The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

halfnormal · Joined: 05 May 2006 Posts: 1 Location: portland

i am interested in learning about record cutting, and am considering investing in a lathe in the next year or so

was wondering what recommendations people would have for make and models to look at. seems like there are a lot of vintage ones, and ads for parts etc.

for example -

there is the lathe, and the cutting head, and the amplifier, right?? does it break down into more components??? how interechangeable are heads for the various lathes out there, etc

i would just be looking for something that makes for clean results, and can cut deep/loud etc. perhaps eventually getting them to cut masters, but for now just individual releases. does a killer cut head run on the same lathe as a soso head??

i found a lot of great info on the aardvark site, but looking for some more depth and specific tech details for makes and models etc. maybe if there was a lathe-r-us somewhere i could poke around a little more, but it is hard to get close to one just to learn

i am releasing some vinyl and will be able to visit the guy and ask him some questions, but then i found this board and thought i'd put it out there

thanks!!!
bob

motorino · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 206

i recomend you, visit any cutting house near you, look and speak with the cutter Very Happy

(the person how cut, hehe)

Aussie0zborn · Joined: 11 Mar 2006 Posts: 69 Location: Australia

So you want to cut masters? You need a real system, something like a Neumann VMS66 or VMS70 lathe with an SX74 head driven by a SAL74 amp rack. Expect to pay over USD $20,000-00

It seems to me that the USA's favourite cutting system is the Scully lathe with either the Westrex 3D-II or Neumann SX74 cutterhead.

Either lathe will need to have a preview system if you want to cut masters and particularly if you want to cut LOUD records that dont jump.

Be sure not to buy somebody else's problem. Disc cutting is one area where you need to do it properly and invest the big dollars if you want succesful results. Buying a complete working system will save you untold hours of grief. Good luck.

More info at www.vinylium.ch and [url]www. floka.com[/url]

Wink Junior · Joined: 24 Mar 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Portland, Ore USA