Disk Recording Lathe Restoration and Modification

The Agnew Analog team has worked on several disk recording and mastering lathe restoration projects through the years, acquiring significant practical experience in the field. 

These have ranged from assembling, testing and further developing the first functional prototype of the Neumann based AM44 system, extensively modifying a vintage Fairchild lathe for professional stereophonic disk mastering work, all the way to a thorough restoration of a Rek-O-Kut Imperial II system with an Audax cutterhead and an R8-B vacuum tube and germanium transistor cutting amplifier. The pages below contain photographs, videos and a discussion of the work done to some of the systems we have worked on: 

Vintage Fairchild lathe 

Neumann based AM44 system 

 

Scully Lathe Restoration  

Presto MRC-16 Lathe Restoration

Presto 75A Restoration


Feel free to contact us if you have a lathe you would like us to repair or fully restore, or if you need a complete turn-key disk recording/mastering system. If you are attempting to restore a lathe, cutter head or cutting amplifier yourself, we can supply parts and do precision machining work as required. You will most likely also find our Analog Disk Recording Information Portal interesting, as it contains useful information on any make and model of machine ever manufactured.