best of times, but in this particular instance, knowing the correct name will come in very handy for workin...

I knocked some up label designs a while back and the company that made the tooling have published my designs for other people to use. I have no affliliation with them, but I do recommend them as they always do a good job with fast turnaround. They have a load of different paper stock too... my perso...

It’s the angle of the photo which makes it look not parallel. It’s maybe 5% off but a little off doesn’t matter that much. With many parameters in play- weight stylus, counterweight, angle it’s just a matter of fiddling around. Your VR is different from others so the setting is unique as well- with...

Do you have any picture of the rubber rings? I tried with aluminium ring that sits at the edge of the records (1mm on the edge) it fits nicely but its not heavy enough (50 grams) to flatten the the record. I add a few pictures so you can see the aluminium ring. I don't have any photos handy, but I ...

I don't think andyburnout's question is unjustified. I tried a few ways to measure the weight. My cutting head has no point of contact for a measuring spring in the area of ​​the needle. If I measure at the front end and at the back end of the cutting head, there are clear differences in the measur...

Good work! Very much needed I would imagine.

FWIW styluses are usually re-mounted in a new shank every time they are re-sharpened so glueing would need to be figured out for a sharpening service (that is if it is to compete like-for-like with existing services).

Using the precision platter is a good start. It is slightly concave, and helps to temporarily dish the record and even out the warping in a lot of cases (but not all, the shorter the warp, the harder it is to flatten). Using a ring of rubber works well too, it increases the "concaviness" (is that a ...

I used an SL1200MK4 a few times... it was pretty terrifying. Everthing happens so much faster! I don't recommend cutting at 78rpm, just cut at 45 or 33 and do the maths on the sample rates.

This sale has been temporarily withdrawn, pending further consideration. Any updates will be posted here.

Not exactly. OK so the method I use is as follows: 1) cut off a couple of inches of wire (length = 2 x distance of stylus from binding posts, plus 8 x windings, plus a little spare at each end to hold on to) 2) mount the stylus in the head 3) tie one end of the wire to a binding post, leave a little...

And what adhesive do you guys use? I’ve tried the dentist route(no pun!) and they look at you like your MAD & doing a spot of DIY Dentistry There is usually enough tension in the wire to hold it in place. I wind it reasonably tightly, and then tie it off, leaving a bit of slack so the head can move...

Has the record industry not already learnt it's lesson when it was unceremoniously ditched the first time around? Lacquer shortages aside, how long are the "big" orders (and let's face it, they aren't that big) gonna last anyway?

I think you have to weigh up the pros and cons. Yes there is a lot variation between styluses, but that is not something you can control. It's luck a lot of the time. The things you can control are the temperature of the disc, and the stylus. So, my argument is that its better to focus on successful...