Going into melt-down ?

[poodling around]

I was just thinking ............

Is it possible in theory to melt or soften a 78 record and then 're-impress' a new 'track / song onto it ?

[Curt A]

Simple answer: NO...

[recordmaker]

And the complex answer is yes BUT....

Most shellac based records were 20% scrap from records factory rejects but during the world wars there were scrap record drives to get old records for recycling.

you could do this today if you have...at least

75 Ton Press ( for 10 inch records)
Metal record stampers of your music

Shellac compositions do deteriorate with reworking and some well played old records have detrimental amounts of needle steel in them, oh and you need to remove the label area as the paper is not compatible with a good record surface.

[epigramophone]

....and my answer is, why would anyone want to do this?

[poodling around]

And the complex answer is yes BUT....

Most shellac based records were 20% scrap from records factory rejects but during the world wars there were scrap record drives to get old records for recycling.

you could do this today if you have...at least

75 Ton Press ( for 10 inch records)
Metal record stampers of your music

Shellac compositions do deteriorate with reworking and some well played old records have detrimental amounts of needle steel in them, oh and you need to remove the label area as the paper is not compatible with a good record surface.

Extremely interesting !

[AudioFeline]

It's not as easy as shaving a wax cylinder to be able to record again on the cylinder again.

Shellac (and vinyl) discs are pressed from stampers. The original cutting of a disk is very fragile, and is used to create stamping plates via electrotechnology. Not a diy proposition. Unless you have a dictation-recording disk cutter, which I believe uses soft disks that are not as hardy as shellac.

There were diy disk-recording booths (like instant portait photo booths). Often use for 1940's voice-mail (in the literal sense). Jack White restored one, and Neil Young used it to record an album/CD on ("A Letter Home"). I thin Jack White's website has info on the device.

[BillH_NJ]

Yes, the do-it-yourself recordings from the 1930s and 1940s are entirely different. I have one that my grandfather made when he was singing professionally in the 1930s, an unusual pairing of Sullivan’s The Lost Chord with April Showers, but those records are fragile and often in bad condition today.

Bill

[tesch1932]

There are people on old tool forums who talk about pulverizing shellac discs to make an asphaltum mixture for repainting bench planes. Not my cup of tea, that's for sure!