The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Andd.... I went back and bought the thing for a little less than $200 It is at least going to need: some needles, an amplifier, and new rubber for the platter as the old one is cracked. I also gotta figure out how this old 4 prong plug works. Are two prongs the input for the cutting head and two th...

bummmmpppp I need one!

Andd.... I went back and bought the thing for a little less than $200 It is at least going to need: some needles, an amplifier, and new rubber for the platter as the old one is cracked. I also gotta figure out how this old 4 prong plug works. Are two prongs the input for the cutting head and two the...

Regarding needles and blanks, I sell embossing cones and polycarbonate blanks for it. With that head and my supplies you can cut some pretty good sounding records once you know what you are doing. Thanks! I appreciate how informative/helpful you are with this stuff as well as my recordio in the pas...

That is a bargain imho and I would buy it in a shot if I was in a similar position. A massive step up from the recordio. If it doesn't come with a head, You could mount many different heads on that and cut what you want successfully. Personally, I've mounted a Grampian feedback head on a Presto K8 ...

I had a recordio and it was just too damn lofi for diy records. A presto 75a came into a thrift shop I work at. I could grab it for $225. It spins but no amp or needle. I’m pretty good at electronics, have built pedals, tubes amps etc. what am I looking at fidelity wise? What material could I cut de...

It seems no one else has as of yet. The General Industries lathes are the entry level of record cutting and no one really wants to put much effort toward new r&d for them. West-tech can rebuild your x-26 but there's no real alternatives to that, unless you come across a later astatic or brush magne...

Hey y’all. I’ve been trolling the forums checking out diy heads people have made for suitcase lathes. I have an airline with an Astatic x26 head and am thinking of repurposing the arm and drive mechanism. I’d love any thought or suggestions on this project or to see anything folks have already done.

An airline would be standard pitch anyway, so a microgroove stylus won't make much difference. A short shank sapphire will cut better than any steel needle on most material. I'm trying to cut stuff for playback on modern record players rather than the lathe itself. My idea that a standard needle wo...

You are totally mixing up the many different cutting methods, needles, and materials. It is like cooking... you cannot just throw a bunch of cheap random unrelated ingredients together in no particular order, cooked for no particular length at no particular heat and expect to get anything worth eat...

Hey y’all, I’m starting a new thread to troubleshoot the noise now that my airline cutter is functional. My set up is, an airline lathe with an Astatic x 26 head, a recordiopoint steel needle or a tungsten tig electrode I ground down, and some red Safeway picnic plates. People have suggested more ex...

Gonna start a new thread to trouble shoot the noise now that this thing is functional! Thanks for all the help y’all

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=5Kv5oLdUCL0

Yeah. He rewound a couple heads for me years ago, grounded the coils to the case or something so it smoked immediately after sending any audio through it (he only tests it by using it as a playback pickup, and doesnt run audio at all). I sent them back and he ignored my emails and calls for a year ...

Got my head back and unfortunately Gib totally screwed up and attached the mounting plate to the wrong side! 2EFF1060-902B-4975-AC52-599738998375.jpeg It won’t mount into my cutting arm because it’s supposed to be on the opposite side of the needle like shown in this photo below of my head before I ...

Embossing styli are available for polycarbonate at http://www.recordlatheparts.com I would use an Olfa rotary circle cutter for plates. I think a drywall hole cutter is overkill for such floppy plastic. For the center hole, get a 9/32” hollow punch and rubber mallet Thanks for the link, but I was u...

You can cut the flared edges of the plates off with a pair of scissors. Not pretty, but the disc will then lay flat on the turntable. Recordiopoints will fit the cutting head, but will most likely be damaged if not cutting lacquer. I found the embossing styli and am still looking for the Hansa disc...

Hey everybody. I sent my Astatic x 26 off to Gib to get it rebuilt. I’m not in a rush but I’m pretty excited to mess with my lathe.

How long did it take to get your stuff back from him?

Thanks again for the info! I would love to check out those blanks if you find them. I got some new tubes in there and now the mic input/PA function works. The radio sounds great as well. Cuts are still just static so I took head out and mailed it off to West Tech. Upon further inspection i think the...

Thanks for all the help emmoritt! As far as overloading it goes, should the record level light only flash at the loudest parts? I'm unsure how to tell what to loud is. I ended up having a tube that wasn't glowing and confirmed it was bad by testing it for continuity. There should be some new ones ar...

also if folks know what type of needle they used with the cuts that'd be helpful