My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

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Gus
Posts: 223
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2013 4:38 pm
Location: Athens,Greece

My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42535Unread post Gus
Tue May 17, 2016 7:32 pm

Hi!
Here is the Fairchild 539 lathe, the photo taken from ebay who has listed in 2013 and it has sold for 1.230 Euros or 1.649$ but not by me :)
fairchild06.JPG
fairchild11.JPG
fairchild17.JPG
After one month the winner removes the overhead included the cutterhead :shock: and sold it to me for 310$
i think it was a good deal :D
ebay-2.1.jpg
so my new project starts on August 2013 .

to be continued...
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42545Unread post Gus
Wed May 18, 2016 9:15 am

Here is what i've received
fairchild03.JPG
fairchild04.JPG
fairchild05.JPG
so after 70 + years it's time to disassembly it for a good clean, re lube and repaint!
PIC_0132.JPG
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Last edited by Gus on Wed May 18, 2016 9:26 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Gus
Posts: 223
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Location: Athens,Greece

Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42546Unread post Gus
Wed May 18, 2016 9:22 am

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Gus
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Location: Athens,Greece

Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42547Unread post Gus
Wed May 18, 2016 9:32 am

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Gus
Posts: 223
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Location: Athens,Greece

Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42548Unread post Gus
Wed May 18, 2016 9:38 am

PIC_0111.JPG
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to be continued...
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Gus
Posts: 223
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Location: Athens,Greece

Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42558Unread post Gus
Wed May 18, 2016 8:52 pm

After a good clean with many chemicals :? all the parts are shine like new :wink:
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42559Unread post Gus
Wed May 18, 2016 8:55 pm

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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42560Unread post Gus
Wed May 18, 2016 9:00 pm

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Gus
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Location: Athens,Greece

Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42561Unread post Gus
Wed May 18, 2016 9:21 pm

Before
fairchild11.JPG
After
PIC_0249.JPG

it's time to check the cutterhead :wink:
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42577Unread post Gus
Thu May 19, 2016 7:57 pm

First of all i didn't like the idea of Allen screw i would like to be able to remove the cutting stylus with my fingers.
what i did was to make my own screw
PIC_0595.JPG
Also as you can see i swap the Allen screws of damping blocks with Phillips Screws because the difference of U.S vs E.U. Allen key sizes
DSC_0005.jpg
This nice document of B.B.C writes the d.c. resistance of Fairchild 541A must to be 132 Ohms that means the head works with old school 500 ohm amp.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1948-32.pdf

After a Deep Breath... YES!!! My multi-meter writes 131.3 Ohms that means the cutterhead seems to work. :)
PIC_0535.JPG
70 + years, is a good idea to recharge the magnet for how to you can read more infos at this useful thread http://lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5207&p=34753&hilit=remagnetize#p34753
DSC_0002.JPG
Now it's time to find the suitable amp for the cutterhead.

To be continued.
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42627Unread post Gus
Sun May 22, 2016 8:28 pm

Suitable amp for Fairchild cutterhead is UNIT 540 AMPLIFIER - EQUALIZER very rare and very expensive these days.
Fairchild Unit 540 eq-amp.jpg
Second option was to build my own tube amp with 500ohm output or to find a P.A. amp with 100volt output.
Third option was an amplifier and reversed 100 volt line transformer.
i found at my storeroom a new 300w car amplifier
PIC_0266.JPG
i had bought it for my E30 but never used :)
BMW-E30-M3-broch-pg06.jpg
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42628Unread post Gus
Sun May 22, 2016 8:39 pm

With the help of member markrob i've found the correct transformer for my amplifier and cutterhead.
markrob wrote:Connect the 100V, 15 watt tap to the head which will be a pretty close match to a 500 ohm head. You can calculate the secondary impedance from R = (V squared) / power. In this case: 10000 /15 watts = 667 ohms).

Mark
IMAGE_300.jpg

As PSU to drive the amplifier i've used a 500watt P.C. PSU
PSU.jpg
1Khz @ 0db sine wave

And it WORKS!!! :D
As you can see my multi meter reads 22 Volts AC
IMAGE_298.jpg
To be continued.
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 42878Unread post Gus
Thu Jun 02, 2016 1:06 pm

As the owner manual writes the overhead pitch work through turntable's worm and gear at 98,118,141,161 lines per inch
what i did was to remove the gears and to install direct at feed screw a stepper motor controlled at different speeds electronically via arduino
as you can see it works pretty well :)
PIC_0152.jpg
Now it's time to find a powerful and stable turntable for my Fairchild overhead.
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 44588Unread post Gus
Tue Nov 01, 2016 7:59 pm

My first attempt was the Stanton SP-150 turntable with VERY powerful motor 4.5kg/cm torque very stable speed and no audible wow effect to test recordings at different speeds.
Here is a sample file embossed on polycarbonate @ 33.3 RPM with sapphire stylus and Fairchild cutterhead at 500 ohm .
Original File
http://www.lathetrolls.com/download/file.php?id=492
Embossed File
http://www.lathetrolls.com/download/file.php?id=491
SDC13607.JPG
SDC13613.JPG
https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Hyia4L1aZ8
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 44598Unread post Gus
Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:51 pm

After hundreds tests on polycarb with sapphire stylus I've noticed some songs with many high frequencies as the example of the attachment file, the sound goes up and down. :( I think this called flutter effect if i'm wrong please correct me.
original file.mp3
Fairchild-Stanton ST-150.mp3

The reason is the eccentric of the platter, i measured it with Dial Indicator and it gave me 0.10mm runout. Also the wow& flutter of Stanton ST-150 is 0.10.
I have two choices the first is to build a new one platter at the local machine shop
and the second choice is to give a try to a Rek-o-Kut turntable of the 50's.
I'm going with the second...
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 44612Unread post Gus
Thu Nov 03, 2016 7:16 pm

The postman knocked on the door, outside of my home was a medium size box with a vintage REK-O-KUT LP 743 transcription turntable. http://www.vinylengine.com/library/rek-o-kut/lp-743.shtml
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I hate the solution of car inverter 12volt to 110v @60hz actually 63hz because of the radiation but is a cheap solution just for my tests
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Last edited by Gus on Thu Nov 03, 2016 7:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 44613Unread post Gus
Thu Nov 03, 2016 7:27 pm

So after 60 years of use it's time for restoration.
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 45655Unread post Gus
Thu Jan 19, 2017 7:04 pm

First of all it's very important to rebuilt the motor.
you can find information at this post http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/inside-look-of-the-death-cube.653231/
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Gus
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 45656Unread post Gus
Thu Jan 19, 2017 7:41 pm

After complete rebuild i add three new rubber grommets.
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TheCrates
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Re: My Rek-O-Child (Record Lathe)

Post: # 45771Unread post TheCrates
Tue Jan 24, 2017 3:02 pm

Impressive work! Congrats!

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