The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

piaptk · Joined: 25 Jan 2008 Posts: 3

So, once again, I am considering trying to get into this. But, I know it's a hell of a time and monetary investment, so I want to spit out a few ideas I have so that I don't go into it with an idea that something will work, only to find out that it won't.

Can you buy blanks from traditional pressing plants (using blank stampers), i.e. actual records with no grooves cut in them?

Could I buy a few thousand no-sided records and then cut them?

cuttercollector · Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 285 Location: San Jose, CA

It does not work quite that way.
Traditionally one off cut records have been done on lacquer coated aluminum discs and you can still buy those. This is also what master discs for pressed records are made on. The actual vinyl goes from a biscut (kind of like a black lump of dough) in a press to a finished record with grooves which come from a plated metal stamper derived from the lacquer master.
There are now some companies marketing blank vinyl based records to cut but they require more specialized styli and are harder to cut.
All this has been on this site if you search back...