Some of you already know that I was experimenting on an "New" type of embossing stylus!
Having experiments on Tungsten and Sapphire stylus so long I realize the Pro & Cons of each stylus.
The classic TUNGSTEN stylus we all know, is the cheapest way to start with! Mine is 21mm long , 1.6mm wide , weights 0.77gr and cone angle is 90 degree.
Fidelity is LOW but is has a real LOW Background Noise! (Background Noise is something that I really care cause I hate it so I try to minimize the best I can
![Wink ;-)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Not to forget that Tungsten's "cutting life" is quite Low but It can be polished very easy!
On the other hand , SAPPHIRE cones offers a much Better Fidelity which is really worth! The one I got from Mike is 18mm long , 1.5mm wide , weights 0.09gr and cone angle is 87 degrees.
You get much Better Fidelity when you work on 7" but when work on 12" there is too much background noise , mostly like a pink noise and sometime like screams! I did tried different angles, weight , lubricant solutions etc with no results on my system
![Sad :-(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
Cutting life on Sapphire is longer but re-sharpering must be done by an expert.
Examining Both stylus I was looking how can I get get both advantages with less cons I can, so I got the idea of making a embossing stylus that will use the same Aluminium Shank but instead of Sapphire cone tip to use a Tungsten one! This way I can get the advantage of Lowering the stylus moving mass (which I believe is part of the solid Tungsten's Low Fidelity performance) and also to make Low Background noise on both 7" & 12" disks like with Tungsten stylus! All these lead me to the following design:
As shown you noticed that I use a 0.5mm Tangsten rod. I decided to use this for lowering the most of the mass I can. The specs of this are as following: 18mm long , 1.6mm wide , weight 0.09gr and 90 degree cone angle. Its been almost 3 months I got this idea , it just the last week that I had some time to work on it! So here is the final stylus (also compared to the other two above)
Making the test cut I realize that Fidelity is equal (if not better) of the Sapphire cone! Although I noticed that even Sapphire cones improves Fidelity there is something still missing from the music..well with my stylus is just there! Is like music gets more life! I don't know how to explain but that's what I noticed on the first cuts I done. Personally i'm really very satisfied according to music cutting results but when I will find more time I will make some comparisson cuts (same samples / settings) so there will see what are the real differences!
Please note my setup consists of a Rek-O-Kut Master Pro lathe (V platter & B-5 overhead @270LPI) and a modded Presto 1-D cutterhead.
I like to share this with you and I'm curious of the results if someone make one and try on his lathe!
Thanks
Tasos
Epos Laboratory