Vinyl cutting coin-op vending machine

[Thelurker]

Not mine, wonder what the cutting head is like!

http://m.ebay.com/itm/232146899589

[fredbissnette]

that is incredible

[Soulbear]

Hi There,
I mentioned this to a Friend and Neighbour, who knows the owner, and where the last one of these Coin Operated "Record Booths" used in the U.K. (On the Platform of York Railway Station of all places) is now in storage. Using a Philips Cassette Player in 1970/71, I once copied (Very Poorly I Might Add) about 1:30sec of Jerry Cook's record "I Hurt on the Other Side" onto a "Machine Dispensed" 5" Lacquer Disc, using this same machine at a cost of around Half a Crown (12.5Pence) The current owner is not willing to part with it at any price however. It is though, a most interesting Artefact, but surely not so scarce Stateside, as to Command the Price being sought here?? Unless I've been seriously mis-informed, I thought Stateside that these machines were fairly common-place, being found in Drug Stores, Ice Cream Parlours, Department Stores etc, and it was something of a "Rites of Passage" for American "Youth Culture" to make recordings using these Booths way back when??
Regards Soulbear

[rsimms3]

There is one person that creates these machines from old parts. None of them are strictly refurbishment jobs, often just taking what parts are available or will work together to make a functional machine. I've seen both machines that Third Man Records owns and was told by their technician they bought both of them from the eBay seller indicated above. He also supplies them with blanks (or did). They originally used small acetates to actually cut but then switched over to the clear plastic for impressing shortly thereafter. Not sure the reason if it was cost, complexities of using acetates, or some other reason. The eBay listing above and the machine in Detroit uses part of a K series cutting arm and 1C or 1D cutterhead. I used the machine in Detroit a while back, didn't sound very good. Not sure if it needed adjustment or that's the nature of the beast.

[piaptk]

Yeah, these are made by a dude named Bill Bollman in Washington DC. I've been to his shop, and it's insane... He has about 10 of them. For a while he was using Grampians in them. The one at third man in Nashville just has a crappy little Webster head.

[Thelurker]

Great info!

Still very fascinating and very cool!