The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

UPDATE:

This has now found a new home.

Thanks all!

Sorry, it's gone!

Good luck with your project. Cheers!

Hey trolls, I am moving house and will not have a workshop, so I'll likely never get around to finishing this. Have a look at the pictures and see if you'd like to take it on. I don't want any money for this, just looking for a good home. Here's what you get: * Very robustly made aluminum plinth and...

Not as yet, still figuring that out, but I'll certainly build the head suspension before trashing any sapphires!

Picked up $60 of T6 aluminum scraps (Including plate). $10 of bolts/springs. $15 pillow bearing. $52 for XY precision locking microscope stages on Ebay. A few hours in the workshop and this happened! Total $137 to build the arm. It has a locking tilt adjustment to set the rake angle of the stylus an...

My office is right next door, they've been open everyday this week from about 9, still open at 4 when I leave. Just to be clear, there's no turntables or DJ gear, that just my stuff on top in the pic. But there's a bunch of really nice studio furniture, shelves, cables, computers and A/V electronic ...

It's a Stanton DJ deck. Direct drive - apparently high torque, so should be cool for cutting.
Works great, picked it up for $20 from a DJ clearing out his old gear - just needs a cartridge.

Guys, thought I should let you know, Video Symphony in Burbank are closing - bought this today... Super heavy duty maple trimmed deep rack unit with locking wheels. With Thurman power conditioner a couple of A/V patch bays and a bunch of balanced XLR snakes and vid cables. They have 5 or 6 of these ...

IMG_4520.JPG So I bought a lovely Parker linear stage on eBay for $75, an Arduino clone board ($6) and Easy Driver ($1.50) stepper motor board. To be fare, I think the linear stage was a ridiculous bargain - as far as I can make out, a new one is $1299+tax! Junk shop kick mic stand and heavy duty r...

That all make sense, very helpful! Awesome, thanks Mark.

Fascinating stuff gentlemen. I see a lot of effort going into removing mass, which I understand. But can we clarify one thing?: The idea is not necessarily to make the lightest drivers, so much as to make the most efficient and accurate right? Like building a race car - surely it's more about power ...

i thought applying the RIAA curve wouldnt eliminate the frequency altogether but just lower the gain on it or the amplitude of the lower frequency so it fits a smaller space on the vinyl, like turning the volume of it down, so a 20hz signal will still be there but with less gain, so played at -20db....

The drivers are Dayton Audio BCT-2 Transducers available here: http://www.parts-express.com I haven't tried them yet, but as Oldskoolhead and Opcode 66 pointed out, the low frequency response taps out at 300hz, so they will almost certainly need modification, if not replacing altogether. Something t...

Sweet! Looks really nice! Well done sir.

Thanks Opcode, looking forward to digging into this further.
I can see how the balance of all these things are critical to
cutting something you'd actually want to listen to.

And that's the goal!

Cheers.

Interesting stuff, I figured off-the-shelf drivers were more a starting point than the final design.

Thanks for the input, driver research is next on my list!

Cheers.

nice work, im just a noob as well lol so i just have 1 question about those drivers you are using, i can see the attraction of them as how they work looks ideal for this application but is the fact they only produce lows of 300hz not a problem? is this a compromise for ease of use or is there anoth...

Rotation! Darn, I see. Hmmm, now I'm thinking again...

Time to start on the lathe I think.

I really need to start making some cuts, otherwise it's
all just guess work from this point really.

Thanks again!

Cheers Bryan

Looks like you are using feeler gauges, probably stainless. If you can make an extra set and mail them to me, I'm happy to spot weld them for you at 90 degrees. You truly are a legend Bryan! Thank you. I may well take you up on that. I have this idea I'm thinking about right now which is to use a b...

image.jpg Here's where I've got to. I'm quite pleased with the build so far. It's solid and can be easily taken apart, adapted and modified, which was a large part of my initial objective. So, so far, so good. Here's what I think needs doing: • Leaf springs I think will need shortening. Also weldin...