rek o kut m12 with Astatic m41 cuttinghead

[socialroots]

Greetings all, i have Rek o kut challeger(well,still waiting for it to arrive!) that has the original astatic m41 head ,now ive yet to log on some hrs to test out its capabilities,but from reading about it in older posts,ive come to the conclusion that at one point in the future im gonna want to try to upgrade to a better cuttinghead ,probably at least a Presto 1c or1d, Fairchild ,Simple and mono. Well checking out theAstatic41,i see that its the flat style,horizontal kind of head and im thinking ,is it possible to mount the vertical stye head onto the rek o kut lathe?
Does anyone here have any experience with changing the original Astatic M41 head on the rek o cut m12 ,with a Presto 1c?
Any kind of input,advice would be much appreciated,big respect going out the all the people in this forum for that contribute so much people like me ,who are new to all this.
This might be the ONLY school for learning this Art/Craft that exists at the moment,a blessing for sure!
Big up from Taiwan!

[mratx]

It's not too difficult to do. You can either make a horizontal to vertical adapter, basically an angled piece of metal, or make an entire new head mount unit, which is basically the angled piece of metal plus a counterweight plus the bearing/mounting points. I think someone on this list was once selling the adapters for Rek-O-Kuts, so if someone still is that would be the simplest.

I went with making an adapter, since I had issues figuring out what to use for the bearings for the mounting on a new unit and I was too lazy to spend too much time researching it. But I did also have to adjust the counterweight and rear spring because of the increased weight of the presto head.


Mark

[ROLANDJAYS]

are you looking for something like this???

[socialroots]

ROLANDJAYS,thats exactly what im looking for! wish my rek o kut came with the shiny audax head that i see quite often on other peoples rek o kut posted sometimes on this forum. would need another mod to be able to lean back enough to emboss properly?due to economics i will probably end up embossing on pc more than cutting.
Mark,i like the easiest way as well,function deffinitely more important for me than form.
intially i was just worried about the vertical clearence,never thought about the extra weight,counter balance ,thanks for sharing the insight,cery important detail indeed.
the spring,will i need to replace it,or is it just a tension tweek?
i will check older posts for that adapter ,and see its still available for purchase.
thanks for the helpful info!
Patrick

[socialroots]

ROLANDJAYS, are the heads in the pics yours? ive yet to hear anything cut with that M41, how is is it ? IF IT SOUNDS LIKE IT LOOKS ,then im not gonna expect much,cuz the more i look at the picture the more im wishing for that audax(which ive heard cuts before from ,soundcloud,youtube),something about the chrome finish,for my eyes looks gorgeous compared to the Astatic M41 with its gustapo grey,military WWII finish!