The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Hi! Welcome to the forum! You'll find it's a bit quiet around here compared to other forums, but people are helpful, and if you have specific questions they respond fairly quickly. Also. Pictures. People love pictures. Show us your cutter head. An automation engineer? You should build your own press...

Sorry I've been away for a while. Been busy with other work, and haven't had a chance to play with the lathe much - though I have found that laserdiscs are fantastic for cutting - and very plentiful and cheap here in Japan. Godz: Yours is definitely a Hara Recording Devices machine. I've spoken with...

Mystery Identity of the Lathe is solved. Manufactured by Hara Recording Machines (Devices) 原録音機 - sometime during the 70's. The company itself has existed since before the war. There is an NHK Broadcasting History Museum which has one of their war-era transcription machines. Will try and find out mo...

It's something I'm wondering about myself. Are you looking at the ones like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2P1_JZYnVc It seems like either one could be used for an inspection of the grooves, but the refresh rate would be a problem during playback if you wanted to monitor the live cutting. Als...

Well, some progress made. Thank you to the Shank who has identified my stylus as a 462 type w/ a white sapphire tip. Also, I finally solved the mystery of how to get into this thing. It turns out that the wood had shrunk around the edges of the case, but after a little wiggling, the whole thing lift...

It's kind of a slow forum - everyone is probably too busy cutting records.

I'm new as well, but welcome. You should post pictures of your lathes. People love pictures.

Oh, and I was also able to cut a 45 RPM. The turntable only rotates at 33 1/3, but by slowing down the master 25.94% I was able to cut a track which played back correctly at 45RPM. (At least, close to correctly. 33.33/45=74.06 - remainder of 25.94. Is this the correct formula for this process? It wa...

Hello Emidisc, Thanks for the reply. It is an interesting lathe - mostly interesting because it has no identifying marks anywhere. I really think it's an extremely well made handbuilt lathe, or a prototype or something. The inputs aren't even factory marked - someone took a label gun and made labels...

Adding a picture of the cutting head assembly. Could anyone give me an idea if this is a Grampian short shank type stylus? Or do I need a better photo? Looks to be in fair shape, but I should probably line up a replacement for the future. http://i1330.photobucket.com/albums/w573/shyquixote/cuttinghe...

Hi Joss, I'm new as well, so definitely wait for someone else to chime in with advice, but here is my off the cuff two cents: That certainly looks like an interesting lathe! But 5000 euros seems a little too steep for something that you are just intending to modify (i.e. spend more money on). It see...

Was: New Lathe Troll and Japanese Lathe Hello everyone. Glad to be here (I have lurked off and on for a while). Thanks in advance for all your patience and help. I'm new to the lathe game, in that I just bought my first lathe today. It was in a recycle shop near my house, and after checking it out ...