The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

it may work under the more slight cutting force (15-20g), but for embossing I've found I need something much beefier than technics 1200 or even stanton.
it's gotta be the Numark TTX, or Technics SP10 + SP15
it's always worth the extra cost in my opinion

good call, I'm in!
A very happy 20th bday to the lathe trolls forum

thank you Steve! The Trolls forum is such a huge part of my life, I'm so thankful!

definitely, I've done it many times for these types of art records for display.
hit me up!
audiogeography.com

I've known Mike for about 13 years now, he's a standup guy. He's probably the most straight forward lathe-related person I know, he will tell you clearly, and immediately about the capabilities of certain gear (new people have to be told that a K series Presto just ain't a Neumann!), the lineage of ...

samples sound great! congrats on the successful build

Hey guys, This post is overdue, but here's my first build! A lockdown lathe in it's current state with a Stanton STR8.150 turntable for embossing. I must have lucked out with the platter on it as I don't appear to have any noticeable issues. I stayed as close as possible to David's build in every w...

it sounds like a physical problem to me, maybe the extra platter height is causing the chip tube or positioner for the chip tube to rub against the turntable at a certain diameter. Either that or tension from the chip tube, those are my thoughts because of the intermittent issue, and the issue not s...

this rules, happy Halloween everyone!
any special considerations with the UV printer and polycarb?

Ah, you probably weren't born yet when THAT Olson was doing a rip-roaring mail order business. They put out a newspaper-type flyer every couple of months in the '50s and early '60s, with lots of electronics bargains... speakers, microphones, components... and even their own private-branded items li...

I really dig my Olson head too!
My guess is they were made by this Olson audio brand:

I'm really sorry to hear about his passing, Rest In Peace Todd. We spoke a few times when I was just starting out cutting, we connected about his punk/HC record collection, and how he kept those records around despite being a big dance music guy at the time. He rewound my Olson cutting head, lent me...

ok so there are two types of cutting at this level, cutting and embossing. embossing works with an extreme 'leaned back' angle, which the recordio (I think you actually have a Recordette), unfortunately can't achieve. so let's put embossing aside, if you'd like to read into it there are many more re...

Hi James! Thanks for being here and I'm looking forward to seeing what you get up to back here in the cutting game.

hey George! not sure if the Rek O Cut is the same but I overcame this problem on my 6N platter by taping down the second "drive pin", and building up the overall height of the turntable with two slip mats to even out the height difference.
hope that helps!

interesting discussion going on about the blank heating, my personal experience is that heat makes a huge difference when embossing. I started with embossing, then started cutting and kept heating the blanks to a reasonable level (70-80 deg F) for cutting with diamond. Embossing I still heat closer ...

congrats! glad to hear about your success, best wishes for 15 more years

oooooh ok! very cool lathe!
but yeah, it seems like a counterweight issue

ok yeah for sure - so are you cutting on the T560 with a TKV head? It took me adding extra weight to the head and adjusting the counterweight a lot to get it right. otherwise a regular 15g weight on the cutting needle will require too much dashpot, and lift the head/drop the head throughout the side...

this happened to me when the wires for the cutting head were getting caught on the lathe overhead, not allowing the head to advance freely