Lab Report: Cutter Head Mounting Adapters

In the previous episode, we had a look at taper shank stylus adapters and saw a vintage magnetic monophonic cutter head fitted to the AM44 lathe. The two are not normally compatible. Neumann lathe suspensions do not have the same mount as the suspensions of Presto, Fairchild, RCA and other lathes of the monophonic era, which were originally designed to accept such cutter heads.

But, in fact, almost any cutter head can be fitted to any lathe, as long as there is enough space for it to physically fit, by means of a suitable adapter. The eagle-eyed reader will probably have noticed that the cutter head mount on our prototype AM44 suspension is similar to, but not the same as, the mount used in Neumann suspension boxes. So, the adapter shown here was made specifically for our AM44 suspension unit.

However, we can easily make any format of cutter head adapter you may require, to fit any head to any disk recording lathe.

Apart from fitting older cutter heads to newer lathes, as with fitting monophonic moving iron recording heads to Neumann lathes of any vintage, we have also made adapters for fitting modern stereophonic feedback cutter heads to ancient lathes.

Some years ago, we designed some adapters for fitting the Caruso stereophonic head on a 1930's Fairchild lathe.

One version was quite minimal, while the other had a built-in oil dashpot.
Other examples of special purpose adapters we can make include provisions for mounting a chip suction tube or a dashpot for damping, or both!

The Agnew Analog Reference Instruments Type 1400-series Cutter Head mounting Adapters include adapters for many usual combinations of heads and lathes. Custom adapters for any oddball equipment and special purposes can be made to your specifications. Feel free to write for further information.