FNORDincorporated

Falling directly in the wake of “how vinyl records are made” i ran across this information.
http://www.zeit.de
First published in 1946, Die Zeit is a German weekly publication devoted to politics, business, trade, literature, and culture. Following the link above, you will find (in Deutsch) an article from their March 2006 online catalog. Normally for something like this, i would just link to it and let people read it themselves, but being that the whole site is in German, i figured a translated version would be useful for ease of viewing. obvious wording changes will take place in order to make it near grammatically correct after translation via Altavista’s Babelfish system. also included is a conversion of measurments and money.
I am also adding in additional information for anyone who wants to know more about stuff, no offense to the original writer, i just think more information is better… consider this nothing more than a tribute to the work you already put forward! I am not the first to repost this content, but i think i am the first to repost with translations and additional details

“Completely Flabbergasted
Pirated copies from the Net? Boring. We have something much more exciting: Vinyl Copies, in just two days. originally by Anne Kunze – used without permission

For many people, analog disks are the better listening experience. A vinyl copy is worthwhile itself, however, only with rare pieces, mainly because it costs $85-$100 and takes about two days to create depending on the materials you use. Obviously, you would not want to do this for any old album, it should be for something you want to put time, effort, creativity, and love into.

Prior to the guide, here is the shopping list for makers:

- Putty sealant, the kind that gets tacky but can be peeled off with ease, never truely drying.
- Putty knife.
- Silicone Rubber (http://www.dickblick.com/zz335/62/)
- Plastic resin, (http://www.dickblick.com/zz335/24/)
- Color pigments to make your resin original looking. these can be mixed in using your putty knife when you reach that point
- 1 glass plate 16×20 inches. (for example, from a cheap picture frame)
- Strips of wood, strips must be large enough to encompass the above mentioned plate of glass. Make sure you have the right sizes so you can encompass or comfortably fit the glass and have room for the record.

Follow these steps to duplicate a vinyl record platter:

Put together four wooden strips using nails place your square on top of the glass plate. Set a vinyl record in the center to verify that it fits before continuing. once confirmed, remove record and seal the edges of the wood to the glass using your putty and putty knife if needed. you want this to be tight enough that nothing can leak or penetrate past the wooden frame.

Clean your record thoroughly and place it inside the frame so that the side of the record you would like to copy is face up. Center it in your frame. Create a cylinder “plug” in the center hole of the record using putty. This is important as you will see later when you need to bore a hole into your copy.

For the casting there are different kinds of silicone you can use. You need to make sure to choose a silicone that will not become brittle or one that will be too flimsy, examples Smooth on OOMOO 30 or OOMOO 25. The silicone generally will come in two containers you must mix to activate. Mixing should take no more than three minutes and then you can begin working again.
You want to make sure you have the frame reasonably level before you begin. Choosing an area that you can easily reach, begin pouring the silicone rubber into the frame. pour evenly , until the form is evenly a quarter to a third of an inch filled with silicone. Make sure that you have the record completely covered Be sure to check the variety of Silicone you have purchased for tack and cure times.

When solidified, the rubber will be about the consistency of a rubberband. perfect for a flexible mold. PLEASE ALLOW THIS TO FULLY DRY. If you attempt to remove it early you will find that you just wasted your silicone rubber and will need to do a lot more clean up on your original record after the fact.
remember that tack/pot times are different than cure times. one time is relatively short. Tack occurs when the silicone is thickening and will still leave fingerprints even though it is solidifying. tack/pot can take 35-75 minutes. Cure time is most importantr as you do NOT want to remove the Silicone before it has cured. curing can take 6-7 hours depending on the product you buy. removing it early will rip or leave behind matter on the record, thus causing you to need to start over.. if you are unsure if you have met tack and cure times, wait a while longer and check the bottles and box from the product.

When ready, use a knife to cut the dried silicone at the edges along the wood frame. peel the cast off of the frame and record. if you look at the casting, you can see each groove off the vinyl and even the writing of the original plate. notice that you have copied any dust and other garbage that might have been on the record as well, i hope that at this point you smile and remember that you cleaned the record thoroughly before beginning.

Lay your mold flat and mix up your plastic resin. it also comes generally in two parts that will need to mix to become activated. some resins you buy come with the activator, some do not. make sure to check this before ordering. ad any pigments you ant to the resin, and mix it well.

Your choice in resin is important. The resin linked above in the ingredients dries to a hardness of Shore 70D, this is just under the hardness you would expect in a hard hat and is pretty damn durable. Wikipedia has a nice simple scale showing the “Shore Durometer”

pour the plastic resin in slowly. be careful that you do not pour outside the circular mold. if you run outside the mold you will end up with an incredibly lopsided and edge heavy record that will play bizarrely. use a safety pin, a nail or something else to pop obvious air bubbles after pouring.. ensure that you do NOT push down into the resin as you do not want to harm the grooves on the other side. just tap the resin, release the air and move on.
the picture above does not show a filled mold, just a partly full for reference purposes.

as with the Silicone, your resin may dry and harden at different rates, so check the documentation that comes with it to avoid prematurely removing the record and screwing up your hard work during the last moments. again, if not sure, give it more time.,. its not like you are in a hurry or anything..
Loosen the platter carefully from the silicone form. Notice that the center of the newly created platter has a nice little cylinder you can now bore out with a drill to be able to properly use the new record with a standard record player. It should sound nearly good as the original if not exactly the same… From the mold, as many as desired platters can be poured.

Obviously, you would need to do the same to get side B of the record, but again, it all depends on how valuable the vinyl is and how important a back up copy is.

~~

Article was written originally by Anne Kunze
Anne is part of a group calling themselves elbe03, a “union of free and independent journalists”. They write and produce for numerous publications, unfortunately for me, they all seem to be German.. its a shame cause all the other work of hers i have read is pretty damn cool i wouldnt doubt that the others in her troupe (Kristina Allgöwer, Denis Dilba, Benjamin Prüfer) have similarly great styles.

Photographs by Stefan Boekels
though his photos are pretty awesome, his website has some terrible porn style music. visit at your own risk.
He seems to have been working with just about every German publication you can imagine as well as a multitude of other companies from cigarette manufacturers to travel magazines to cable promoters