The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

analog_frog · Joined: 24 Jul 2007 Posts: 8

I was on youtube and saw this video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YfUMRmZIkhs

The way the armature moves - could that adapted for use as record cutter head? I wonder.... - the arm seems too sensitive - it moves way too far from left to right - but i think you could adapt this into a cutterhead of some sort.....maybe. Any opinions??

JayDC · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 5:49 am Post subject:

looks as maybe you could, but it would be mono..

you would want to cut the arm shorter, and restrict the movement.. Not sure how sensitive to music it would be, ie: frequency range..

mossboss · Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 19

Hi all
This seems to me to be a Hard disk drive with the cover removed and the read write head searching over a stationary platter
It seems that the head is put into motion with some kind of software like a disk drive excerciser
Obviously the head picks up the magnetized spots come pulses already written on the plater which are amplified or just taken straight into a speaker from the head
When the drive is in normal operating mode the spinning platter creates a film of air so the heads fly about a micron or two above the plater which prevents wear on the recording media
The design of the heads also allow for that flying
The heads are made of a ferrite material with the read write coil embeded into the ferrite which is about 18 turns
This looks like a 5 and 1/4" drive to me and if my memory is any good it looks like a Seagate product or a company that was taken over by Seagate some years ago, name escapes me
Now here is my view In days gone by the where hard disk drives that had a linear rather then rotary head movement and they had a 12" platter
They where made by IBM as well as NEC The platters where made out of 1/4" aluminum the read write heads where quite substantial besides almost all of the electronics where discrete One of those old machines would make a good platform for cutting lathe as well as a carrier for a cutting head Given sufficient knowledge of electronics to get the stepper motor to deal with record cutting requirements Suffice to say it would be a very reasonable way of getting a really cheap cutting lathe with almost all of the electronics in place as well as carrier for a cutting head
All the same a very interesting idea
Cheers
Chris

mossboss · Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 19

Ok
Had another look at it It seems that he is driving the head with an excersiser as well as feeding an AC input from an amp He is also reading back any thing the reading head finds on the platter but in sync with the induced ac input Its a fair guess I think any ideas?
Cheers
Chris

andybee · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 61

mmh, there is a big mechanical amplitude?
frequenz response would be not very wide, but nice idea Idea

maybe this is a nice idea, too:
http://www.soliddrive.ch/sd/applications.html
www.soundbug.biz