The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Apollo used to sell pithwood, don't know if they do any longer. If not, a jewelery supply website may have it.

First, if there is a stylus setscrew, remove it. In the GI machine cutting arm, there is an adjustable spring at the back of the arm used to set cutting depth. Unhook that spring from the plate bolted to the top of the cutting head (may be a bit difficult). Small needlenose pliers work best for this...

The instructions are for rebuilding a crystal pickup, not a cutter. A crystal cutter is very different than a pickup. I've searched for years to find information on rebuilding a crystal cutter with no results. And if you open a dead one, all you'll find is white powder and some components that witho...

I might low ball it see what they say. Will give us a better idea of where their head is at.

Most likely up a certain bodily orifice...

AND, they're listed as 'non-functioning' with parts missing! People are crazy...

A majority of commercial 78 records were cut at around 100 lines per inch; at least this is what was specificed in early documentation of Eldridge Johnson who founded Victor Talking Machine. I have an extensive collection of Presto literature and if I recall correctly, I think feed screws for the 6N...

Thanks Sue! Yes, I've cleaned discs for transfer/preservation for many years. I'm just interested in what's different between the formulations used for "dime store" blanks (like DuoTone, Wilcox-Gay, Recordisc, etc.) that don't seem to be breaking down and the "pro" products like Audiodisc, Soundcraf...

OK, I've been going through my collection which includes a lot of older blanks and I've noticed that only certain older recording discs - never recorded on - are leaching palmitic acid, others are not. Primarily, Allied, Audiodisc and some Reeves Soundcraft are turning white, while Federal, Duodisc,...

"Don't mention the war."

This is a photo of the machine I used to have: http://i67.tinypic.com/9ht8r5.jpg After re-looking at your machine, it isn't a Wilcox-Gay unit but it does look heavily modified; GI recorder arm, don't know who made the bedplate/tape transport and the pickup arm is odd also. It looks like the major po...

This is a combination tape recorder/player and recorder. Wilcox Gay made a similar machine, but used the single arm/dual purpose cartridge that both cut and played back the records. (You raised the back of the tonearm to engage the feedscrew below the turntable mechanism as well as bring the cutting...

Just put a lot of people in the community out of business. But, what would Apollo care?

Already have my copy on BR from the PBS store. The machine is a John Scully (not Larry, his son) unit designed specifically for acoustic recording. Don't know where they found this extremely rare machine.

I have one and the box says "dial indicator". I use it for leveling my turntables.

It sounds like the Presto machines you're referring to were 75s (or most likely K series, since near the end of the disc recording era Presto did make a model that was three speed) - PIAPTK is correct that these models had an "arm" with the cutting head like the smaller Recordio or other brand machi...

My aunt worked on his staff during part of that period and was there when that show was taped. It was a Rek-O-Kut machine, but she told me that the "reproduction" was faked in post.

You generally have to use a matching transformer to get a low z mic to work with a hi z input. Or, there are circuits out there that you can build to modify the hi z input to low z. I've used the matching transformer trick to make a crystal cutting head work with a modern solid state amp. Crystal cu...

Dynamic and condenser mics don't have the output necessary for this unit. These were shipped stock with a crystal mic. Any model will work (Astatic, Argonne, Turner, etc.). You'll most likely have to go to ebay or some other retro vendor as I scoured the web and couldn't find any new production crys...

Bags Unlimited has a huge selection of audio packaging, including paper and cardboard sleeves. I have printer friendly self adhesive labels; let me know what you are looking for.

It's the turntable assembly from a model 75 portable.