Let's talk about DIY pressing

[Self-lather]

I originally sent this info as a private message to someone who was asking me about my Emory Cook experiments, but I figured anyone wanting to get into doing some experimental pressing could probably benefit from this, so here's my two cents:

For the press, I built a mini four column hydraulic press, and built some some electric heated platens out of aluminum. I use a laser thermometer for checking the temps of plates.



Honestly, you can start experimenting even without the book. You just need a press, two heated surfaces, and a stamper (preferably one that has already been formed for a press). Heat the press up to about 320 degrees, and fill the surface of the stamper with perler beads. Before putting the beads on the stamper, put a piece of aluminum foil over the center of the stamper- this will save you a huge headache when removing the record from the stamper. Close the press just minimally. If you press to hard the beads will dent the stamper. Since you don't have a cooling press like the Emory cook patents calls for, you'll need to let it cool on the press. After about a minute on full heat, turn the heat off and let the press cool for about 20-30 mins. After that you can release the pressure and pull the record off the stamper. You'll need to drill a hole in the middle of the record for playback. I've had varying degrees of success with this, but I expect to have a much better success rate once I have the book design complete.

Here's an example of one the kind of record you end up with using the perler beads.



A couple things I've learned from experimenting with this:

You will definitely destroy not one but many many stampers experimenting with this stuff. I buy them cheap on ebay and I've probably destroyed 10 just messing around with this stuff. In time you become more aware of what works and doesn't and I'm pretty good at keeping them in good shape now.

Plastics melt at all different temperatures. Some will melt at much lower temperatures, and some will start to burn at lower temperatures then you expect. You want the plastic to melt, but if you burn it, your stamper is toast. Patience is a virtue when it comes to this. Slowly increase the temperature when testing an unknown plastic, and I highly recommend buying a respirator- this stuff is toxic if you get it too hot.

Hope this info helps anyone wanting to start doing some experimenting with diy pressing.

[rsimms3]

Cool stuff!

A few questions:

1. How large are the pellets you are using? From the picture they look fairly large. Did you grind them any or have you considered that to decrease the amount of heat needed for melting and fusion? I remember reading about the Cook process and my impression was that the plastic used was a near powder consistency.

2. Is there a specific seller from eBay you are buying stampers? How much do they cost on average?

3. How do they sound?

[Self-lather]

1. How large are the pellets you are using? From the picture they look fairly large. Did you grind them any or have you considered that to decrease the amount of heat needed for melting and fusion? I remember reading about the Cook process and my impression was that the plastic used was a near powder consistency.

They are standard perler bead size, maybe a few millimeters in width. Its definitely better to use something that's more granular. I haven't found a great solution yet for grinding up the beads yet. I've blown out a couple coffee grinders. Some beads work better than others for grinding in the coffee grinder.

Is there a specific seller from eBay you are buying stampers? How much do they cost on average?

There isn't a specific seller I use, I just search from time to time to see whats available. People price them all over the board, but I won't generally pay over $20 for a set in good shape.

How do they sound?

The sound is varying, but the reasons aren't what you might think. The problems arise from variations in the thickness and the center hole not being precise. I think a lot of this will be solved once I complete the book design which will allow for more precision in thickness and a proper center hole.

Hope this helps.
-Thomas

[ROLANDJAYS]

when you say " stampers " what are they made out of ?
what shape are they ?
how thick are they?
can you make your own out of sheet metal or something else ?


i tried this but didnt get as far as you did , i kept burning the plastic and then scraping it off my mold for long time .

[sakuszi]

a great idea, and maybe take a litl of dry grass straw and pour it all nitro car lauqcer color, then just before drying whole is put into the press 100 tons, what do you think gentlemen? :

[Self-lather]

when you say " stampers " what are they made out of ?
what shape are they ?
how thick are they?
can you make your own out of sheet metal or something else ?

They are nickel plated stampers, like this:



I'm not sure of the thickness. I don't know a way currently you could make them at home, you'd need a massive electroplating setup. That's not to say it can't be done, proving people wrong about what can't be done at home is one of my favorite hobbies. Who knows what the motivated DIYer could come up with.

[Self-lather]

a great idea, and maybe take a litl of dry grass straw and pour it all nitro car lacquer color, then just before drying whole is put into the press 100 tons, what do you think gentlemen? :

I'm guessing this is a joke. I'm often surprised by the number of naysayers on this forum, when often its DIYers that are driving new innovation in the field. Its easy to conclude because something hasn't been done that it can't be done. In my opinion that is short sited. And in this instance, this is actually based on something that has been done in the past.

Did you know that Emory Cook patented and implemented a low pressure relatively small sized press that use powdered 'biscuits' instead of extruded plastic? It operated at low temperatures, and used significantly less pressure than a traditional press. This is what I am replicating.

Here's a record created with said method:



The method was called Microfusion:

[recordboy]

Neat
I recall last year reading someone on here doing a home press. I think it was much larger though. will be fun to watch yr thread.

for some odd reason though only the top most (1st) image shows up for me. all else are just blocks. I refreshed several times. maybe a temp web issue. curious to see other pix.

btw i do seem to recall someone having a thread who was dipping etc. in his garage.

cheers

[Self-lather]

Mark Rob did a press as well a couple years back. There's also been a good deal of experimenting with molds and resins.

All the pics are showing up for me, probably just a temp issue with imgur.

-Thomas

[Self-lather]

a great idea, and maybe take a litl of dry grass straw and pour it all nitro car laqucer color, then just before drying whole is put into the press 100 tons, what do you think gentlemen? :

Hey Sakuszi,

Apologies for my last reply. I jumped to the conclusion that you were poking fun at the idea of DIY pressing, when in fact it could have just been an issue of a totally legitimate idea being lost in translation. I just didn't see how grass straw could be used in the process of records pressing, or perhaps this is a mistranslation? Even if not, there have been crazier ideas.

Anyways.. if it was an actual idea, I'd love hear more about it 'cause I love crazy ideas.

-Thomas

[Sillitoe]

Hi Thomas!

Awesome work!!!
It'd be great to hear some results.

Cheers
James

[sakuszi]

Hey Sakuszi,

Apologies for my last reply. I jumped to the conclusion that you were poking fun at the idea of DIY pressing, when in fact it could have just been an issue of a totally legitimate idea being lost in translation. I just didn't see how grass straw could be used in the process of records pressing, or perhaps this is a mistranslation? Even if not, there have been crazier ideas.

Anyways.. if it was an actual idea, I'd love hear more about it 'cause I love crazy ideas.

-Thomas[/quote]
I do not offend quickly,I will not soon close in a .
Dry grass has particular characteristics, the straw from grain.
Grass and straw should be prepared, undergo a drying process to be very dry, the humidity can not be greater than 1%. These two components must be subjected to a milling roller mill, such as ground meal. This must be ground to dust. The lacquer is binding component grass filler component, the two components are mixed in the extruder. Stepel, the matrix must be greased with vegetable oil, then the slurry of flour and lacquer applied to the surface of the matrix, at the right time, when the suspension, the substance completely dried up, say 95%. The emphasis, both matrices present, can be small, say 1 ton to 300 mm
Such a material has excellent properties, it is very tough but flexible, similar to the vinyl record . It is like a mirror, glass flexible, very smooth surface, and has no air bubbles, while silicon has hidden air.

[Human2]

Hi there,

Hopefully we gonna purchase a t560 from souri, if everything will go OK.
We want to make short run production by cutting,
now I can see that I can also do some short run pressing,

If we'll have the t560 then we can make lacquer master, there is a factory near that do some metal covering to stuff, and maybe he could make the silver+nickel cover. Im checking it out.
if I understood corectly, then after the metal covering i have a stamper, and i can press with him.

i have a sort of heating press, that make prints on shirts, it has a temp control and can reach 399 C,
do you think i can modify it to press me some records? (the pic is not exectly what I have, but close enough,)

I saw your pics of the records you created, the look is not quite nice. this is what we can achive with this kind of press? or more close to a normal record.

most of my work will be on 12", just for knowledge.

Thanks,

Shahar.

[The_House_Records]

No, that wont work. You need at least 10 tons of force to do you any good.

[audiosteam]

I'm gathering information before starting to follow you in experimenting with Microfusion. There's little information online, except the patents. I contacted the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at the Smithsonian Center. They have valuable information for us, such as

Folder 9: Articles By and About Emory Cook and Cook Labs
Folder 10: Articles By and About Emory Cook and Cook Labs
Folder 11: Articles By and About Emory Cook and Cook Labs
Folder 12: Articles By and About Emory Cook and Cook Labs
Folder 18: Cook Inventions, Technical Notes and Drawings
Folder 19: Cook Inventions, Patents
Folder 20: Miscellaneous

I'm waiting for their reply to know if I can access these files remotely as I live overseas. If not possible has someone ever visited the archives? Or would some US Troll be interested in going there?

Alex

[audiosteam]

I got access to all the aforementioned documents. This is absolutely amazing, there's so much material that I'll need several days to go through it. I'll post a few things and make a folder to share. Anyone interested can get the documents from me.

[audiosteam]

I gathered and sorted all the stuff I found about Cook. Find the ZIP here

[markrob]

Hi,

Thanks for posting that! I did a good deal of tinkering with a DIY Microfusion press I constructed some time ago. I plan to get back to it again in the future, so this will really help.

Mark

[CutR]

I gathered and sorted all the stuff I found about Cook. Find the ZIP here

Thank you very much for uploading this can't wait to get stuck into it.

[punkrock]

This is an intersting topic! I searched Ebay and found a few record stampers for sale. One of them was particularly...

See and LISTEN by yourself. What do you think? Did he destroy it?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DAVID-BOWIE-HEROES-Original-Metallic-Stamper-Matrix/264161860899?hash=item3d81461d23:g:hn8AAOSwtINcSgfe:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true