The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

... are on the Wiki:

http://lathetrolls.pbworks.com/w/page/52914783/Westrex%201700%20Schematics

I have added schematic diagrams for the Westrex 1700 to the wiki:

http://lathetrolls.pbworks.com/w/page/52914783/Westrex%201700%20Schematics

Well, you can run tubes with low plate voltage, but why bother? It's like running a diesel automobile on cheap wine - I suppose you could get it to work with enough effort, but it's not worth the effort. The circuit will be starved for energy, and you'll spend more time & effort with those bizarre t...

Yeah, but ... it seems to me the main reason for making 78 records nowadays would be providing source material for Victrolas and similar non-electric phono playback machines, for those future days that have no AC power to run the machines. If you're making 78's that are unplayable on Victrolas, the ...

The cornstarch fix is interesting. I've used talcum powder to cut down on parts sticking in other applications, perhaps it would work in vacuum hoses also.

Good luck on that project. You can probably find an appropriate spring at the hardware store. EDIT: I have placed schematics for the Westrex 1700 on the Wiki: http://lathetrolls.pbworks.com/w/page/52914783/Westrex%201700%20Schematics Included are circuits incorporating RIAA pre-emphasis and de-empha...

I'm setting up our lathe in a somewhat dusty (old industrial warehouse) area and am planning to cover it nightly with plastic, canvas or whatnot. My main concern is inadvertently damaging something on the record head if the needle catches on some fold on the cover.

I think the Ampex tape machines were 300's is this correct? The two decks at 13:45 are (left to right) an Ampex 350 and a 300. I've got an Ampex 300 with 351 electronics, rescued from A&R studio in NYC; Perry Como recorded his hits on it. When I visited A&R to pick up the deck, they were using it to...

Thanks, Serif. Best, simplest solution from the Gearslutz site is merely an inductor linking the two input modules. Other options involve way too much hardware, and I've got an audiophile's need to keep things simple and uncluttered with excess op amp circuits. Now all I have to do is determine appr...

Yesterday I was doing rough setup on our newly repaired Scully/Westrex deck and fed the electronics with a classical music radio feed, playing recent concert recordings over the air. Upon playback I noticed a few skips where the needle loses tracking; upon inspection of the grooves I found several p...

What sort of information do you want on this Wiki? Machine manuals & schematics, old or new pictures, videos, how-to's, common problems and solutions? Do you intend to make this into the the preferred reference archive for the community? Are there copyright issues to watch for? Would sellers of old ...

I believe that pdf is from the Westrex 1700 electronics manual, in case anybody is interested.

Parts depend on what power you have available. Waddya got? I am rebuilding the heater supply for my Westrex/Scully setup using an 20-something VAC feed from the Westrex power supply to provide power. I've got rheostats and power dropping resistors, and an AC ammeter to provide a readout. I need to p...

Reminds me of riding a top end racing bike through a scrap yard. Just because you can ...

As for providing pressure/negative pressure, you could take a leaf from the vacuum-forming artisans and create a vacuum table out of one of those laundry storage vacuum bags (I saw some in Menard's just last night). Open up the storage bag with the mold frame inside, pour in the materials, place a p...

Ah, but today I found that a stylus that's toasty warm with no vacuum, hooked up cools right down when all that air is blowing by. So I need to give it more juice whenever the suction is on to keep the sylus hot.

Using a 3M industrial vacuum. It's too loud, I can't hear the machine over the vacuum's racket. I run it through a variac transformer, about 90 volts for passably good suction. I might consider the above-described swarf trap and run the vacuum off to the next room. Is it common for the stylus to coo...

All disk cutting systems are rolled off somewhere over 50kHz. This is to keep the amps stable and prevent them from picking up things like AM radio. Reminds me of a story an old Bell Telephone guy once told me. Seems in the 1950's Radio Luxemborg installed a new, high-power AM transmitter - and peo...

I used some cement I picked up at a bead shop the other day - it smells like Duco cement. It holds the wire in place without burning AFAIK. I bought 250' of 40 ga nichrome wire from Jacobs online . It works as advertised for my Westrex-mounted stylus: 7 1/2 turns comes out to about 16 ohms; putting ...

Interesting. I can recall several years ago questioning the wisdom of the US gov't when it was dumping all its strategic helium reserves and flooding the market, debasing its price. Looks like the chickens are coming home to roost.