Hey all! I had my eye on a phonocut but it’s a little out of my budget. What are some suggestions for similar items? I would would like to start cutting records this winter. I’m interested in buying equipment ASAP. I have no clue where to start. Please help.
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Re: Interested in cutting lathe. I don’t know where to start
Definitely hit up Mike at PIAPTK he charges for service calls and help (totally worth every cent) but he also has machines for sale ... Super helpful and knowledgeable
Re: Interested in cutting lathe. I don’t know where to start
Hi Spiff,
I'm learning too. The easiest route into cutting on a low budget I have found is starting out with a mono cutter to get familiar with the process. I have gone the route of portable Japanese cutters from the 80's. I started out with a Hara M-180 which I miraculously found for $20 as a junk item. I made some minor tuning adjustments and it cuts like a champ now. It is a cutter that was commonly used in Japan to record people in Karaoke bars on 7". My second cutter is it's big brother the Hara HF-200 (12") for which I paid $850. Actually another great deal since it came with 5 new needles which may have cost $500 or so on their own. Vanrock E-101 and Atom A-101 cutters are very popular, but also pricey because of their popularity.
A big problem with the old hobby cutters is that the 80's idler wheel's rubber is usually at the end of its lifespan and hard or in need of conditioning or replacement. Replacement is generally a custom machine shop copy. This can be done for about 100 bucks or so if needed. I found a guy on ebay in Italy. My idler wheels were both "bumpy" because the previous owner left the idler engaged with the motor spindle during storage. So I had to do a minor grind to get everything smooth again. Hara's are super easy to open for maintenance though. One nut on the little guy, and a heavy lift on the big boy (very heavy).
Search for the deals with the "hobby" cutters or PIAPTK has a great resource for stateside cutters and a great learning program. Wish I had the time to attend his cutting seminar. It's a great place to get your feet wet before a massive investment.
If you're into 3d printing, I recently found a plan on Hackaday that look interesting called VinyGo. About $1000 worth of parts and allot of assembly but possibly worth it for stereo cutting. I'm not crazy about the head setup, but overall a great looking design otherwise. You could possibly integrate that nice head that Konstantin has made once you get it up and running.
https://hackaday.io/project/181401-vinygo-a-stereo-vinyl-recorder
Hope that this helps!
--Mike
I'm learning too. The easiest route into cutting on a low budget I have found is starting out with a mono cutter to get familiar with the process. I have gone the route of portable Japanese cutters from the 80's. I started out with a Hara M-180 which I miraculously found for $20 as a junk item. I made some minor tuning adjustments and it cuts like a champ now. It is a cutter that was commonly used in Japan to record people in Karaoke bars on 7". My second cutter is it's big brother the Hara HF-200 (12") for which I paid $850. Actually another great deal since it came with 5 new needles which may have cost $500 or so on their own. Vanrock E-101 and Atom A-101 cutters are very popular, but also pricey because of their popularity.
A big problem with the old hobby cutters is that the 80's idler wheel's rubber is usually at the end of its lifespan and hard or in need of conditioning or replacement. Replacement is generally a custom machine shop copy. This can be done for about 100 bucks or so if needed. I found a guy on ebay in Italy. My idler wheels were both "bumpy" because the previous owner left the idler engaged with the motor spindle during storage. So I had to do a minor grind to get everything smooth again. Hara's are super easy to open for maintenance though. One nut on the little guy, and a heavy lift on the big boy (very heavy).
Search for the deals with the "hobby" cutters or PIAPTK has a great resource for stateside cutters and a great learning program. Wish I had the time to attend his cutting seminar. It's a great place to get your feet wet before a massive investment.
If you're into 3d printing, I recently found a plan on Hackaday that look interesting called VinyGo. About $1000 worth of parts and allot of assembly but possibly worth it for stereo cutting. I'm not crazy about the head setup, but overall a great looking design otherwise. You could possibly integrate that nice head that Konstantin has made once you get it up and running.
https://hackaday.io/project/181401-vinygo-a-stereo-vinyl-recorder
Hope that this helps!
--Mike
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Re: Interested in cutting lathe. I don’t know where to start
+1, I started out with Mike and it was worth every penny. Seriously. He cuts (see what I did there?) the learning curve down so much it is insane.
"I wasn't lying. Things I said later seemed untrue."
Re: Interested in cutting lathe. I don’t know where to start
Try Terry's rubber rollers for idler re-rubbering. He's the best and I've never had to pay more than about $65 for ANY part, phono idlers or tape recorder rubber rollers. He's at http://www.terrysrubberrollers.com/ He has had COVID and a rough time of it, but he states that he is getting back into the swing of things. May take a while to get an idler fixed, but it's well worth the wait time.A big problem with the old hobby cutters is that the 80's idler wheel's rubber is usually at the end of its lifespan and hard or in need of conditioning or replacement. Replacement is generally a custom machine shop copy. This can be done for about 100 bucks or so if needed.