Edison Concert/Columbia Graphophone Grand.

[edisonphonoworks]

I know that there will be total silence but here it goes, nothing....and OH NO HE should NOT do that!!! I have had a few collectors who would like me to start making concert cylinders. I would rather make an authentic traditional spiral core metallic soap concert, and I am sure I can apply the knowledge I have learned from making standard cylinders to the concerts. The problem is the amount of machinery to make really good ones is crazy, I will need to make a mould, and I do not want to make it out of solid steel, would weigh a ton, and removal of the core would be very difficult. Has anyone ever seen a concert blank mould? I am thinking that these will have to be brass (aluminum will work, but the wax slowly eats aluminum, as it has caustic and aluminum in the wax). Next a dedicated reaming and trimming machine will have to be built, as well as a shaving machine, and of course a concert machine to record on. It really is needed but more than I can handle at the moment. Perhaps someone could make this equipment and I could teach them how to do it. I of course could supply the wax compound. I just would like to see whatever one wants on a concert record, available,Yes it is nice there are a few titles, but if there was blank ones, then any title could be cut..... any Ideas. By the way my current moulds make 20th century cylinders, just do not have a recording machine for them, if someone has one of these machines and a recorder, then I can make blanks for you. Of course the consensus is, "Any cylinder manufacturer Except YOU!!!!"

[Lucius1958]

Well, to break the silence:

It may be a niche market within a niche market, but if you have the desire to do it, why not try?

I cannot provide any real technical know-how about moulds, but would an inner liner of brass work with an aluminum outer shell?

As for '20th Century' blanks: if I could ever find a Lyric recorder, I would love some for my BF - in fact, it has got me thinking again about rigging up an experimental friction recorder à la Higham (IF I could suborn someone with the requisite machining skills)...

Bill

[welshfield]

How about using steel sleeves over aluminum cores for your molds? That way you get the durability of the steel surface and the light weight of the aluminum for the major portion of the mold. An off-the-wall suggestion would be to explore the use of an automotive piston for the core--a lightweight casting--perhaps with a sleeve to bring it up to your required size.
John

[VintageTechnologies]

There is another niche product that I would like to see made: intermediate-size cylinders, also known as Pathé "Salon" cylinders. Blanks would be nice. I contacted Vulcan records in England over a year ago and tried to persuade them to add at least one indestructible resin Salon cylinder to their catalogue, but nothing came of it.

[edisonphonoworks]

Pathé' Salon, sounds interesting. Steel over aluminum might work. I know all brass would be very expensive. steel and aluminum together, the mold might require a crazy pre- heat. That wax is such strange stuff. I know that the mold will have to go in the oven with that mass