First cutting expirience on a MMS recorder.

[roy68]

Hi all!

This is my first post since my introduction some months ago.
In March of this year I bought a MMS recorder from the 1940's (?) in rough shape, and this week the restauration finished.
I had some great help from a few friends machining new bearings and spindles, could not have done that on my one.

https://ibb.co/1RXcjWG


This machine is identical to the one owned by Norman Field, as seen on his 'famous youtube video: https://youtu.be/T7nKa_aHyR8?si=9UsKF8eR7TQtCMEM It's a video I like a lot.

Norman is using an embossing stylus with polycarbonate blanks, while i use vintage steel cutting styli and a soft plastic disc (maybe vinyl) made from records dividers you find in record shops.


https://ibb.co/kQ0PNGC


I'm having trouble cutting this soft plastic because the swarf is partially getting stuck in the groove and removing it is almost undoable. The blank material I use is probably not the best.
https://ibb.co/7SrJgmG


Embossing by turning the stylus 180 degrees works better but with a lot of hissing noise at play back.
Any way, I'm having fun with this machine!

Now i wonder what to decide material wise, embossing or cutting. From what I have seen it seems that in the longer run cutting is less expensive than embossing because polycarbonate blanks are more expensive than vinyl blanks. A disadvantage of cutting with this machine may be the removal of the swarf with a brush because the cartridge is big and the stylus rides very low.

The goal is to make 10" 78rpm records with decent sound for my 1939 jukebox, but first to learn how to handle the machine and materials.

Thanks for reading!
Roy

[roy68]

for some reason my pictures do not turn up. I'll try to fix this.