c/diy-vinyl-records

I used to swear by used cutting styli until a $40 mishap in Denver

For like two years I bought every discounted stylus I could find online, figured a little wear was fine for home cuts. Then I got a batch from a seller in Denver, three of them had chips I didn't spot under my loop. Struggled through a whole side of a jazz record, the groove was full of surface noise and skips. A buddy at a meetup showed me his fresh stylus under the same magnification, night and day. That comparison stuck with me, now I only buy new and check every tip before I mount it. Anyone else burned by used cutting gear or am I the only cheap skate here?.

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olivia_wilson•5d ago

That $150 lacquer blank kit was a total scam, please learn from me

Spent last weekend trying to cut a dubplate with one of those cheap pre-cut lacquer blank kits from eBay. The guy swore they were 'studio grade' but my stylus dug right through the coating on track two, wrecked the needle too. Lost $150 on the blanks plus another $60 on a replacement stylus for my cutter. Anyone else fallen for these knockoff blanks, or is there an actual budget brand that doesn't eat your equipment?

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benb21•8d ago

Cutting lacquers with the same needle for months, is that actually fine or am I just lazy?

So last week I was trimming a fresh dubplate and noticed the cutting stylus was looking pretty rough. I got my used Neumann head about 3 years ago from a guy in Portland who said he'd only cut maybe 50 sides with it. Since then I've probably done close to 200 cuts on it, mostly spoken word and lo-fi stuff, not heavy bass. I keep thinking about sending it out to be checked or resharpened, but every cut still sounds okay to me on my home setup. My buddy Mark says I'm wrecking the head and the grooves are getting shallow, but I honestly can't hear a difference between a cut from last month and one from when I first got it. Is there a real threshold where you absolutely need to swap or service the stylus, or is it more of a "trust your ears" thing? Anyone else run their cutting needle way past the recommended hours and regret it or get away with it?

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hannahh53•9d ago

My cutting angle was off for 8 months, a test tone record exposed it

I've been cutting lacquers at home since March, and I always set the stylus by eye, just eyeballing that 90 degree angle to the groove. Last Saturday I played back a test tone record I made, and the high end was dropping off way earlier than it should, like around 12kHz. I pulled out a cheap protractor from my grandson's school kit, and sure enough, I was off by about 5 degrees the whole time. That little tilt was dulling every cut I made, and I only caught it because I finally bothered to do a frequency sweep instead of just trusting my ears. Has anyone else found a simple measuring tool that completely changed their cutting setup?

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lunashah•10d ago

Vent: lacquer shrinkage ruined my last 10 cuts, now I bake everything first

I used to cut straight onto fresh lacquer blanks and think it was fine. Then about 5 weeks ago I engraved a full 12 inch side, let it sit for 2 days, and the grooves literally pulled together in the middle. Playback sounded like a warped 45 stuck at 33 rpm. My mentor from the old shop in Minneapolis always said to let blanks rest at 75 degrees for 48 hours before cutting. I ignored him for 6 months. Last week I ran 3 blanks through the oven at 120 for 20 minutes, cooled them slow, and all 3 came out stable. Anyone else bake their lacquers or am I just paranoid about humidity now?

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taraj11•11d ago

Spent $200 on a used cutting head, best and worst money I ever spent

Picked up a beat-up 1970s cutterhead off eBay for $200 back in March and it sounds incredible, but I've already sunk another $150 in parts keeping it alive... worth it though for the warm cuts. Anyone else gamble on old gear and get lucky, or did yours just collect dust?

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ray_carr•12d ago

My heat stamper died mid-press, and honestly I'm glad it did

Had my little hobby press running a batch of 7-inchers for a local band, maybe 14 records in, when the heating element on my stamper just gave out on a Saturday. The last two sides came out with this weird surface noise, like a faint sandpaper hiss, and I was ready to toss the whole rig in the trash. But I pulled it apart, found a loose thermocouple wire that was probably original to the unit I got used back in 2019, and re-crimped it. That fixed the heat inconsistency, and the next 20 records sounded cleaner than anything I'd pressed before. It made me stop trusting the 'set it and forget it' mindset with pre-made plates, I check the actual dwell temperature every run now with a cheap IR gun. Has anyone else had a random failure that turned into their best output yet, or am I just weirdly lucky?

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rowanbennett•13d ago

That ticking sound in my lathe was a loose chuck key, not the bearing

Spent two evenings pulling apart my whole cutting lathe setup, chasing what I thought was a dying spindle bearing on my Rek-O-Kut. I had the motor out, the platter off, the works. Then my buddy stops by, watches me for a minute, and points at the chuck key I left sitting in the chuck. It was rattling against the housing every rotation. I felt like an idiot. So now I'm curious, how many of you have chased a phantom noise on your rig and it turned out to be something dumb and cheap? Or is it just me who forgets the little stuff when you're dialing in a new groove angle?

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harris.uma•15d ago

A noisy melt in the garage made me rethink groove depth

My wife left a candle burning by the lathe while I was cutting a test lacquer, and the wick noise bled right through the feedback loop on the mic. That accidental rumble taught me to check the room's ambient sound before every cut, has anyone else had outside noise ruin a take?

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william407•18d ago

Cutting lacquers with a used record lathe, skeptical at first

I picked up a beat up Presto 6N from a guy in Portland last month for $300, figured it would just be a display piece. After cleaning the feed screw and replacing the stylus heater, I cut my first acetate and it actually came out clear, no skipping. The trick was slowing the turntable to 45 rpm for the first pass, then back to 33 for the cut, sounds weird but it stopped the chip from wrapping. Anyone else run old broadcast lathes or am I the only one crazy enough to trust 60 year old gear?

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thomas_brown•20d ago

Skipped the preheat on my record press and it bit me in the wallet

Last Saturday in my garage I fired up my DIY press without letting the platen sit at temp for the full 20 minutes. First two records came out with warped edges and one had a skip that sounded like a scratched CD. I tried to fix them with a heat gun and flat weights, but they still wobble on the turntable. So my question is this: do you always stick to a strict preheat schedule, or have you gotten away with shortening it when you're in a rush?

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laura940•20d ago

A mastering engineer's 'too quiet' note wrecked my whole pressing setup

I sent a test cut to a guy in Portland who does professional mastering, and he said my grooves looked like "whispers on a pillow." Turns out I was setting my cutting depth way too shallow, around 0.05mm, so everything sounded super thin once I played it back on my cheap turntable. He told me to bump it to 0.12mm and watch the stylus heat, and now my records actually have some BODY instead of that tinny mess. Has anyone else gotten feedback that made you redo your entire lathe settings from scratch?

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fionaa35•22d ago

My lacquer cutting angle was off for 2 years, a mastering engineer caught it in 5 seconds

I kept getting this weird sibilance on vocals no matter what EQ I tried, but Keith from the shop in Austin looked at my stylus once and asked if I ever checked the vertical tracking angle on my own cuts. Since I recalibrated with a cheap USB microscope last month, my highs finally sound like the test presses I used to chase. Anyone else trusted the factory setup too long and found out the hard way?

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xena_jackson•25d ago

My engineer buddy's 'check the math first' talk made me tear up my whole cutting setup

Had a beer with my buddy Dave who does mastering for a small label last Friday. He watched me level my lathe by eye and said 'you are chasing ghosts if your depth stops are wobbling at 0.0005 inches.' That hit different because I had been blaming my stylus wear for sibilance on side two of a 7 inch I cut. Turned out my homemade vacuum hold down had a 0.003 inch runout that I never measured, just felt flat. I spent Sunday building a simple dial indicator mount from a $12 harbor freight gauge and now my cuts are way more consistent. Anyone else found that measuring the rig instead of swapping parts solved a recurring noise issue?

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mason499•27d ago

Finally stopped polishing lacquers by hand after 14 ruined blanks

Used to hand-buff every lacquer disc with a microfiber cloth before cutting, thought it gave me control. Last month I ruined 14 blanks in one sitting because my thumb pressure varied slightly between tracks, leaving audible swish marks right in the quiet sections. A buddy from the Portland record swap told me to just use a cheap felt pad on a cordless drill at low speed, spinning the blank on a lazy susan. Tried it on 5 test cuts and the noise floor dropped noticeably, plus it takes like 2 minutes instead of 15 per disc. Now I only hand-polish the outer edge where the pad can catch. Has anyone else had better luck with a spin-cleaner style setup for pre-cut blanks or am I the only one who fought this for way too long?

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the_spencer•27d ago

Warning: don't cut lacquers in high humidity, my last batch is trash

I was cutting a 10 inch test press in my garage studio in Orlando last Tuesday and the 70% humidity made the grooves skip all over the place, the needle just bounced right out. I had to redo the whole master on a drier day and now I check my hygrometer before every session, has anyone else had this wreck their blanks?

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brookethomas•27d ago

A collector told me my 45s were unplayable, so I ditched the $40 stylus for a $15 one

He said the lead-in groove was too shallow and it skipped on his Dual 1219, so I recalibrated my cutting depth from 0.002" to 0.0015" and now the first three seconds actually hold up, has anyone else been forced to change their setup by a picky customer?

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rivera.jesse•27d ago

Critic said my lacquer cuts had too much sibilance, now I change my EQ before every cut

A guy at a local audio meet in Portland pointed out my 'S' sounds were spitting on my test pressings. I started cutting with a 3dB dip at 5kHz and it fixed the issue completely. Has anyone else adjusted their cutting chain based on what listeners hear, or am I overthinking it?

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charles_knight•28d ago

My press platens were 4 degrees off for a year

I was getting thin spots on every record I pressed, especially near the outer edge. Last week I finally put a temp probe on both platens during a run and found the top one sitting at 138 while the bottom was at 134, my heater controller in Boise has been drifting. I re-calibrated the thermocouple and tightened the mounting screws, first press after came out clean. Has anyone else had a platen that reads right but actually runs cold on one side?

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kimr33•29d ago

Tried lacquer blanks instead of the usual PVC, night and day difference

I was cutting on those cheap PVC blanks for about a year and kept getting surface noise no matter how I set the stylus. Last week I switched to lacquer blanks from a supplier in Sacramento, cost about $12 each versus $7, but the grooves cut way cleaner. The chip removal was smoother and I didn't have to re-cut a single track because of skipping. Anyone else made the swap and noticed the stylus wear difference, or is it just me?

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avery_foster31•29d ago

My garage sale lathe nearly turned my driveway into a Jackson Pollock

Picked up a used record cutting lathe for $50 at a garage sale in Reno, and the first test cut had the blank disc fly off and spray hot PVC chips all over my neighbor's car. Has anyone else had to rig up a proper vacuum chip catcher before their first real cut, or am I the only one dumb enough to try it on a concrete slab?

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roses69•1mo ago

That $45 lacquer disc kit really bit me in the wallet

I figured I'd try cutting direct to lacquer at home since everyone hypes it as the closest to a real master. Bought a starter kit with three blanks and a stylus for 45 bucks last month. First blank got a gouge from a speck of dust I didn't see. Second one sounded like a warped 78 with all this wow and flutter, probably my cutting speed being off. Third one actually cut clean but the playback wore it down after like 10 plays, which I guess is normal but still hurts. Now I'm looking at pressing instead, but that needs a whole setup on top. So 45 bucks basically bought me a lesson, not a record. Has anyone had better luck with cheap lacquer blanks or should I just save up for a used record press? Or is there a middle ground with those DIY vinyl lathes people build from turntables?

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karenhenderson•1mo ago

My cat walked across a freshly cut lacquer disc and now I have a meow hidden in track 2

I was cutting a test pressing in my garage last Saturday and my cat jumped on the cutting lathe at the worst second. Has anyone else had an animal ruin a master and how do you keep them out of your workspace?

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wood.zara•1mo ago

Serious question, does anyone actually get clean cuts with a cheap stylus?

I talked to a guy named Steve at a record fair in Portland last month who swore his $30 ebay stylus made perfect grooves, but when I tried one I got nothing but noise and skipped lines. Is it worth spending the extra cash on a pro stylus, or is my technique just bad?

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nora54•1mo ago

Ran into a guy at a record swap who showed me his homemade lacquer cutter

He was using an old turntable motor and a heated stylus rig he built from scratch, and it actually cut a decent groove into a blank disc right there at the table. Has anyone else tried building their own cutting lathe from salvaged parts, or am I the only one who thinks that's insane but impressive?

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