Vinylrecorder stylus damage

[punkrock]

Been cutting close to 7 years now using a Vinylrecorder, so much to learn and figure out yet... This might be a quite basic question, maybe you can help me:

Why do cutting stylus end up doing noisy cuts? Some of them can have some kind of tip damage, be worn out, etc... but others have no visible damage at all when I inspect them on the microscope. They look perfect, but all recordings will end up being noisy with them. Why? Modifying the stylus temperature will do nothing, cuts will be noisy...

Why?

Is there any way to know if a stylus is noisy without testing it?

[trailerparkjesus]

You need a higher power scope to see the damage. If you put some cleaner on it then use a flashlight to shine the surface while looking under a scope youll see defects a little easier. Some defects/dullness of tip you need some real magnification

[tragwag]

if the stylus attracts or picks up some plastic bits it'll be noisy without being "damaged"
sometimes it takes a super cleaning while under the scope

[punkrock]

if the stylus attracts or picks up some plastic bits it'll be noisy without being "damaged"
sometimes it takes a super cleaning while under the scope

Normally whenever I do a cleaning, I do a “super cleaning”: microscope + Souri’s cleaning fluid + a precision “Olfa” PAPER cutter. Takes long but it’s worth it.

Strangest thing of all is that sometimes, stylus I had discarded because they where noisy later on were perfectly usable again. Can’t understand why.

[2bitcomputer]

.

Strangest thing of all is that sometimes, stylus I had discarded because they where noisy later on were perfectly usable again. Can’t understand why.

I've had this happen also.
My theory is that when you put the 'bad' stylus back in the head the stylus is in a slightly different position so the defect is no longer damaging the groove like it was.

These days when I start hearing noise from a stylus the first thing I do is actually rotate the head a little (in the vertical plane, but changing the horizontal angle might make a difference too) to see if the noise goes away.
Sometimes I can cut another 30 LPs by doing this...

[tragwag]

definitely! the stylus and head settings in the VR are very user based, hard to get a 100% placement time and again

[Discomo]

This topic gets very interesting!