Edison cylinder recorder cutters

[Chuck]

I don't understand why there is any hesitation. It is practically free money, rebuilding the very cheap bodys.

There are many ways to get one of those typical
recorder hulks more or less sort of semi-working again.

There's the ever-popular notion that a randomly busted
piece of glass rod will actually work as a recorder
cutter. If it does work at all, it would at the
very least be quite noisy and also most likely be
making a quite faint and low amplitude recording.

And that's fine for people who are only interested
in demonstrating the principle of how a recorder operates.

It turns out to be a much more involved endeavor
though, when the goal is to make a recorder not
only just work, but to work as well or better than
it did when it was brand new, recording upon a
brand new recording blank.

When a recorder is rebuilt with that goal in mind,
the process takes quite a bit of hard work and also
a fair amount of time. The end result is anything
but "free money". In fact, if the person who
rebuilds the recorder takes in to account their
valuable time, then there is just about no possible
way to make anything even resembling a profit should
that person decide to sell that rebuilt recorder to
someone else.

This is why decently rebuilt, properly working
recorders are indeed few and far between, and when
found can tend to be rather costly.

[Chuck]

So far we have accumulated an interest in (11)
cutters. The minimum order is (25).

I've got no control over how the manufacturer
sets their pricing schedule. They've got these
in stock in the 2 aforementioned styles and they
are sitting on this inventory.

If we want to get serious about this we need to
email all of our friends and associates and let them
know that if they want some good recorder cutters
to get on this thread topic and state their interest.

As I've said several times before, I've attempted
many times over the past several years to get the
word out about these and usually a handful of folks
say they would like a few. But that's as far as it
ever seems to go, then it peters out.

All I can do is to inform everyone that these are
available and that I personally have tested them.

Anyone who wants to hear the tests of these cutters
need only to visit my web site http://www.richardslaboratories.com and click
on "Test Recordings".

These cutters are for those who are serious about
rebuilding Edison cylinder phonograph recorders
to "as new" performance.

Chuck

[Chuck]

Update:

Here are the totals so far:

Teak (6)
JWB88 (2)
MTPhono (3)
Coyote (2)

(13) pieces total. (25) needed for a minimum order.

Note: I do not plan to make any money on this.
This pricing is the manufacturer's.
Shipping will have to be added on.

If we start getting close to the minimum, I'll check
with the company to make sure the pricing is still
current, and also try to rough out the shipping cost.

So, sit back, relax, make some popcorn and enjoy the show. I've got a feeling it'll be quite a while
before any of us will have to start thinking about
exchanging actual money.

Thanks for the interest so far!

Only by doing this as a large group can we have any hope
of pulling this off and getting some of these at
a reasonable price.

Chuck

[Dave D]

I would be interested in 2 of them.
Dave D

[edisonphonoworks]

Chuck is right about it not being free money! It can take a good part of a day, fiddling with the ski jumps to make them so they are not too tall, or too short, You should be able to record cylinders, without a spacer from 2.120-2.195" in diameter at the max. The cylinder recording stylus was one that Rich Goodin and I designed, and Chuck is the only authorized person with the purchase order. It seems that some people in this collector community think they have the privilege to interfere with other peoples Sources. The company that makes the stylus is very serious in preventing industrial espionage, which is a serious crime, and tipped us off to collectors who tried to steal the information. I have used these recording styli for many years, with heavy industrial use, they are sharp and make outstanding recordings. It is good that now a few sources of good styli exists.

[Chuck]

Update:

Here are the totals so far:

Teak (6)
JWB88 (2)
MTPhono (3)
Coyote (2)
Dave D. (2)

(15) pieces total. (25) needed for a minimum order.

Note: I do not plan to make any money on this.
This pricing is the manufacturer's.
Shipping will have to be added on.

Above is the update as of 3/24/18.

I have contacted Steve Medved in regards to these cutters.

He says he will go in for (6) of the
straight-hole cutters if the order is
placed in September, 2018, or after.

Then he also says that if we wait
until 2019, that he can go in on an
order for (100) of the straight
hole cutters.

That starts getting mighty interesting then, because
at a quantity of (100) pieces, the straight-hole
cutters cost $28.35 each.

So, now I need to start hearing from everyone who has
expressed interest so far and see what you'd like to do.

Shall we wait until Sept. and
add Steve's (6) to the list,
or should we all wait until
2019 and get well over (100) of them?

[Chuck]

Chuck is right about it not being free money! It can take a good part of a day, fiddling with the ski jumps to make them so they are not too tall, or too short, You should be able to record cylinders, without a spacer from 2.120-2.195" in diameter at the max. The cylinder recording stylus was one that Rich Goodin and I designed, and Chuck is the only authorized person with the purchase order. It seems that some people in this collector community think they have the privilege to interfere with other peoples Sources. The company that makes the stylus is very serious in preventing industrial espionage, which is a serious crime, and tipped us off to collectors who tried to steal the information. I have used these recording styli for many years, with heavy industrial use, they are sharp and make outstanding recordings. It is good that now a few sources of good styli exists.

You are correct about that, sir!
Yep that whole episode from several years ago
when I first had contacted the manufacturer
asking about the possibility of resurrecting
this purchase order was a real hoot!!

The first thing they told me was that they'd
been dealing with a certain "someone" who shall not
be named here. They told me that this "guy" had been
drilling them for information and trying to get
lowball quotes from them.

They only started dealing seriously with me after I
gave them the purchase order number of the old
order for (100) cutters made by Shawn and Rich in 2001.

Then, to my great surprise, it turns out that they
had produced not just the straight-hole type (which is
what ended up comprising the 2001 order for (100)
pieces), but that in addition to those they had
also produced another style that has a tapered hole!

So I was able to obtain their drawings for both styles
and subsequently I obtained engineering samples
of both kinds for testing.

Not only that, but I have learned that this company
apparently made a large stock of both styles which
they have in inventory.

Disclaimer: I have the only known sample of the
tapered-hole style cutter. It is mounted in my
recorder #289270. As far as I know unless I learn
differently, I am the only person who has ever used
or tested one of these. Getting it to work properly
was a great challenge because it tends to dig in
and cut way too deeply, producing a bad echo.

It was only by using a tiny magnet and a tiny steel plate to create a lifting force to counter the force
of gravity (to lighten the weight without ruining
any original Edison parts), that I was finally able
to make the tapered-hole cutter to work properly.

This recorder's diaphragm also had to be very
severely dampened using a ton of beeswax and cardboard
(from a matchbook cover!) in order to finally get it
to settle down and make a decent recording.

I say all of this because I want to get it all
said now so that anyone who orders the tapered hole
cutters knows completely beforehand that they can and
do work superbly, but getting there setting them up
may not be exactly what most of us would expect.

Because if anyone ever has all those troubles setting
one of the tapered hole cutters up, they have been told
ahead of time that it's a very rough, seldomly traveled
road.