Rev 2 of my DIY Stereo Cutterhead

[classicaviator]

Curious - if I make all of the cutter head parts out of ABS plastic using my RepRap 3D printer, will I run into issues with some weird resonance or frequency damping due to using this material? I am talking all of them - the cones, the 90-degree angle that holds the drivers, the connecting rods, the stylus holder, etc. Any thoughts please welcome.

New to this forum by the way. Just got obsessed with making a record cutter, and can't stop thinking about it.

Thanks for all the help and the wisdom thus far. This is neat!

[chaosbc]

Hi classicaviator, welcome aboard.
I am a begginer compared to the other members of this message board but what I can tell you is when you want to build your record lathe, sometimes you spend more time on finding the proper part than actually assembling your machine !
Reprap for sure will reduce this step and help to focus on the design of the lathe.
I don't think building your record head with ABS plastic will change anything (some of us built it with wood, I did mine with aluminium...)
Regarding the connecting rods and the stylus holder, honestly I dont know...but it worth to be tried. Actually I was about to dive in this direction but unfortunatelly I missed time and space (it is about to change soon) so I only did this part and uploaded it in thingiverse...Hope it can help (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:31460)

[classicaviator]

Thanks for the bits of advice. I've made a decision to go ahead and give it a go. The attached picture is of a first prototype I am assembling, which is already out of date and is in need of serious mods. The nice thing about having the RepRap is things can be tried and retried without a significant sacrifice to time and money.

[chaosbc]

This message board becomes more exciting than youp*rn !

[markrob]

Hi,

Looking real look! Did you have to any extra work to get the parts fit or the finish to be so nice?

Mark

[emidisc]

That looks really interesting and looks like a good starting point for a DIY head infact I for one would be interested in purchasing one of these and would like to get an idea of price if possible?

Emidisc

[classicaviator]

It must look better on the picture than real life. It's not that perfect, but then I can put some finishing touches on what comes out of the RepRap based on known bad machine behaviors. Thanks for the kudos, but I am not quite there yet. I've started looking at the voice coils I have, which are light and 20W max power. I have no problem making the ABS cones for them, but as Mark has specified in the past, weight is always an issue. I will give it a go and see what happens I guess. Not sure yet I am ready to spring for a $300 ruby cutter yet, but perhaps I can make some test cuts using non-heated styli or modified drill bits? We'll see..

[JayDC]

http://www.aeroflex.com/ams/motion/motion-motors-voice.cfm

[classicaviator]

Well, made some progress this week. I believe my recording head is done, except for the cones, the rods, and the stylus mount. Shouldn't be too hard, but I don't yet have the super-duper $300 ruby cutting stylus yet. Not sure when I will have one. Need to find an alternative. For now, I will be working on finishing the head, as well as making the rest of the lathe components. I am also using black ABS filament instead of white. Not sure, but I like the look of that better.

[scalawag]

Well, made some progress this week. I believe my recording head is done, except for the cones, the rods, and the stylus mount. Shouldn't be too hard, but I don't yet have the super-duper $300 ruby cutting stylus yet. Not sure when I will have one. Need to find an alternative. For now, I will be working on finishing the head, as well as making the rest of the lathe components. I am also using black ABS filament instead of white. Not sure, but I like the look of that better.

It look really great!!!

[markrob]

Hi,

Looking really nice. Great job getting that printed. FYI, a ruby stylus is only in the $90 range. I'd reccomend starting there and move to diamond (in the $300 range) later once you get the head up and running and are happy with it. I'd start test cutting on standard lacquers first as they are easy to cut with ruby/saphire and are easy to get from Apollo (along with the stylus).

Mark

[classicaviator]

Mark,

Can lacquers be played on a regular turntable a few times, or must they be transferred to a stamper in order to make real vinyl?

[scalawag]

Mark,

Can lacquers be played on a regular turntable a few times, or must they be transferred to a stamper in order to make real vinyl?

Both.

[vmspoland]

The hi ! I greet ! , I am from Poland from Warsaw , my interest a fine mechanics and an electronics it has been for many years , on that account also I reached on this splendid Internet site , not many men {people} it possesses the extensive knowledge which is necessary to activities in the sense of the mechanical recording , my interest this theme is since a long time , how I had 4 years I spoilt , I wanted to damage him to NEUMANN VMS 66 which served just to recording of records in the factory Polskie Nagrania Warsaw " MUZA "
worked on her the grandfather as the engineer , afterwards when ended the communism in 1989 the year in Poland of the machine became stolen away and sold and POLSKIE NAGRANIA , finished the activity , but in the memory it stayed to me a little the information and the knowledge
Now I am working out , I back up NEUMANN VMS 82 , will be much alike to the original , with this difference that at present the technology gives greater possibilities than in the eighties at the comparatively considerable decrease of costs of the realization of precise mechanical elements and electronicses ,
If you have questions with pleasure I will answer , I use the computer translator , can be problems with an understanding .
from

It is sa caps which I can perform without the problem , are tested , May very good parameters , better than not which industrial , have neodymium magnets for two transducers on the channel and tubes of the connection
manageable , heated up knife with weglika of parched pyramidal etc , perhaps somebody is interested ?

[pentlandsound]

This thread is an excellent reference point for comparative newcomers like me - after over two years, I've learned quite a bit, but still have far to go. I'm indenting in polycarbonate rather than attempting anything more elaborate, mainly on grounds of cost, but also to find out how good I can make this thing for minimal outlay. My latest recording head, for indenting / embossing, was heavily influenced by Markrob's design (and thanks to Mark for his explanations and series of great photographs). I used the exact same Digikey / CUI mini-speakers, and formed two cones out of aluminium from a beer can. The torque tube is a length of 6mm threaded nylon rod, and the stylus holder is a tiny church-shaped piece of aluminium with tapped holes for the threaded rod and setscrew, and a smooth hole 30 deg off vertical for the indenting stylus.

The pic shows the head fitted with a steel stylus, but in the last week or two I 'upgraded' by using one of these Crosley styli.

I removed the tiny stylus from the cantilever, and, using tweezers and a minute quantity of Araldite, mounted it end-on in a short section of its own tubular cantilever. This section was slid and glued into a 15mm section of printer refill syringe, making the whole thing the right length and width to fit into my recording head.

The results so far sound quite promising: the head weight can be reduced, and the records track properly - even on my ION LP-2-GO which is notorious for not working terribly well. As Flozki mentions earlier in this thread, the resonance frequency has to be damped quite a bit. Mainly by experiment, I found that a +12dB boost at 100Hz, a -24dB cut at 500Hz and then gradually moving up to +12dB at 10kHz yields good results - probably not strictly hi-fi, but certainly the highest fi that I've achieved to date.

Mark, you mention that ferrofluid in the gap can improve efficiency and cut running temperature. I'm about to order a couple more of these speakers to make a second recording head. Please would you explain how you get the ferrofluid into the gap - I assume it means dismantling part of the unit somehow? Thanks in advance.

David

[markrob]

Hi,

Nice job on the head construction!

What size power amp are you using? You may need more reserve power and some pretty extreme EQ. Up to +40db when you take into account RIAA and the open loop response needed to flatten the head at higher frequencies. The Neumann's get driven with several hundred watts of power even though they can't take much more than 10 watts continuously before they start to fry. You still have to limit the long term average power to less than 5 watts, but you will need short term power to make the stylus accelerate for short transients. Work as hard as you can to reduce mass.

As far as Ferrofluid goes, I was able to add the fluid from the outside of the speaker. Also, before I attached my cones, I used an Exacto knife to cut out the aluminum diaphragm (not needed). I did this to reduce a bit of moving mass. Once you do that, you will have access to the inner gap. Just a drop of fluid added here and perhaps in the outer gap will flow through the entire area. A little bit goes a long way. It could help with damping a bit as well.

Hope that helps.

Mark

[RecordOhio]

Awesome thread! Going to start building my own cutter head for my Recordette, maybe using laser cut parts, using the images and advice in this thread.

I'll post some pictures once it's semi-complete.

[megrimm]

Does someone in this thread have any 3d models of their printed cutterheads to share? My department is (hopefully) getting a 3d printer this fall and I would love to try my luck printing one out thats design has worked well for some of you posting here...

thanks!
m

[markrob]

Hi,

If you pm me with you email address, I can send you a dwg/dxf file that should help you get started.

Mark

[emidisc]

Hi Mark,
I too would be interested in a copy please - my day job is using Inventor 3D so I could make a model for possible 3D printing what do you think...
regards
Emidisc