Homemade tungsten needles update

[frenchmarky]

Yup Smallparts does seem to go in and out of stock on the different wire sizes, it doesn't even show up on their site at all (weird) but if you try a "tungsten wire .006" search on Amazon, then it will at least show up, albiet out of stock. I suggest you check back there periodically, or maybe email them and ask if they know when it will be available again. Normally it is really cheap, about 12 bucks for 25 feet of wire. Till I found them the only possible alternative I saw was buying a big roll of wire from another company for about 250 bucks, no way Jose!

[Operafan]

Has anyone used this wire to re-thread an Everplay needle? Any tips on that?

Jeff

[estott]

While on that topic, wouldn't it be possible to re-create the Everplay needle instead of making individual ones?

[frenchmarky]

<<While on that topic, wouldn't it be possible to re-create the Everplay needle instead of making individual ones?>>

Making an Everplay doesn't look to be that difficult just from the pictures, but I guess I would worry about it not sounding as good as a wire solidly crimped into a real shank... or that the sound quality/loudness might vary from one minute to the next or every time the wire was advanced. Then again there was a thread in the forum where it was reported it consistently sounded just as good as a regular tungsten needle.

The everplay type of idea I had in mind myself would be more along the lines of a wire that was simply placed between a cut-in-half shank or shaft, then the two halves would be held together tightly either by screws within the shank, or some tiny clamps around it. I.e. the shank could just be two little plates, clamped together with the wire sticking out the end. Then when the tip wore down, you'd loosen it up, advance the wire, and retighten. But the small scale of something like that is beyond my abilities, so I just make one or two simpler regular tungsten needles when I need them. Doing that is so inexpensive and each needle lasts so long, it is all I need.

[AllWoundUp]

Here's pics of some of my homemade tungsten needles. The first one is just a piece if 1/16" brass tubing that i stuck the wire in one end and crimped it. Actually works pretty good! The others are 1/16" brass rod. I found a saw blade for dremel tools that is .005" thick but it won't cut steel (tried with a nail and it just dulled the blade)

I set up a jig for my Unimat lathe to cut a slit in the end of the rods, then rounded them a bit with a grinder on my dremel. put the wire in, crimped with a small channellock pliers and soldered them for good measure. Then trimmed to length with a fingernail clipper. As you can see, they're not very uniform but they work.

Last 3 pics are my slitting rig

[AllWoundUp]

Turned out another 8 needles last night and these actually look pretty good (for me). 1st pic is the saw blade I used to cut the slits, unfortunately, they cost $10.00 and don't last very long before going completely dull. I think I got about 10 cuts out of it.

[frenchmarky]

<<Here's pics of some of my homemade tungsten needles. >>

Heh heh that's about what mine look like too, just maybe not quite as uniform as yours. I also solder mine at the end as added security. I like the idea of the record hitting the soft solder instead of steel if the wire runs out (if I'm not keeping an eye on it while playing records.) The main problem is crimping the wire, then finding the wire has gone askew too much in the process. Now I do the crimping a little at a time with the visegrips, while bending the end as I go if need be to keep the tip relatively straight.

I picked up some wire snips on ebay for about 15 bucks that have tungsten inserts, so far they seem to do a nice job. Plus I usually trim them a bit long, then whittle them down with a diamond nail file to exactly where I want them. Helps get past any fraying or crushing that may have occured at the snip point.

I'm making both .006 and .007 needles. I know that .007 is a tad too large for the grooves, but they are more reliable against bending, and none of my records are worth spit anyway. I doubt that from my occasional playing of these records that anyone would be able to tell which wire size I had been using Besides the Tonofone needles I have are .007 also so it's not like it is some unheard-of stylus tip size.

Hey on that dremel saw blade you tried and only got 10 cuts out of - you used this with a dremel, right? Wonder if these blades might last longer if they were used on a slower tool? Do you get a lot of sparks and glowing of the blade when making the cuts? I know I do when using my cutting discs but of course that is their nature. My dremel is only one speed.

That's why I flatten the end to be cut first, so that the slit is a much smaller % of the end than if I just made the cut on the rod as-is. I tried finding a skinnier cutting disc too but no luck. I wonder what Victor and others used to make this slit... perhaps it was just as fat as we are getting with our cutting discs?

Hmm maybe if I ground down the thickness of the cutting disc first by grinding something against its side instead of on its edge, that should make the edge of the cutting disc thinner. Of course at a certain thickness it would just end up shattering and flying apart.

[JohnM]

If I was going to make these on a production basis, I think I would use narrow, sheet brass of a certain thickness, and draw it through progressively tighter dies with the tungsten wire inside and forming a core for the brass to tightly wrap around. The rough needles could then be sheared to length, chucked in a lathe and have the domed tip and compliance groove (if any) ground in one operation that would also reveal the tungsten wire at the tip (and perhaps dress the ragged tugsten with a stone). This method would seem wasteful of tungsten wire since each needle would have a wire core running it's entire length, but in theory, the tips could be reground to reveal more wire a few times (at least on the full-tone versions with no compliance groove).

I applaud everyone who is making home-made tungsten needles, but the methods just don't seem to lend themselves to mass production on a profitable scale. I would love to have seen Victor's high-speed needle making machines -- I've read that the needles just poured out of them like rain. Does my suggested method sound practical to any of you engineers on the board?

[OrthoFan]

All you need to mass produce these is to make a machine like this one:

Click here.

Illustration from patent -- fitting tungsten to shank --

[JohnM]

Hey! WOW! Thanks! Looky there!