The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Bags Unlimited has a huge selection of audio packaging, including paper and cardboard sleeves. I have printer friendly self adhesive labels; let me know what you are looking for.

It's the turntable assembly from a model 75 portable.

Really? Wow; I have a Federal but it's a linear tracking cutter arm, not an overhead as pictured. The pickup is a plain curved tonearm. A photo of my Federal machine is here: http://www.phonozoic.net/recordio/machines7.htm I know that both Federal and Rek-O-Kut machines of some age were available wi...

Looks like an early Rek-O-Kut design; especially the overhead. Not too much detail of the machine in the photo, so best guess. Where did the picture come from?

I agree with Todd about the pithwood. That's all I use. Any material - cotton or otherwise - will leave "hairs" (you can see them under a microscope) and while they probably won't seriously affect groove formation there is a possibility of some sort of malformation if they somehow get "run over" or ...

Most chemicals won't harm hard jewels, genuine or synthetic; they're too hard. The reason acetone is used to clean cutting styli and advance balls is that the material lacquers are coated with is essentially nail polish. If you buy a bottle of nail polish remover, you're buying acetone. It quickly a...

What vacuum attachment? If you're referring to the unit wrapped around the cutting head, that's a weight. This setup was used for embossing bare aluminum discs prior to the introduction of lacquers.

If you're using the original microphone that's attached to the machine, chances are that the crystal in it is dead as well. I rebuilt one of these several years ago and the setup is similar to the pickup, a similar piezo element coupled to a thin metal diaphragm. Massively difficult to get into (you...

Isn't this similar to how old polystyrene 45s and LPs were made?

You do know that you'll have to re-wire the unit for a magnetic head - the X-26 (crystal cutters in general) operate in the neighborhood of 180 VRMS. Apply that to a magnetic head and you'll fry it in a second. Move the cutter wires from the plate drive they'll be attached to and attach to the audio...

I would equate this to bored housewives making candy bowls out of what could be very valuable disc records from the past.

Yes, this machine's cutting head has a pin attached to it where you would mount a brass weight for embossing. It was not used for cutting lacquer. I think aluminum discs were made through the late 1930s as an inexpensive option to lacquers. I do have a couple of aluminum embossing discs in my collec...

I have this same machine. Completely re-worked, coils, caps, etc. No "story", but mine has the original condenser mic with it.

Most websites I found now list it as a cosmetic thing, but it has been used by libraries and archives for years for removal of oil from damaged paper documents. That's why the stage hands working for MGM almost ended up like Buddy Ebson, except instead of aluminum powder, they inhaled tons of fuller...

Learned a trick from a librarian years ago; you can remove oil from paper using fuller's earth. It was the material they used for the dust could of the fake tornado in The Wizard of Oz. It's available in many places, just get the powder not the clay. Lay down a sheet of paper larger than what you're...

The 75 doesn't use a feedscrew, it's a worm/gear assembly that uses a wedge-shaped gear to drive the arm across the disc. Sounds more like your head is mounted too high and is not clearing the lift/drop completely when in the 'down' position. There is also a spring that is used to set groove depth. ...

You might try www.bagsunlimited.com they might have something.

There is no "acetate" in the coating. It's nitrocellulose based lacquer, sort of like nail polish. The discs themselves are hard to get to burn. The warning on the old Audiodisc sleeves from the 1930s onward stated that the disc won't burn, but the chip is very flammable. See: http://www.aardvarkmas...

The turntable to me looks like something from Universal Microphone. I've seen a sled like that before, but I can't recall where or on what lathe.

I have #s 426 and 588