The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Welcome. I hope you can put this machine to good use. I don't own this particular model (I have a slightly later one) but there are plenty on here that do. You can find a wealth of info by searching here under Presto K - anything. Yours is known as the K8. Do you have a basic familiarity with how to...

well i may need to tackle this problem myself, i'm looking at some old recordio type machines i'm gonna get one to play with, can't find any european models so will probably buy from US which is 60Hz i think UK is 50 i't would be handy to know of others similar challenges! Of course there is the vo...

maybe that was true many years (decades) ago i've installed these units this link shows a commercially available unit single phase, for induction motors. this one's a bit big thats why better to make one, maybe get one salvaged Sorry. They used to be that way and when you said thyristor controlled ...

It's been a while since the last post...... There are Thyristor controlled motor speed controllers that work by changing the supply frequency, this would solve the supply problem. If you are hands-on enough you could build one yourself as it will only be low power, your machine can't use much energ...

Is there a commercial process for production?
Is this a mastered and pressed CD sized vinyl stuck to a commercially produced CD?
These can't be one-offs cut on recorded CD-R blanks.
Who is doing this? Someone here must know.

I just recently got my lathe going, and I have tried a couple of cuts. I am having a issue of the pitch being slightly off during playback on another record player. I just had my motor rebuilt could this be the issue, or do I need to look at the idler wheels? Its seems to be just a few cents off of...

Were 16" lacquers once commonly used to master 12" discs?
Or has 14" always been the preferred size for those?

BTW, the laser turntable will only accept 12" discs...
I'm pretty sure you can't squeeze one onto an SL-1200 either even if the arm were long enough.

i had to post this bizarre lathe dream last night.... keep in mind i have spent about a week dealing with lead screw/carriage issues on my neumann. dream= old lathe with leadscrew driven by a stationary bike propped up on an old metal frame bed. someone had to pedal the bike as someone else dropped...

Perhaps the Presto history man or someone more knowledgeable than me will be kind enough to comment on how these systems hooked together and functioned.

If my memory serves me correctly, this supplied power for their outboard microphone mixer. There may be a schematic in Oliver Reads Recording & Reproduction of Sound. I will try to remember to check my copy tonight & post the results. I have that book and had a look in there and didn't see it. Migh...

To me, that looks like the old cinch-jones plug. They are still available. http://www.kvconnection.com/Cinch-Jones-s/370.htm for instance. I have seen them used for speaker jacks on the old school record players. If they are wired anything like the 2 pin DIN speaker connectors the smaller one is hot...

Hi, I wonder how much of that rule goes back to the days when pickup tracking force was measured in oz. rather than grams? Mark Exactly. One of you out there who has a lathe plus plating and pressing at your disposal should conduct an experiment where you cut 3 identical discs, (they could be 10" f...

This is very funny!! How about the Scottish bagpipes album that EMI Australia had been selling for years? A guy who bought the record rings EMI to say his copy of the LP is playing backwards. After confirming his turntable was spinning in the right direction they checked the record and the master t...

Len has been beyond helpful to me through the years. I am grateful for his friendship.

Hi, the RIAA curve applied during reecording is the mirror of the published curve for playback with a magnetic pickup. Mark Did we not have a big discussion with CD4 somewhere on this forum before that this is not actually the case? Something to do with the additional constant amplitude vs. constan...

Well, it looks like i've been doing all of my cutting without a platter bearing! I'm surprised it has worked as well as it has. Anyone have an idea where to find a replacement? ?????????? I think there should be a metal shaft on the platter and a bushing it should slide into on the deck plate. This...

You will note it also has some sort of RF feedback system.
A very odd cutter.
The famous 670 limiter that everyone loves has the converter from L/R to sum and difference built in, called Lat./Vert. I think. It allowed separate compression for the two components.

Don't know if this is directly applicable to you, but on my Rek-O-Kut table the idlers worked better in one configuration than the other. Have you tried just swapping the 33 and 45 idlers? (if that will work in your case)

The playback styli used in the RCA CED videodisc players are NOTHING like those required for audio disc recording or playback. They are extremely tiny by comparison. The CED records turned at 450rpm and were recorded at about 9,000 lpi and the styli are appropriately small. Yes, Virginia, this is m...

if it's the same as the k-10 and it probably is, the green is standard pitch 112lpi and the unpainted one is microgroove 224lpi. My k-10 also has a red one and a black one for inside out standard and microgroove. That makes sense and both of mine are cut the same direction and that is outside in fo...