Harris Cutting Lathe

[dubcutter89]

Never heard of the Harris lathe, but maybe the other one you are searching is the "NUTAL"? See pic attached...
Then there also this other machine I think ws used in Australia, I don't know why I have BBC in mind but who knows...

Chris, can you share some pictures of that Sudgen stereo head with some details? Just for the album...

Lukas

[Stevie342000]

Don't despair about things going pear shaped…..

Yes there was another one that I know of as well and my memory is failing me as well, I have seen a few come up on eBay in Australia, I was aware of Harris and Nuttall as well.

[zdenek]

A powerful machine!
I like it, I'm making a slightly different lathe, you've seen it, but it's also massive and solid work and it won't be for sale.
I like the manual slide return position in these older record-making lathes, it's great after the groove is finished. No funny CNC-type machines, although it's very easy to do it nowadays.

[mossboss]

Yes Thanks it is the Nuttall Lathe made in my hometown suburb of South Melbourne, I tried getting one years ago but as I said it got me zero results
Sure Ill dig out the Sugden over the Christmas break and load up some or a lot of photos
Also the underneath of the Harris to get some clues as its operating principles Quite an ingenious design
@ Zdenek
You are on the right path looking at what you are building no doubt it will work a treat and cur sweet
I do not quite get the reason you choose that weird motor to drive it despite the fact that it has an isolated oil drive system
Neumann used the Lyrec AC motor with an oil drive all the way to the last lathe they produced prior to the DMM which had the Panasonic motor or a German copy of it not sure
Some lathes where retrofitted with a Panasonic direct drive quartz controlled motor made specifically for these machines
I dont think they improved the machine in any way apart from increasing torque at starting the rather heavy platter on them
We operated one in the UK which found its way to Canada still cuts and performs fantastic but so does ours in Australia
Best

[mossboss]

@ Vinylfriend
See PM

[zdenek]

I'll tell you honestly, Mossboss, I'm starting to get annoyed with this DC motor that I used and have already started in my lathe with a cutting plate, it works with quartz, but it seems to me that its rotor is too light because it has very low inertia and I think I need to do something with it. do this, or add some additional ballast to the shaft of this engine, or I don't know. Are you talking about the Japanese Technics SP10MK3 under the hidden name SP02, the price of this motor is crazy. There are more modern motors without a magnetic catch, coreless motors [only coils without a core and magnets] with quartz control, I will show you in a moment, but their price is also shocking.https://www.hackatronic.com/revolutionary-axial-flux-printed-circuit-board-pcb-stator-motor/

[Aussie0zborn]

Yes, that certainly looks like the Nuttall lathe. Nuttall produced two disc cutting lathes for The Austalian Record Company which was later taken over by CBS Records. CBS had two disc cutting rooms - one with a pristine VMS70 (you can see it my cutting room on the website), a Scully with CBS Disccomputer (which disappeared), Surprisingly, there were three closed-off rooms downstairs. each with a VMS66 lathe and various American cutterheads and amps in a hotch-potch arrangement. My Korean audiophile friend bought five Lyrec motors but couldn't remember if he bought those lathes, too.I

[MEGAMIKE]

p1070884.jpg

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p1070882.jpg

[MEGAMIKE]

Tony Smith with his Royce Australian made from Melb Overhead 1952 from the local paper

52 to 66 he was cutting for then sold the lot to a hippy band ?..

hope he's still with us last we spoke was at gramophone scoiety of west Australia 5years ago

also Ive seen MR Khans royce overhead and Berliner transcriber in action too

god bless hope there still around

the late Martin Clarke had the best gear and studio built on St Geroges terrace in my city in the early 60s and was the first disk recording studio built for bands? apparently? don't quote me on it ..

[MEGAMIKE]

as for Nutall my father had 2 in his factory/workshops but they were lathes not for disk recording 1 in Chamberlin and the other in the 70s at EMS.. machine workshops..
my uncle was also a disk recorder in Alexandra in the 1940s/50s

[MEGAMIKE]

trav1.jpg

from old lathe troll post

[mossboss]

Thanks Mike Great pics,
Royce yes indeed,
They also made lacquers, I had a tin box they used for shipping them for years in my collection its gone walkabouts
I only have some Pyral tin boxes left and we still use them daily to store cut lacquers before the get into the fridge after cutting of course
So you are a descendant of cutters than !
Fantastic
By the way the guy that did the cuts for us in Milan was taught by his father who was in the trade from the 30's cutting on wax
I also met the old guy at GZ some years back, been there cutting from the late 40's, maybe 1948 if I remember he was looked upon as a great master of the art and he was
Unfortunately us old farts are getting thinner and thinner on the ground, Ha
Best

[MEGAMIKE]

yes Time has no enemies unfortunately and we need to cherish the old school even U mossy hahahah..

and yes my uncle was in the audio disk cutting and 100v tin horn line government run company in the 40s/50s in Alexandria Egyiptos he even setup broadcasts/PA for Nasser.when he moved to Perth in the late 50s he bought Martin Clarks presto 6n ,Martin then bought a Nueman and built his studio.. years later in the 80s my uncle sold the 6n to Rob Muer and in 2022 he sold it to the Perth museum it even had the presto stereo head too. this 6n recorded the Valentines album the band late Bon Scott was in before AC/DC..

[Aussie0zborn]

Good work, Mike. Martin Clarke told me about his Neumann VMS62 Special when we pressed his Valentines compilation album. He sold it to Festival Records. They dumped it when they got their VMS70 and VMS80 at the same time. They might have had a VMS66 alongside the VMS62 too, but details are sketchy.

As a side note for Bon Scott fans, Vince Lovegrove had many more unreleased recordings of The Valentines with Bon Scott. We talked about releasing them but then life got in the way and he had his hands full. You know the story. Where those recordings are now is anybody’s guess.

[MEGAMIKE]

Thanks Ozzy..
You and mossboss and others should do an interview or short doco and share all the old school goodness ..LOVE THE HISTORY..

mega

[MEGAMIKE]

Rob Muir is the man to ask as he kept all of the dub plates that came with martins 6n that he sold to museum ,I saw them with my own eyes ..

https://www.muirbooks.com/about.php

[Stevie342000]

Don't despair about things going pear shaped…..

Yes there was another one that I know of as well and my memory is failing me as well, I have seen a few come up on eBay in Australia, I was aware of Harris and Nuttall as well.

Would it be Royce?

[mossboss]

Yep there is a photo of one a bit up on this thread Cheers

[Stevie342000]

Yep there is a photo of one a bit up on this thread Cheers

Yes I see that now, had not seen it when I posted but I think there might be another as well.

[mossboss]

You may be right Something tells me that,
We had Johns Hydraulics here in Clayton a suburb of Melbourne that made some record presses than, I met an old timer that told me there was another manufacturer in Preston the opposite side to Clayton the also made quite a few of them and Automatic!!
Never seen these ones although I have seen many of Johns, also pictures of a fully Auto press in the vicinity of Milan made by a Mr Bersanetti who I met, his specialty was hydraulic systems but he made more than one auto press in the late 60-70's Still around quite old now
In an industry spanning well over 100 plus years no doubt all sorts of gear was made all over the world to serve its needs
So it is no surprise to keep on coming across these things
Best