The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

dietrich10 wrote:

opcode66 wrote:I don't think this has anything to do with stylus heat.

What would the effect be of a current surge like that?

I'd imagine a surge in heat would simply burn out the wires. Either way, it hasn't happened since I switched lacquer brands. So it goes I guess.

Yeah, I'm on adamant now. The stylus is super clean. Nothing beats the feeling of putting a new stylus on and seeing it cut clean.

On that vein, I've noticed that my cuts appear cleaner under the scope on transco & MDC lacquers, but appear streaky on apollos.

I

Any chance the jewel facet was in sideways? I just put in a 320k and the facet was about 30-40 degrees off from the flat square of the shank. Do you guys use a scope for the stylus alignment or do you go by naked eye? JJG I do use a scope for the stylus alignment. The square base WAS slightly askew...

It happened again... With a stylus with a subsequent serial number...on the first cut with it. I was worried I had a problem, so I threw an old stylus on (I keep all of the old ones) and just let it cut through some burner lacquers. Didn't have another issue after an afternoon of cutting. I put an A...

I've had this happen a month ago. Turns out a small piece of chipped lacquer from the center hole migrated into the suction hose and got stuck, thusly reducing the amount of suction from the platter. Could be worth a look.

Yesterday was a comedy of errors. Right after this happened I spilled my giant can of MEK so the whole downstairs of the studio smelled *ahem* Very very sanitized.

I looked at them & didn't see anything that looked suspicious. The groove previous to the break has a strange wall on one side that juts out quite a bit, but I can't tell if that was the actual cut or if it is something caused by the point where it blasted apart. On a positive note, the image is kin...

The picture is attached.

I can't get the picture to upload. I'll try again later when I'm on a for real computer.

VMS-70. Has never happened to me before. Cutting on an Apollo lacquer. No explanation for it other than the theory they maybe some water or air got trapped in the formation of the stylus. Not sure if this is even possible, however it wasn't just a break in the stylus from a small crack or anything. ...

Was cutting a 7" side today. Right at The tail end of the fade out my stylus made a loud pop and bits of it flew out over the lacquer. Through the scope on the grooves (attached) it looks like a concussion grenade went off! Under the inspection microscope the stylus looked like it blew up from the i...

Thanks for all of your info. The reality is (had I taken pictures) is that the actuator screw was sitting very high 2 "threads" higher than all of the other actuator screws. So the issue was that it had been moved at some point & wasn't holding the microswitch down for a long enough duration. When I...

Adjusting the speed at which the Fast motor rotates will not increase the overall length of time that it is run for while the machine is cutting the lead in groove. It will only affect how wide the grooves in that time period are cut. The time period is determined by the length of time the microswi...

I agree the one screw maybe needs to come down a bit to make contact a bit longer. There is a special tool you are supposed to use to adjust those screws. Paul Gold has a set from what I remember. FYI. Not every suspension has micro switches. Both of mine have reed style switches inside. Not sure w...

Yeah, I was able to find all of that info. It was just bugging me because the lead in issue is the one "problem" that isn't addressed in the manual. Thanks again for the help. It's always nice to have a second opinion on what I assumed to be true. I don't ever want to touch those micros witches with...

Thanks a bunch. I assumed this was the case, as the middle screw on my 12" was 1 thread "higher" than the others, but didn't want to mess with anything without a second opinion. I've since tweaked it down just a bit and it took care of my problem. The difference was subtle, but 1 out of every 4 or 5...

Hey all. I'm noticing that my 12" lead in grooves are pretty small. Not the pitch of the grooves, but the actual distance that the lead in gets written. I've used calipers and a compass to determine that My drop down is RIAA accurate, but my program start time is at a tad higher radius than is optim...

I'm not so much concerned as I am intrigued by this sentence from the manual.

So a question for those of you doing 7" dub cuts on a VMS-70. Are you, like me, just setting the turntable platter adjustment to 10"? I've been doing this with no noticeable adverse effects, until today. I was cutting a dub & had some serious groove lift on the outer diameter. Had the same thing whe...

Does anyone still have the template for the Vinylcarvers 12" records? I've purchased some from them, but can't find a template anywhere on their website & haven't had a response from my many emails in a few weeks.