flozki lab experiments @flozki - Tumblr Blog

cutting small records. 38mm diameter.

for acustomer request. i modified my disc-o-mat 4.0 to cut the smallest records.

at the moment i start at 38mm diameter and i cut up to 12 or 10mm at 45 rpm.....

if you download the highres image and watch at 100% you can clearly see the grooves.

i did not found a turntable to play it back yet...

need to build one. soon.

#vinyl #cutting #dubplate #smallest record #polycarbonate #disc-o-mat

#floka #bricolage universel #disc cutting #porcelain

#along the light cologne festival #mechanical #recording #disc recording #floka #bricolage universel #ebertplatz #köln

the exhibition..finally.

some preview pictures of the exhibition...

to be continued.

finished yakult cutter

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try to find a better camera for better pictures.

#yakult #edison #thinfoil #acoustic recording

the auto wax polish record.

sadly my rice wax sample did not arrived. in search of harder wax i was also think of auto wax polish. so i coated a disc with auto polish. and ater drying for two day i was recording. looks great but its quite fragile.

#wax cutting #auto polish

my big cylinder recorder

this is my big cylinder. around 17cm by diameter coated with different materials

this was a main research tool. after recording into clay i started experimenting with various paint. acrylic paint was quite ok.

especially when i was recording into half-dry paint and then let the paint dry for another day.

some impressions.

groove details.

#paint recording #cylinder #edison #acrylic #sound

the yakult-cutter

todays built among lots of other work.

the YAKULT cutter. yakult is a breakfast drink. some sweet milk-fruit drink. and we have a lot of empty cans laying around. so i give a try to make a simple phonograph.similar to the one Kruesi built for Edison. The Cylinder is fix on a feedscrew. a simple wood disc as flywheel to get a little bit better speed control.

recorder playback head is not yet finished. i want to make it modular and exchangeable.

#edison #cylinder #phonograph #yakult

5 minute, 5 Euro Stereo Cutterhead. untested so far.

found those nice 32x32mm speaker.

and a few minutes later the head was done.my 3th cheap stereo head after 12 years. the first ones i made around 2000-2002

and with some hotglue and some gelatine parts of a pill (from a vegeterian person who only took the stuff inside)

and some metal scrap i buildt another cheap and ugly stereo cutterhead. but could be quite nice. the links are very stable and ultra light. the torquetube is a pinpoint. and the point in the wood acts as point suspension.

will try it soon. when back home i will drill in a 1:20 cone for neumann stylus.

.haha.

#stereo #cutterhead #45/45 System #loudspeaker

Bricolage universel exhibition poster

so here is the official poster for my exhibition/presentation at organhaus.

#organhaus #exhibition #poster #floka #bricolage universel #chongqing

the 2nd batch of brown wax is actually not too bad.

looked totally ugly after casting on the turntable.. but i did some cuts today, after shaving to a nice flat surface.

cutting good old Bilie Holiday on around 80 RPM with a handpolished steel needle was already quite good. chip was great. i can imagine to work with wax for masters now.

Billie Holiday became my standard test musician for the moment.

yesterday i did a "long player" spiral by hand into greywax

with going away from loops listening is way more fun...

pictures of brown wax cut nr.2

just casting has to become better.

still waiting for my rice bran wax...

#brown wax #billie holiday #disc cutting

how to make a nice membrane with perfect tension.

as a playback membrane i decide to go with bamboo and a sort of plastic diaphragm.

back in the days they used skin or thin leather similar to drum skin.

i use techniques from condensator mircophone building. this one i learned from an old man who built his own condensator capsules back in the 50ies.

the trick is to glue the diaphragm to a heavy ring.normally aluminum (i used a tape roll which was heavy enough). then put glue to the bamboo piece and lay the ring with diaphragm on top. the weight of the ring gives perfect tension to the membrane. this is how high quality condenser microphones are still made. just use a metalized polyesterfoil (from a chip package or lila pause ..to fix your damaged microphone...sorry for that little excourse to microphone repair...)

so here some pictures how i made the diaphragm

the tape as weight ring and the plastic that serves as membran fixed with rubber :

my bamboo piece sanded down.

add glue to the bamboo

put the ring over the bamboo piece.

next day, when glue totally dry cut out the membrane.

perfectly tight and good tension.

#diaphragm #playback #condensator microphone #glue

Building a Horn.

found some bamboo wood from an old bed on streets.together with rice paper and laquer i try to make a horn speaker for the big cylinder player.

#horn speaker #exponential #rice paper #laquer

china flexidisc paradise

on my research trips of chinese vinyl industry i made some great founds of chinese flexi discs.

i was on antiques & fleamarket at tschoung xing road. exit nr.1 end station of green line.

to my big surprise i found among regular vinyl records, 78 rpm shellacs also 10 inch double sided flexis with playing time up to 15-18minutes. all in great colors.

red,green, blue, orange and wonderfull sawing machine made jackets. some impressions.

most seem to be form late 70ies to 80ies. for vinyl the last pressed was from 1995 or so..

interesting to see this 7inch english course. it has printed made in england. but i think its rather the other way round. had the same engravings of the the mastering engineer. same handwriting and starting always with same two letters. also material is the same and they are always both sided.

so maybe this one was for export market.

#vinyl record #flexi disc #flea market #chongqing #linguaphone #chinese vinyl records

illustrating the story.

some traditional paintings to tell the story of the emperor. more to follow.

the recording guy

the listener

brown wax cooking 2nd attempt

some more test to cook brown wax.

i was reading old receipts with a much higher amount of soap. so i tried to increase the amount of soap. it was almost 50:50 .

but in fact i was way too much. wax is dark brown and very hard. but for the casting its not good not good to pure and cast. lots of shrinking and non uniform surface. to be continued.

the ingredients.