Need Help and Direction for Building a Lathe

[redwhiteanddead]

Hello, everyone. The forum has so much great information regarding record lathes. I am new to the forum, and I have been searching many topics related to building a record lathe. I am hoping that everyone can provide me with topic links or a clear process and materials for building a record lathe. This would be for experimental purposes, and I am not yet concerned with building a professional quality machine. I will be facilitating educational sessions about analog music production with youth in a community setting. Thank you.

[markrob]

Hi,

If you are looking to use as a teaching aid, I would recommend the Gakken or Teenage Engineering PO-80. Its small, low in cost, and a completer working kit you can build. It has all of the basic parts of a record lathe. There is plenty of room to hack and modify to make improvements (do a search here for more info on that front). You can always move to make a lathe from scratch down the road, but your ability to do so hinges on the budget, fabrication equipment, and skill sets you have.

https://teenage.engineering/products/po-80

Mark

[redwhiteanddead]

Hi, Mark. Thank you for the suggestions. I have checked out the PO-80. I will look for used devices since they are no longer available for purchase. I am curious about hacking them and making modifications. I do have access a complete array of fabrication tools and electronics. My skills are well developed to take on the proposed project.

[markrob]

Hi,

Is the PO-80 a one and done thing or is it just out of stock? That's too bad if it is no more as its a really nice little unit that would be perfect for your project. I assume you have seen my thread and some of the other threads on the hacking. I'm planning on posting more about my mods in the future. I'm currently on some other projects, so it might be awhile.

Below is a shot of my modd'ed PO-80. On the top left is an experimental head driver amp that only produces 3 or 4 watts average power, but can put out short duration 100 watt peaks. The amp uses a low cost off the shelf TPA3118 based module. On the top right is a custom PCB I designed that has a Arduino Nano and TMC2209 stepper driver running a NEMA 14 stepper to replace the stock DC plater motor. It also has a phono preamp and headphone amp to replace the on board electronics. Now you can monitor the playback while you cut. Also visible is cute little strobe disc I created. The driver to the head was replaced with a off the shelf DAEX13CT-4 exciter and a new stylus assembly that allows easy to change embossing cones. I not currently cutting. I emboss CD-Rs. Getting some nice results. There are some early examples on the other thread.

My PO-80.jpg

Mark

[piaptk]

You might also consider coming to one of my www.lathecutcamp.com. There is no better way to understand all the different mechanical nuances of these machines than to actually put your hands on one and use it. I have quite a few different types of machines in the studio and go into the different designs and their pros/cons.

[thelace43]

Here's a link to to something similar to what I am using for my lathe, with an arduino and stepper motor controller; I don't have time to track down the same product. Hope it points you in the right direction. If you're new to arduino, (as am I) you might have some luck using Chat GPT to give you some info and code. I highly recommend looking into that if you have not heard of it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3D8Y5B9/ref=syn_sd_onsite_mobileweb_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pd_rd_plhdr=t

[sameal]

I kinda toyed with this idea, it's WAY WAY WAY on the back burner for me. But id get a nice dj deck as the platter and some sort of overhead if i was new. Thatd be the quickest d.i.y. way in i would think. Something like a rok overhead.

Unless you wanted to really build it from scratch. Then your talking motors, arduino and probably like 3d printers parts or something. I don't know too many people that have a build sheet per say

Oh....and then expect to make 2, 3, maybe 4 or 5 prototypes if you're like me and barely know what you're doing. Seems like every step closer i take, i take 3 more backwards!

I ended up finding a suitable plinth and moving carriage, i just need some kind of mechanism to move it along the plinth ala scully. I was just going to stick a dj turntable under it. But it's all on a shelf in DEEP storage as I'm pretty buried.

[dmills]

Yea doing it from scratch is a serious LEARNING experience, especially if mech eng of the fairly serious sort is not really your thing.

Lots of precision parallelism over annoying distances and fun with vibration management (I am on Rev 3 of my build, hint epoxy granite is your friend for stiff, well damped heavy structure), and finding a good high torque drive that doesn't cog can be a little problematic.

Word to the wise, O1 ground flat stock for the win, it is expensive but comes from the factory very, very flat and with parallel sides, which is not a given with cheap mild steel, and the sizes you will want are usually annoying for finding someone to surface grind it flat for you, also in aluminium, 'Tooling plate' is the stuff, a bit odd to machine but again flat, and stays flat as you work it.

Current attempt (Waiting on some new metal parts) is a Yaskawa coreless DD servo motor directly driving the platter which has ample torque (5N/m = 50kg/cm), and a carriage running on cross roller bearings of the non recirculating sort (With a gibb strip). Any use of recirculating bearings (Ball screws, most linear slide ways) is the kiss of death as they are noisy and will introduce quite audible vibration.

My intention on this one is to drive the carriage via a length of piano wire run over a pully to a motor driven windlass positioned below the vibration sensitive bits, that way I can hopefully keep the vibration from that servo out of the critical doings, retract will be by a similar arrangement with a weight providing the preload. That in itself is driven thru a 50:1 strain wave gear from another servo motor so the computer can control speeds exactly.

The Yaskawa motor is silent apart from an annoying whine from the magnetics at the servopack switching frequency, this goes away if you apply a little light braking to the platter, but I probably really need to design my own servo driver for it using an old school analogue power stage to avoid the chopper whine. The existing servo pack also suffers somewhat from the fact that in programmed speed mode you can only set to the nearest 0.1RPM, so 33.3RPM not 100/3 RPM which is annoying my OCD.

Just about to have my new lathe (of the other sort) delivered, a used Hardinge HLV-H so that should make the production of some of the small parts less annoying.

[Groovecutter]

Here's a link to to something similar to what I am using for my lathe, with an arduino and stepper motor controller; I don't have time to track down the same product. Hope it points you in the right direction. If you're new to arduino, (as am I) you might have some luck using Chat GPT to give you some info and code. I highly recommend looking into that if you have not heard of it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3D8Y5B9/ref=syn_sd_onsite_mobileweb_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pd_rd_plhdr=t

do you need to use a stepper motor interface with wihte motor controller? or does the arduino cut that part out?

[thelace43]

Here's a link to to something similar to what I am using for my lathe, with an arduino and stepper motor controller; I don't have time to track down the same product. Hope it points you in the right direction. If you're new to arduino, (as am I) you might have some luck using Chat GPT to give you some info and code. I highly recommend looking into that if you have not heard of it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3D8Y5B9/ref=syn_sd_onsite_mobileweb_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pd_rd_plhdr=t

do you need to use a stepper motor interface with wihte motor controller? or does the arduino cut that part out?

Sorry for the late reply. Yes, I used this: https://www.amazon.com/UsongShine-Stepper-Controller-Arduino-Printer/dp/B07HHS14VQ/ref=asc_df_B07HHS14VQ/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309778489815&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10104596122351090191&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011699&hvtargid=pla-632117762627&psc=1

Here's the "lathe" https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D3FRXYQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My wife helped me with the arduino code, but again, you can use Chat GPT for help on that. I presume that it is possible even to get it to adjust pitch based on loudness, but I'm not there yet. I think I am going to go ahead and purchase a sapphire stylus today!

[thelace43]

Also, for my cutter-head, I used a tungsten cone shoved into a 3mm plastic washer sandwiched between two Dayton Audio DAEX19CT-4 exciters, which I hot-glued to a janky arm, (it happened to kinda fit into the aluminum beam like the piece you see attached to the lathe) in the build style of a Japanese Lathe (Hara or Van Rock). The stylus was at around 10 degrees. The exciters were wired to a standard Hi-Fi receiver, but out of phase so that they didn't cancel each other out. Obviously MONO, and don't forget the RIAA EQ. Polycarbonate, with a heat lamp. I really can't believe that I got away with an embossing that sounded as good as it did, even though it ultimately sounded pretty much like trash. I mean, I could understand the lyrics. There was a song.. I was VERY proud. This is all after well over 5 years of research from knowing absolutely nothing. I'll try to get a direct recording of the "cut".

[Groovecutter]

Here's a link to to something similar to what I am using for my lathe, with an arduino and stepper motor controller; I don't have time to track down the same product. Hope it points you in the right direction. If you're new to arduino, (as am I) you might have some luck using Chat GPT to give you some info and code. I highly recommend looking into that if you have not heard of it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3D8Y5B9/ref=syn_sd_onsite_mobileweb_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pd_rd_plhdr=t

do you need to use a stepper motor interface with wihte motor controller? or does the arduino cut that part out?

Sorry for the late reply. Yes, I used this: https://www.amazon.com/UsongShine-Stepper-Controller-Arduino-Printer/dp/B07HHS14VQ/ref=asc_df_B07HHS14VQ/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309778489815&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10104596122351090191&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011699&hvtargid=pla-632117762627&psc=1

Here's the "lathe" https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D3FRXYQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My wife helped me with the arduino code, but again, you can use Chat GPT for help on that. I presume that it is possible even to get it to adjust pitch based on loudness, but I'm not there yet. I think I am going to go ahead and purchase a sapphire stylus today!

so ive bought a 6600 Stepper Motor Controller, and just to see if it was sweet i got a ph charger and split the chords so i could use it as a power source. Obviously i wont do this for my project, so i am wondering, what is a good power source for one of these, i see youve got what looks to be a normal AC adapter running it? if i find something along the same lines it should be fine? ive got heaps of adapters at home, so i should be able to find one if not buy one. but if its better to use something else that people reccomend, fire away, need the info haha!

[thelace43]

From https://community.robotshop.com/forum/t/power-supply-requirements-for-stepper-motor-controller/28483

"The TB6600 Stepper Motor Driver 72 can input from 9V to 42V. The current output from the driver can be set to : 0.5A, 1A, 1.5A, 2A, 2.5A, 2.8A, 3.0A, 3.5A.
The recommended voltage of the RB-Phi-266 184 is 12V and its rated current is 2.8A.
As long as you set an output current of 2.8A (or more), you shouldn’t have an issue driving the RB-Phi-266 with the TB6600 Driver.
As for the power supply, you can use a 12V/3A adapter.
For example, this 12VDC 3A Wall Adapter Power Supply 290 can be appropriate. "

Mine is 9V DC, 1A and it works fine. I set the micro step to 32. The switches on the 6600 are therefore set to
OFF-OFF-OFF-, (32 ms) ON-OFF-ON (1A). Up is off, confusingly.