I upgraded!

[piaptk]

After a couple years of slaving over a 6n, I (literally) had a dream a week ago about buying Alan Graves' lathe which has been for sale for a while, but was out of my price range. I spent all day fantasizing about it and then called Alan in the afternoon, (called my wife to get the ok (Can;t believe she let me with us being down to one income and having an 8 week old baby, but she did, and at that moment (amongst many others) I realized what a great woman I had), went to the bank, took out a small loan, and three days later I drove down to Eugene, OR and bought his awesome Presto 8C and 90a cutting amp amongst other odds and sods.

This was probably a prototype, because Alan couldn't find it in any of his literature and had never seen another. He made a lot of neat little mods, like vacuum platter, stylus light, and replacing the pulley tree to cut up to 224lpi (the original only went up to 144 or something).

Just made my first cut, and can't wait to really dig in!

[fraggle]

awesome dude have fun:)

[dietrich10]

congrats!

[JayDC]

i' like to know how he did the vac platter mod

[malatesta]

Fantastic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[piaptk]

i' like to know how he did the vac platter mod

He drilled a hole in the top of the center spindle and three holes at the bottom of it. He then cut three grooves in the rubber mat that matched the three holes in the bottom of the spindle. Then he made that little round cup thing that sits on the center post and has the vacuum which sucks the air through the grooves in the mat, into the post and outt hrough the tube.

The only problem I forsee is cutting anything smaller than a 10". How did these original keep the disc in contact with the mat so that the record didn't stop turning once the needle made contact? Didn't they use a big weight in the middle? Anyone know an easy substitute for that? or have an extra?

[emorritt]

The only problem I forsee is cutting anything smaller than a 10". How did these original keep the disc in contact with the mat so that the record didn't stop turning once the needle made contact? Didn't they use a big weight in the middle? Anyone know an easy substitute for that? or have an extra?

Drive pin. Look under the turntable mat and there should be a second hole where the drive pin was originally mounted.

[piaptk]

The only problem I forsee is cutting anything smaller than a 10". How did these original keep the disc in contact with the mat so that the record didn't stop turning once the needle made contact? Didn't they use a big weight in the middle? Anyone know an easy substitute for that? or have an extra?

Drive pin. Look under the turntable mat and there should be a second hole where the drive pin was originally mounted.

Any other ideas? I would rather not have to drill drivepin holes in all my picnic plates/poly carb etc blanks.

[bancho]

use some scotch tape at sides and tape it to the mat.

[opcode66]

There are also those clamps that go on the center pin and hold the record down. I've seen a lot of pics of these from back in the day. Seems that if you didn't have an overhead mechanism on your lathe, then it either had the extra locking pin or you would use a pin clamp.

Souri's version of a center pin clamp is nothing more than a brass disc (puck) with a hole drilled out for the center pin and a threaded hole drilled into the side. There is a screw in the threaded hole that when tightened locks the brass disc to the center pin.

[markrob]

Hi,

A few ideas come to mind:

1. Fabricate a new mat with grooves that match the original but only travel to the end of the 10" diameter.

2. Fabricate an outside ring out of the same material you are cutting (e.g. polycarb) to stand in for the open outer area where the suction ends.

3. Fasten to the mat with double sided adheasive tape.

4. Faten to the mat at the outside edge of the disc with small pieces of masking tape.

Mark

[mossboss]

In looking at your very well executed set up it would be easier to re arrange the suction tube by remounting it on the other side
This may be reversing the problem You may not be able to do 14" cuts but you should be fine with 12" by the look of it
Alt 1
Would be to leave the mount where it is but alte the tube
Elbow it out 90 d than Straight down and than 90 d in so the lot clears the top of the shaft
Alt 2
If the way you described is understood by myself than the cup can be dispensed with if he machines some gallerries on the mat or even a piece of alluminum with the holes for suction on the right perimeter you want
But you may have to have various sizes for the diff lacquers or blanks
That is all the Neumann system is any way but its on the platter
The suction would hold both the ally plate and the lacquer down with a bit of the good old Apollo paper in between
Good luck with it
Nice rig
Cheers

[petermontg]

congrats mike and congrats on the new born.