The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

When I first heard of King Tubby, I assumed he was fat. After looking at his pictures, I realized he's too slim to have been called Tubby, as a nickname, and yet he wasn't so svelte that it made sense as a form of sarcasm, either. I'm sure it was foisted on him by people who don't even like dub. 'T...

Dear Double-plus UnCool, So, what are your 'cold, hard facts' about the unsolved murder Well, one cold hard fact is that Jamaica is a country where poverty and inequality are rife, and the murder rate is one of the highest in the world. That’s 50 out of every 100,000 people, and 10 times higher tha...

Perhaps this is an XY problem.. it's worth bearing in mind that some styluses are more prone to getting BUE than others, making the process of finding the perfect angle harder to pin down. Other factors can be used to remedy this, and in so doing the angle becomes less of an issue. It's also worth b...

There are two bolts on the underside of the suspension assembly that run up into the brass nut of the leadsrew. You can undo them slightly and adjust the position of the assembly there.

flozki wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 03, 2023 5:08 pm

i think he is in front of a coil winder.
but looks great.

He used to make his own transformers apparently, so perhaps that's it?

He's sat there fixing or cannibalizing overheads, innit? https://i.scdn.co/image/ee08962ddb9c7f27a3ad5ed6052aa8deef521331 I found a photo online of Mr. Ruddock making the hand-sign of Practicus - hopefully mocking Ras Tafari for doing that, but, since O. R. was reportedly murdered, it's likely that...

Thanks guys, that's great info. So much has been written about almost every other aspect of Jamaica's incredible contribution to music, so it seems weird that there is so little info about this side of things. I mean, Jamaica is the only country I can think of whose capital city even has a lathe nam...

Does anyone have any info on what lathes were used in the Jamaican music industry, when and by whom. I am particularly interested in the heyday of dub, but info on any period would be great. My research so far is a bit scrappy... I read for example that King Tubby used a lathe that he possibly acqui...

Maybe, maybe not. If you reduce the heat and the weight, the angle might actually be OK.

The dashpot works perfectly well if you stay within the correct heat/weight/angle range.

Is this still available, I remember Frank at the Carvery was looking for one.

Show me a plot from any lathe anywhere that looks completely flat from 20 to 20khz and I will be very surprised. This is standard for feed-forward cutting heads, and not at all uncommon for vinyl in general. Learn to embrace the imperfect perfection of the medium.

Sometimes the alignment of the drive coils in the air gap is the issue. Try loosening the bolts holding the drivers in the place and adjusting their position slightly. This will slightly move the drive coils relative to the air gap, so be careful and listen for an improvement in sound. Once it sound...

I had tooling made up at this company and anyone can use it:

https://lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9796&p=62669&hilit=labels#p62669

Hey Obi, happy Star Wars day! So first off, technically what we are talking about here is the "rake angle" not the "back angle". I must confess I am a bit of a stickler for nomenclature at the best of times, but in this particular instance, knowing the correct name will come in very handy for workin...

I knocked some up label designs a while back and the company that made the tooling have published my designs for other people to use. I have no affliliation with them, but I do recommend them as they always do a good job with fast turnaround. They have a load of different paper stock too... my perso...

It’s the angle of the photo which makes it look not parallel. It’s maybe 5% off but a little off doesn’t matter that much. With many parameters in play- weight stylus, counterweight, angle it’s just a matter of fiddling around. Your VR is different from others so the setting is unique as well- with...

Do you have any picture of the rubber rings? I tried with aluminium ring that sits at the edge of the records (1mm on the edge) it fits nicely but its not heavy enough (50 grams) to flatten the the record. I add a few pictures so you can see the aluminium ring. I don't have any photos handy, but I ...

I don't think andyburnout's question is unjustified. I tried a few ways to measure the weight. My cutting head has no point of contact for a measuring spring in the area of ​​the needle. If I measure at the front end and at the back end of the cutting head, there are clear differences in the measur...

Good work! Very much needed I would imagine.

FWIW styluses are usually re-mounted in a new shank every time they are re-sharpened so glueing would need to be figured out for a sharpening service (that is if it is to compete like-for-like with existing services).

Using the precision platter is a good start. It is slightly concave, and helps to temporarily dish the record and even out the warping in a lot of cases (but not all, the shorter the warp, the harder it is to flatten). Using a ring of rubber works well too, it increases the "concaviness" (is that a ...