The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Thanks everyone for your comments on this. I spent some time last night sorting out some construction issues which may be contributing. Some of the threads into the 3D printed parts were wearing out so I have fixed this by adding threaded aluminium sleeves which allows me to tighten things more. Hav...

I actually managed to catch it using a sweeping sine wave test. I ran a test a week or so ago before I changed the head construction and have just done another one. Changing out the parts may have altered the frequency slightly and perhaps even exacerbated the problem a bit. Here are some screen sho...

Thanks for your response Mark. That all makes sense. What I'm trying to get my head around is that the the head seems to be resonating at the main resonance frequency (around 300hz) but the resonance is being caused by a frequency about 2 Octaves above the main resonance (about 12khz). Is this somet...

Hi trolls, I've recently got my cutting head up and running again after several months out while I learned to sharpen styli (another story altogether) The cutting head is working but I'm getting some unwanted sound which I believe is some kind of harmonic. I noticed it while cutting a track which st...

Hi, hopefully you are making progress and have figured out the answers to some of these questions. If not, hopefully this is helpful; 1. With the blanks, it depends in whether you are cutting or embossing. For embossing, polycarbonate is probably the best material to use. PETG does work but in my ex...

I think you hit the nail on the head, insofar as the piano wire is concerned. I didn't use piano wire, but a small diameter rod, which (judging by a pink noise test) has its own resonances... and in directions other than the driver is aiming it. I especially like your coupling to the voice coils. T...

Tip for the V spring, PCB manufacturers offer a laser cut and electropolished stainless steel 'stencil' intended for applying solder paste... If you draw the geometry you want on the paste layer of a PCB (Remember it is negative you get a hole where you draw the paste) you can get a great many 0.1m...

Well done and good idea on the bracket. Very good results there and I’m surprised on the amp, didn’t think something like that would do the job but it sounds great Thanks Dogtemple. Yes, the amp seems to do a good job. I thought it would be a good starting point while I got the head operational, I ...

Hello, Estrada, thanks for sharing this. Beautiful work, especially given the restriction of hand tools, and the audio quality seems remarkably good. Do you use as much EQ as in the write-up to achieve these results? Sounds quite smooth, although the stereo 'soundstage' does not appear very wide. A...

Just thought I would post a link in here for anyone who is interested. I have built a stereo cutting head based on this design. If anyone is interested you can check it out here https://www.lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9398&p=59923#p59923 Thanks again to Grooveguy for posting this design to ...

Thanks for the kind words Thomas. I was happy with the sample except for the slight speed issue which I have fixed. I think the crackle might have just been because I didn't clean the record first, I think it cleared up after a good clean. To drive the head I am using this very simple and inexpensiv...

Hello, Just thought I would share about a stereo cutting head I have been building over the last six months or so. The design is based on Grooveguys design in this forum https://www.lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8187&p=52504&hilit=grooveguy#p52504 I've used the same audio exciters as Groovegu...

Not sure what happened with my inline image placement there…. oh well, you get the idea

Sounds exactly like what happened with mine. The thick silicone tube I used worked for a while until the clamping plate broke. It is quite thin and snapped at the weak point where it is recessed for the armature. IMG_3410 copy.jpg I made a new one with a piece of 5mm aluminium flat bar. I made it qu...

Thanks for that. I found an online hobby place which stocked various thicknesses so I've placed an order. Also ordered some aluminium rod for the stereo head I will be attempting after I've finished with the mono head. What thickness of Sorbothane did you order? Looks like it is quite pricey, I'll b...

Another question, do you know of a good source for piano wire/spring steel rod in NZ? Thanks

Thanks for your advice on that. I have a small butane torch which came with my 3D Printer toolkit, I'm thinking that will do the job. The Sorbathane sounds really interesting, I'll be keen to hear how that goes. I've been using bits of silicon tube but I'm not sure how successful that has been. Pres...

This looks like a cool little head, very similar in concept to my old Audax head. Quick question, how did you attach the stiffening spring to the armature? I'm thinking of either replacing or adding a second spring to the armature on my head as I am getting a lot of distortion which I think is due t...

Hi Epos, I've seen your thread about the triangular shaped stylus. That looks very impressive indeed. I would be very happy to try it but I don't think I have the capability to make one, are you selling these? If so I'd be interested.

Thanks EposLab. Part of the problem was the type of polycarbonate I was using, a tinted UV resistant type which didn't seem to work as nicely as clear polycarbonate. That said I was still noticing a bit more surface noise at the outer edge of a 12" I spent some time last weekend experimenting with c...