For those of you with a long memories, you might remember that I have been restoring a Scully record lathe for thirteen years now. Last year, I bought a second Scully lathe that was in working condition, and I have been cutting records with it. However, I am still in the process of restoring the original one I purchased thirteen years ago.
I had a horrible discovery about a year and a half ago—almost like a “back to the drawing board” moment—when I discovered that both of its lead screws were for cutting records from the inside out. When these machines were made in the 1930s and 1940s, radio transcription records commonly used groove spirals that went from the inside out, so there was a separate lead screw to accommodate this. However, there was always supposed to be one to cut standard “outside in“ records, and mine did not have that. It had two of the wrong ones. Ugh!
Today, however, I can report that after a year and a half of waiting and delays, I finally got a correct lead screw and—almost as important—the matching half nut for cutting outside-in records. I haven’t looked at my original lathe for over a year, I’ve been so depressed about this, but now I can start work on the restoration again. Happy day! May everyone be blessed with something hyper-obscure that causes you happiness today.
(Thanks to Jacob Horowitz and Keith Sawa for making this happen!)
