Help please for Vinylium Dubcutter...

[Mudshark]

Hi everyone, new here as a member, but as the owner of a Vinylium Dubcutter I have been reading the forum for some time. I bought the machine with no cutting experience whatsoever, merely an interest in this fascinating hobby, and from the beginning struggled like hell to get a decent cut.... However, almost every problem problem was caused by the fact that a modified Technics 1200 (my one anyway) was not up to the job, being neither flat nor powerful enough (torque I mean). After months and months of thinking it was just my inexperience that was the problem, I bit the bullet, bought a Technics SP10 mkII and got a toolmaker to make me a dead flat and adjustable platter to cut on. After that I was able to overcome any problems. It's much easier when you can rule out your turntable as the culprit for a bad cut.
I have to say that customer support was almost non existent, and they always took weeks to answer, if ever....
This leads me to a request for help from you guys, please... For some time now I have been getting really good cuts but with one intermittent fault.... The cutterhead goes through phases of sticking - therefore creating a locked groove - in the middle of a cut somewhere, before somehow jumping out of it and carrying on with the cut, as if the cutter head has somehow stopped for a second or so (long enough to lock the groove) and then correcting itself. It changes and can be anywhere, start, middle or end of the cut. I polish the bars with a soft cloth and clean the feedscrew by letting it rotate, and slowly move a soft toothbrush along it, but it doesn't seem to help always.
So my question, which was ignored by Vinylium and must seem an ultra-newbie question to you guys is... Should I lubricate the bars and feedscrew? And if so then what with? Is this normal practice which should be done routinely? If so is there any reason in particular that it shouldn't be done on a Vinylium Dubcutter?
Thanks so much for your help.

[flozki]

well vinylium is almost dead. nobody knows but dont expect too much help nowadays.
i guess you did not bought that recently from vinylium.
and normally with a regular stock 1200/1210 it works great.
i know even people cutting sucessfully polycarbonate and pvc plates....its just delicate with the groove with...
but a sp10 even better.then its top.


the bars dont need lubrification. its high tech plastic bearing. no need for lubrification. its even contra priductive depending on oil...
just have to be clean. the bars are inox i think not a problem

the feedscrew itself.you can use some thin grease or even any universal oil. just a bit not too much.

the problem with feedscrew is to 90% the motor lost its position and the pulley makes some friction to the case.
open the sideplate. you will see the belt and pulley.
motor is into damping material into the tube not accessible. but you can pull the pulley (small one) and the motor will be back in position.
it should have 1mm distance against the wall or so.

could be that the damping material lost a little bit of friction or that during transport the motor was pushed inside a bit.


i dont have a mechanics here. so i cant rempember how the hlafnut is made. and i think it has not to be adjusted.
so mostly the problem was the friction of pulles against case because of that lost motor position.

[Mudshark]

Thanks so much for that Flozki. I wasn't expecting such a fast answer, especially from the man himself
I had a look at the pulleys and you were correct that the rubber was rubbing against the case. I pulled it out to 1mm like you said, so hopefully it will have cured it... I'll post again after some more cuts to confirm.
Can I ask another another question while I have your attention?
I was having a problem with cuts going grey and noisy randomly, but usually towards the end of a cut. After making sure the stylus was alignedsquarely to the torque tube, and the cutting head was square to the vinyl many many times, I still had the problem. It plagued me for months. I then noticed that part of the Dubcutter that the cutting head is attached to (obviously the part which raises it up and down) had some side movement from left to right and could twist (ie. turn like a knob) about a mil or so. Is this normal?
My thinking was if it were to move during a cut (through vibration or whatever) then the tube (& stylus) would no longer be square to the dub plate. Hence the grey and noisy grooves. As a quick fix (?) I cut a small piece of thin but rigid plastic and trapped it under one of the screws just behind the cutter head. So it could only move up and down and not side to side. After that the problem has not happened again... Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again Flozki...

[Scoobs]

Hi there Mudshark, I have extensive experience with the cutter you have and would very much like to speak with you over the phone if at all possible? Please message me at platterrecords -at- hotmail. - dot- com. Cheers. Scoobs.