Video : Astor Records, Australia. (1967)

[Aussie0zborn]

Astor Records was the recording division of manufacturing group Radio Corporation Pty Ltd. This company was later bought out by Electronic Industries, which in turn was bought out by the multinational Philips conglomerate in the early 1970s. Radio Corporation produced consumer electronic goods under the Astor brand from the mid-1920s until the mid-1970s. Philips unexpectedly closed the plant in the early 80s and merged Astor Records with Phonogram (later PolyGram).

Astor Records were the Australian distributors at one time or another for Pye (UK), Mercury (USA), Elektra (USA), MCA (USA) and others. Full story here : http://www.milesago.com/industry/astor.htm

In this video :

Neumann AM32B lathe with ZS 90/45 cutterhead
Silvering the lacquer disc WITHOUT a silvering machine
Galvanic plating with agitating plating baths
Pressing on manual presses (rather like Finebilt but hard to see - I suspect these are Johns presses, made in Australia.
Astor's own cassette duplicatin machines

Check out the jacket folding and glueing machine!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cBTBuG4xqU

[jjgolden]

Great post aussie, I love these videos.
Funny how the music gets spooky during the silvering/plating.. :>)

Best,

JJG

[d]

Interesting reading and very nice movie. Always watching this kind with pleasure.

I think that kind of silvering should be very economical solution. When spraying not all the solution is used. And here is like developing silver prints

[Aussie0zborn]

The music is probably spooky during the silvering because this is sometimes considered a "black art".

That silvering process is excatly like developing silver prints. Someone asked about it here some time ago and I thought that video might be useful to see how its done.

[Nickou]

-I love this video .
I use the same lathe and the same tape machine ...

[dubcutter89]

I use the same lathe and the same tape machine ...

...and I have the same head

[TotalSonic]

nice! Thanks for posting that - very fun to watch.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[ArchaicRecords]

Are stampers made of silver?
If they are made of silver, then, does that mean that the value of stampers go up comparable to the value of silver?

[d]

no. listen to the explanation carefully again. lacquer is coated with a thin layer of silver to be a conductor. the stamper is from nickel