Can anyone make shaped picturediscs ?

[lathefan]

Hi, I am looking for a pressing plant who can make shaped picturediscs, didnt think anyone made these anymore but then I saw this one http://www.discogs.com/In-Flames-Black-Ash-Inheritance/release/929368

made in 07, so someone seems to be able to make them. Anyway I am looking to make a couple of titles every year so please pm me or write in the thread.

[Aussie0zborn]

Anyone that makes picture discs should be able to help you. Shaped picture discs are 12" pressings with a 7" cut on them. They are then punched to the shape required. The expensive part is getting them cut to shape. If a plant has this service lined up then all is well and good. Otherwise you will have to get them punched yourself. Either way they are still do-able.

Phonopress in Italy make picture discs.

[mossboss]

OK
There are two ways of doing this
Always it is a 7" recording pressed with a 12" die/mould
One can reprofile a mould to that shape as well as have the stamper also pressed to shape so as to conform to the mould
Than the record is trimed by hand as it no longer a round shape where the trimming is done in a round trimmer
So the point is this Any pressing plant can do it with manual presses as it is not that difficult
It is time consuming as well as the cost of reprofiling a set of moulds and getting a former to suit
So if it is a reasonable qty of records as well as a reasonable price offered by the customer for them keeping in mind the hand operation involved I can see no issue at all
Keep in mind that since one needs to do the reprofilling as well as the former so any shape can be had
The alternative is to reprofile a 12" set of moulds so as to make a 7" record leaving the material remaining past the starting spiral of the 7" so it is a 12" size record with a 7" playable area
Than it can be cut to any shape up to the starting groove with an automatic overhead router which is what they have done on this one
I have seen them in various shapes over the years
One that was quite cute was in the shape of a circular saw blade the name of the band was something realated to "sharp sounds" or some such
So these are the two ways one can produce shaped records
The difference is that in the first instance it gives you nicely formed radius edges while the second method gives you a rectangular cut at the cut shape where the high speed router has cut away the remaining PVC compound
These routers are used in the Printed circuit board industry and they use a tungsteen bit to cut fiberglass boards at very high speed
Hope this is of some help to you and others here
At least you now may have a better appreciation of the steps involved
So you or any one else can pm me with they requirements as well as the target price and see if it makes sense to do
Cheers

[GeorgeZ]

Hi lathefan,

GZ Vinyl is able to do shaped picture discs for sure. I know it because I work there It's been confirmed to me today by our head of vinyl customer service dept.

http://www.gzvinyl.com/vinyl-27/products-506/shaped-vinyl-659/

For US market I recommend to contact our broker Pirates Press - www.piratespress.com

Example of shaped picture disc:
http://piratespress.com/rotw/?p=316

We use manual presses and our own trimming process so it is no problem for us to do it... if you have enough money of course

Also we are not limited to 7'' cuts and can cut plates with any size you want. The available space for grooves and max. time for audio are limited only by complexity of the requested shape and its deepness towards the center of record.

[mossboss]

Hey all
So is Phono press as well as Zenith Records as well as Diamond Black Nothing new here mate Just a lot of cost involved
Cheers

[Monkey]

I did not think DB did shaped picture disc's?

[mossboss]

Hey people who make picture discs can do a shaped disc no problem if there is sufficient numbers and pounds involved Not weight mulah, dosh, mamon call it whatever
Cheers

[piaptk]

In The US, Eri-ca Rec-ords makes shaped picture discs. I wouldn't personally recommend them, because I've had multiple very bad experiences with them both records I pressed through them. I've known people who had pretty good experiences with Pirates Press, though.