First Test of My DIY Record Press

[markrob]

Hi,

I was able to make my first test run of my DIY press today. Its a bit crude right now, but I got some good results. I'm using the Emory Cook Microfusion process that allows pressing with much lower pressures (100 psi). I based my press on a cheap 6 ton bench shop press. Its really a glorified car jack. Bought this at Harbor Freight for $100 US. While there, I also picked up two hot plates at $12 US ea. I used the two heating elements mounted to some 1/8" steel plate as platens. I was able to re-use the temperature controls from the hot plates. To run my tests, I needed powered plastic (PVC would be best). I used some 9mm polystyrene beads from the craft store. To convert them into powdered form, I ran them through a coffee grinder (burr type). My test pressing was a using a 1950's 7" stamper made for Apollo Records of NY. I was able to find a few of these at a flea market. Here is a shot of the press with the lower platen and stamper mounted with the powdered plastic spread on the surface:



A closeup of the stamper:



Top platen and ram installed:




The hot plate heaters are then turned on and I used an infrared thermometer to estimate when the heaters were at the correct temperature (about 250 C). I applied a light amount of pressure to fuse the powder and transfer heat for about 30 seconds. To complete the operation, I increased the pressure to the point that I felt some heavy resistance from the jack (it would great to be able to monitor the psi of the jack). I held this for 1 minute and then turned off the heat and released the pressure. I poured some water on the top platen to cool it so that I could remove the record.

Still attached to the top platen:



Removed and ready for play:



Here is a sample of the result:

http://home.comcast.net/~markrob1066/docs/Test1.mp3

The next step is to make things a bit more user friendly and faster. I want to have pre-heated platens and add a book-like fixture that contains the top and bottom stampers with the powdered plastic loaded. This will allow fast loading and unloading of the record. I'll make this from thin aluminum so that the heat transfer is fast. I want to make the platens out of thicker steel so that the heat is even and does not droop durning the pressing operation. I also want to use a better heat source, so that the heat is even across the surface. Looking to find a source for PVC either in poweder or pellet form that is available in small quantities. I'm also considering ways to re-grind old thrift shop records for re-use. All in all, it was a good first start. If anybody has interest, questions, or suggestions, I'd be most interested.

Mark

[opcode66]

Pretty cool brother! Keep it up...

[cymbalism]

This is fricken sweet! Awesome job mark! Now we just to figure out how to make stampers easier and you're good to go!

[SueDenim]

I couldn't have put it better myself!
My jaw hit the floor when I heard the quality of the clip

Cheers for giving us a blow-by-blow account too Mark... fascinating!

[Chris]

Amazing work!

[d]

Congratulations Mark! Really nice!

[aaron]

That is awesome!!! So it looks like record pressing REALLY CAN be done at home

Very impressive work.

[Aussie0zborn]

Well done. That sounds very good considering the stamper would have been badly handled in the flea markets all these years.

Your set-up could easily make flexi-discs (sometimes called soundsheets). All you need to do is feed a roll of PVC between two electric heating elements into the press and cold-press the sheet to imprint the grooves into the warm and now-soft sheet. No need to heat or cool the platen. The centre pin can also punch a hole in the sheet with each stroke.

[mossboss]

Mr Robinson
Well done By the way after looking at your setup can I suggest that why not use a couple of hotplates from a domestic oven which are already encased in cast iron?
Two cents worth
Cheers

[markrob]

Well done. That sounds very good considering the stamper would have been badly handled in the flea markets all these years.

Your set-up could easily make flexi-discs (sometimes called soundsheets). All you need to do is feed a roll of PVC between two electric heating elements into the press and cold-press the sheet to imprint the grooves into the warm and now-soft sheet. No need to heat or cool the platen. The centre pin can also punch a hole in the sheet with each stroke.

Hi Aussie,

Thanks for the feedback. The stamper I used is now almost 60 years old. So I think you are right. Still trying to ID the gospel group that did this. I can't find the matrix numbers listed on any discography for the Apollo lable. The fidelity of the cut is not great. But that is probably standard for the time. The notes on the cardboard sleeve indicate a test of only 11 were done in 1956 and then only 100 in 1958. Probably a rare recording. Some of the surface noise is surely due to poor control of the pressing paramters and the use of polystrene. On my 2.0 version, I plan to do a bit better on controlling the process. The flexi disk idea sounds very interesting. I'll have to give that a try.

Some questions:

When you send out for metalwork, does the plating house return the stamper with the 7" profile created or is this done at the pressing plant?

Is the 1" center hole on my stampers standard or did they vary based on the press?

Is the stamper mounted in the press using the center hole or is it attached at the edges?

Mark

[markrob]

Mr Robinson
Well done By the way after looking at your setup can I suggest that why not use a couple of hotplates from a domestic oven which are already encased in cast iron?
Two cents worth
Cheers

Hi,

That's not a bad Idea. I'll look into that. My plan was to make a form out of steel plate and pour castable refractory cement into the form to encase the heater element along with a thermocouple or themistor for use as a temperature controller. The refractory cement acts a a decent insulator and has some stuctural strength to take the 100 psi press force. My only concern is if the heater expansion would cause the cement to crack when fired up to temp.

Mark

[Aussie0zborn]

Mark, Yior stampers will come back however you want them to. Depending on the plating house, you should be able to ask for flat, unformed stampers. You might also ask for it to have a centre hole punched (this might the actual hole or a smaller pilot hole to allow you to use a tool and die to punch a larger hole of the correct size which suits your set-up). Having the centre hole punched will save you having to buy a centering and punching machine.

The stamper is held down at the centre with the use of the centre bush and the outside edge with the use of a hold-down ring.

Another way to make flexi-discs is to heat the platens and insert pre-cut pvc round sheets with centre-hole already punched in and give each one a stroke. The first method I described was used a on a commercial felx-disc press I saw and the second method on a home-made felxi-disc press. The first method is more succesful. Good luck!

[Jccc]

Really Awesome!

[andybee]

WOW!!!

big up!!!


ähm, how long does it take, to cool down the record?
I think, that is wasting the most time...

anyway, very nice work!

[markrob]

WOW!!!

big up!!!


ähm, how long does it take, to cool down the record?
I think, that is wasting the most time...

anyway, very nice work!

Thanks! I cooled it in a very clumsy way. Remember, this was just a test. I just poured some cold water over the platen after turning off the heat (and unplugging the AC mains power). To be honest, I hadn't really thought that part out. So I was starting to panic as I had all the wires hooked up and I couldn't remove the the platen from the press. Pouring water on it was the first thing that came to mind. I made a bit of a mess in my shop, but got the job done. It cooled pretty quickly. Ultimately, I want to make a book like fixture to hold both stampers and the plastic. You would load the powder and close the book. Then, pop it into the press. The two platens would be heated to temperature and you would do the pre-heat and final high pressure in about two minutes. My plan would then be to remove the book with a tool of some sort (I'm thinking of a pizza oven spatula kind of thing) and cool in a pan of water with enough thermal mass to bring the temperature down to a reasonnalbe level. The book will be made of thin (maybe 1/8"?) plates so that heat is both tranfered and removed quickly.

Mark

[flozki]

hello
great.
i did sucessfull pressing of flexis with an old emobossing press.
and a 2m long crank to get enough pressure...
kind of hand press with a thermal block where you can emboss or thermotransfer a metalfoil on books or anything else.

i used always 2 sets of stampers.

press the stamper1 on a sheet and under the sheet an aluminum sheet
then remove the sandwich and put a regular cookingpot filled with cold water. the water has to be exchanged after 20-30 records....
in the meantime you can press stamper nr.2
so during cooling i make ready the other stamper and press it.

with this method we pressed 1000 flexis per hand in a day....
just wish i had automated it....
never had time for that.

problem is the cooling. if you want to use thermal block then you need to cool external. otherwise you run into same problem as on a regular press..
huge energy consumption. to cool down the thermal block and heat it up again.... only possible in short time with steam, and water for cooling.

[markrob]

hello
great.
i did sucessfull pressing of flexis with an old emobossing press.
and a 2m long crank to get enough pressure...
kind of hand press with a thermal block where you can emboss or thermotransfer a metalfoil on books or anything else.

i used always 2 sets of stampers.

press the stamper1 on a sheet and under the sheet an aluminum sheet
then remove the sandwich and put a regular cookingpot filled with cold water. the water has to be exchanged after 20-30 records....
in the meantime you can press stamper nr.2
so during cooling i make ready the other stamper and press it.

with this method we pressed 1000 flexis per hand in a day....
just wish i had automated it....
never had time for that.

problem is the cooling. if you want to use thermal block then you need to cool external. otherwise you run into same problem as on a regular press..
huge energy consumption. to cool down the thermal block and heat it up again.... only possible in short time with steam, and water for cooling.

Hi Flo,

Thanks for the comments and ideas. I was actually looking at these hot stamp presses before deciding to try the shop press.

I'm hoping that the recovery time won't be too bad, but even if you have to wait a few minutes between pressings, I think it might still ok for short runs. My next version will allow me to experiment more. I'm sure there are still a good many issues to deal with. That the fun part for me. I'll keep you posted.

I really want to try the flexidisc ideas.

Mark

[concretecowboy71]

That is pretty amazing. Cool song too.

[Bonati]

Very industrious, man. Keep it up!

[mossboss]

hello
great.
i did sucessfull pressing of flexis with an old emobossing press.
and a 2m long crank to get enough pressure...
kind of hand press with a thermal block where you can emboss or thermotransfer a metalfoil on books or anything else.

i used always 2 sets of stampers.

press the stamper1 on a sheet and under the sheet an aluminum sheet
then remove the sandwich and put a regular cookingpot filled with cold water. the water has to be exchanged after 20-30 records....
in the meantime you can press stamper nr.2
so during cooling i make ready the other stamper and press it.

with this method we pressed 1000 flexis per hand in a day....
just wish i had automated it....
never had time for that.

problem is the cooling. if you want to use thermal block then you need to cool external. otherwise you run into same problem as on a regular press..
huge energy consumption. to cool down the thermal block and heat it up again.... only possible in short time with steam, and water for cooling.

Hi Flo,

Thanks for the comments and ideas. I was actually looking at these hot stamp presses before deciding to try the shop press.

I'm hoping that the recovery time won't be too bad, but even if you have to wait a few minutes between pressings, I think it might still ok for short runs. My next version will allow me to experiment more. I'm sure there are still a good many issues to deal with. That the fun part for me. I'll keep you posted.

I really want to try the flexidisc ideas.

Mark

Hey Mark
Here is another one for you
If you get a coil of 1/2" copper and rewind it as close as you can and stick it behind your flat plate with another flat plate on top like a sandwich Run your garden hose through it you will get fairly rapid cooling
Now for an improvement fill the gaps in the copper coil with heat transfer compound obtained from a commercial refrigerator manufacturer as used in freezer boxes and pour a bit of plastic steel around the perimeter so as to seal it in and stick a few bolts so as to keep it all together
Than your cooling would get down to acceptable levels
Flexi discs Not with your setup as it is unless you use Mylar the normal pvc sheet will just roll up like crispy bacon Mylar would cost you around $1 per sheet pricey but it will make a flexi
Archive suppliers will be happy to supply you a few sheets
Keep at it
Cheers
Cheers