The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

tsullivan · Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 27

Hello, I am new to this forum, but not new to old phonographs. I just acquired one of these disk cutters because I have always wanted to try cutting my own records. It came with the recording amplifier in a separate case. It looks much newer than some of the other cutters I have seen. I've got a couple from the 40's, Detrola and Wilcox-Gray, but they look pretty primitive compared to this Rek-O-Kut, with uses an overhead lathe and runs at all three speeds. It also has a playback tonearm with a GE VR cartridge. You have to manually change the idler to change speeds, it can hold two idlers, but not all three. I want to cut mainly 78's and 45's, so thats the two I installed. But I have never cut records before, so can anyone give me any tips on how to use this thing? I assume it works a lot like a tape recorder. The amp has jacks for the cutting head, microphone, phono, tuner, and monitor, and the usual controls, volume for each input, bass, treble, recording/playback, and a big VU meter right in the middle. Connect everything up, connect your tape deck or other audio source to one of the inputs, adjust the level so the needle just barely touches the red area, and cut away. Is there anything else I need to know?
The main thing I need to find some blank recording disks and cutting needles. Where do you get those? Does anybody have a box of them they would like to sell? I am mainly interested in 10 inch and 7 inch diameter, for 78's and 45's respectively.
I also understand that I will need different pitch leadscrews for 78's and 45's. The one thats installed now looks lite its probably for 78's. Does anybody know where additional ones can be obtained?
Thanks for any help.
Tom Sullivan[/url]

cuttercollector · Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 241 Location: San Jose, CA

Hi, and welcome!
There are many here who could probably offer better advice, but as to HOW to cut, before you just connect everything up and cut away, even if the thing is restored to perfect operating condition, (see below) you should adjust the depth of cut, starting with TOO SHALLOW!!! so you don't ruin you new cutting stylus by going too deep and touching the aluminum. If you have other consumer units you may already know this. I also found that adjusting the stylus shank for position and length (angle of cut) as well as the depth of cut made a HUGE difference, as did the freshness of the lacquer, in making a nice clean, dead quiet groove, which actually is possible if everything is set up right. Then, assuming your turntable is lubrcated, up to speed, has torque, lacks rumble etc., your head is able to cut at the proper level and your amp is putting out it's big 10 watts nice and clean, cut away and enjoy!
Beside idler problems, other issues I encountered were a bad cathode bias resistor and some other bad capacitors, some weak tubes, and a head that needed to be re-magnetized to get proper level.
There are, in the links here, resourcces for blank lacquers, styli, and also idler and cutter repair. Hope you get it working. Keep us posted and hopefully we can answer your questions.