Setting up my Presto 6N for stereo cutting

[woot92]

What's up Trolls!

I've been embossing on 3 presto 6N's for a year and a half now, and have recently purchased a couple of Nautilus stereo heads. I'm quite comfortable embossing, but mostly do 12" these days and I tend to get varying results from turntable to turntable, so I wanted to delve into diamond cutting. I have a very basic newbie knowledge when it comes to cutting, so any info would be super appreciated! I do my best to sift through the website here, but figured I'd post about this in case anyone else is cutting on a presto 6N with these heads.

My main questions that come to mind:

1. What is a proper weight for cutting?

2. Does anyone have a good mechanism for adding suction? I have a few ideas but wanted to see what might be out there before experimenting.

3. How do I put in/change out a diamond styli? I have a stylus tool and diamond from myshank.

4. What temperature should my blanks be at? And how many volts should I have on the styli?

Excited to dive down another wormhole and start stereo cutting!

[spinnertownblanks]

13g is roughly around 50μm in our experience, which is a good place to start depth wise.

Hold the stylus by the heating wires, seat it and then align with the stylus tool under a microscope to get it central. To clean it you can just se Isopropyl Alcohol and a cotton bud, you can use other solvents like Ethyl Acetate but just be careful not to use too much as it can damage the bond between the diamond and the holder. Isopropyl Alcohol won't do this.

Different manufactures have different recommendations for for heating blanks, if you ever use ours, they are solid PETG (black, white or transparent) and no not need heating.

[piaptk]

I am working on a redesigned carriage and suction system for 6n. Its already designed just waiting for my machinist.

I will text you a diamond cutting guide that Konstantin and I put together.

[Jccc]

your gonna wanna have a vacuum system to suck up all the swarf if your cutting .
Other wise you be sitting there with a small brush moving the swarf towards the center to prevent it from balling up on the shank.

i use a small cheap shop vac i got a at Walmart and its going through a variable transformer to lower the vacuum power, it also lowers the vacuum noise tremendously so you can hear the music coming out the cuttinghead.
I have it mounted on my 6N with the vacuum nozzle right in front of the cutting head.

I turn it on right before i start cutting so that once i lower the head with the platter spinning it will suck up the swarf.

i don’t use the heat on the needle as im using a heat lamp and that usually warm the petg very well.

[woot92]

Thanks for the help and starting points!

Mike, I’ll definitely be hitting you up for that when it’s ready!

In the meantime, I’ll probably start experimenting on one of my lathes soon and see if I can rig something up.

Jccc, do you have any photos of how you mount your suction? Wouldn't it be bad to have the suction right in front as opposed to behind? Or does that not matter as long as there’s good strong suction?

[Jccc]

i set mine up how this person did it on the 3rd post down on this thread:

https://lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?t=7109

i also have a video of my old vacuum set up here:
https://vimeo.com/68961084

when i get home from work tonight ill take pictures of my most recent setup with Nautilus head and vacuum setup

[Jccc]

Here is my current Presto 6N with modified vacuum attachment.

IMG_0941.jpeg

IMG_0940.jpeg

The Vacuum nozzle does not effect the Presto overhead or the movement of the cuttinghead mechanism.

It sucks up the swarf easily in this location and i have no problems.