Cutting Laquers on VR with feedback head

[Ben]

Hey Guys,
Just have a question for you.

Years ago I bought the Precision plate and the motor to go with my VR, I was wondering if I would upgrade my cutterhead for feedback would it be possible to cut Laquer discs with the appropriate stone?
Has anyone done this?

Cuz I look at the space... and I don't know how I would fit a 14" disc on this... it would totally touch the "strobe" light

Cheers.
Ben

[PMST]

Technically you can cut a lacquer on anything. The biggest issue likely inconsistent groove depth. Especially if using a 1200 or 1210, would 100% need a SP10 or something much more stable if thinking of anything like that. With my precision platter i couldn't get my 1200 platter to a tolerance less than 0.25mm, whereas with my SP10's i can get it to 0.05mm.

[Ben]

Eh Thanks a lot for answering, I thought about it as well the tolerance is a little too big for Laquers.
I saw that Jon (Sunbears) did it with a sp10 as well ... So I'll look into this

Thanks again

[dmills]

Fitting a head with an advance ball might ameliorate that issue?

Still the SP10 is a better machine overall, and seems like an upgrade you would probably want to do before the feedback head dance.

[Dub Studio]

With the correct stone you can cut 10" or 12" lacquers on a 1210 with practically no mods at all, so that might be a good place to start. Moving on to 14" lacquers, you will need to raise the disc somehow to clear the strobe housing as you stated. If you have the precision plate, you can raise it above the turntable platter by using longer grub screws than those provided with the plate itself, but then you risk running out of spindle to clamp the lacquer down. From memory, I think the Mike New bearing has a longer spindle, and there might be others out there, so that is one solution.

Alternatively, if you are prepared to go the trouble of opening up the 1210 to replace the bearing, a much simpler solution is to add some height to the entire motor assembly. As it happens, this is a fairly trivial operation that I have performed a number of times. All you need are the appropriate size washers - 3 to go under the bearing, and 3 (or 4?) to go under the PCB. As far as I recall, the bolts are easily long enough to accommodate the extra millimetres needed to clear the strobe, but if not I presume longer bolts can be used. The cover also allows plenty of room for raising the PCB, so that doesn't seem to be an issue. Once you have the necessary clearance, don't forget to adjust the height of the tone arm as well.

[Dub Studio]

Technically you can cut a lacquer on anything. The biggest issue likely inconsistent groove depth. Especially if using a 1200 or 1210, would 100% need a SP10 or something much more stable if thinking of anything like that. With my precision platter i couldn't get my 1200 platter to a tolerance less than 0.25mm, whereas with my SP10's i can get it to 0.05mm.

I agree an SP10 is a superior turntable in many ways, but its possible to cut lacquers using a standard issue 1210 + precision plate. 14" lacquers are more tricky, but they can be done. I don't cut lacquers often because it is quite fiddly on a VR, but I have cut many 12" singles, EPs and LPs over the years without any serious issues.

[leemichael]

With the correct stone you can cut 10" or 12" lacquers on a 1210 with practically no mods at all...

Rather than going to all of that trouble you could simply just drop the strobe tower inside the turntable. I did this around 7-8 years ago however it was short lived as I my experience an SL1200/1210 simply isn’t good enough for cutting, let alone lacquers.

[Dub Studio]

Rather than going to all of that trouble you could simply just drop the strobe tower inside the turntable. I did this around 7-8 years ago however it was short lived as I my experience an SL1200/1210 simply isn’t good enough for cutting, let alone lacquers.

If you drop the strobe tower does it still work? Besides, don't you have to turn the turntable upside down and take the base off to get to it? I like using the strobe to check the speed is accurate.

Not good enough in what sense?