I'm building my second generation Phonograph for playing Edison 2 & 4 minute cylinder records through my monster stereo system. (the first one was in 1973) I'm nearly finished except for one gotcha: I've been striking out in my hunt for 0.1mm (approx 4.7mil) and 0.2mm (approx. 9mil) synthetic ruby balls to use as tips on my stylus assemblies. I've found a couple of sources that would be happy to sell some in huge quantities (from 500 pieces to a cubic yard!) but no good source for a single piece or small quantity. A few companies make complete stylus assemblies for low compliance Stanton 500/Pickering V15 cartridge but I don't want to use one of those 1960's vintage cartridges because I have some great modern ones to work with and my linear tracking arm assembly is designed for P-Mount cartridge. Anyone with a suggestion (other than the guy in England who makes stuff slowly and custom on his stylus assembly or Esoteric, who does the same) please let me know. I realize that few of us are building such machines, but I'm hardly the first, so there must be a source out there somewhere.
If there's interest, I'll be happy to post technical details and photos when I complete this project. It's pretty cool. I'm also willing to advise others wishing to build similar machines provided they have a pretty high level of technical expertise.
If there's interest, I'll be happy to post technical details and photos when I complete this project. It's pretty cool. I'm also willing to advise others wishing to build similar machines provided they have a pretty high level of technical expertise.