Man, not having the right tools sux!

JoshK · « **on:** 26 Jan 2003, 07:13 pm »

I am building a TT stand, flexy type, but round. I picked up another 3 of the 18" round cutting boards, roughly 2 1/2" thick and got some 36" 3/4" threaded rods and nuts/washer from HD. But my damn cordless drill doesn't like drilling 3/4" holes in this dense of wood.

What I wouldn't give to borrow a decent electric drill.

Brad · « **Reply #1 on:** 26 Jan 2003, 08:22 pm »

Get an 18 or 24 volt Dewalt

Of course, you could get a more powerful, corded one for less $$. Just not as cool....

nathanm · « **Reply #2 on:** 26 Jan 2003, 08:53 pm »

What kind of drill bit are you using? A spade would be good but a forstner can't be beat. Takes a veeery steady hand with the forstner to do it right, as they are really only supposed to be used in a drill press. Given the thickness of the material it might be really hard to get a straight hole, and if it isn't straight it will have to be wider still. Drilling 2 1/2" (I assume) hardwood is too much for a cordless! Sounds like you're kinda in a tough spot Josh! Good luck!

bubba966 · « **Reply #3 on:** 26 Jan 2003, 09:27 pm »

Quote from: Brad

Get an 18 or 24 volt Dewalt

Of course, you could get a more powerful, corded one for less $$. Just not as cool....

Hell, you don't need that big of a DeWalt to drill 3/4" holes. My old 12v XRPack DeWalt will handle 3/4" holes.

But you can get a 3/8" corded DeWalt (or Black & Decker Industrial) for around $45 I believe that'll do it as well.

Brad · « **Reply #4 on:** 26 Jan 2003, 10:13 pm »

Heck, Bubba,

Of course the 12 volter will do the job.
But they MAKE 18 and 24 volters

Why bother with 50 watts when you can have 250?

Brad · « **Reply #5 on:** 26 Jan 2003, 10:15 pm »

Forgot to mention I like Nathan's idea - buy a drill press!

Not that expensive, and the perfect tool for this job.
Plus you get to add on to your tool collection.

JoshK · « **Reply #6 on:** 27 Jan 2003, 01:12 am »

Thanks guys for the advice but I actually got it to work. Not all the way finished but in working mode now.

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JoshK · « **Reply #7 on:** 27 Jan 2003, 01:35 am »

Here is another shot with some stuff on the new TT stand. You can see on top the small round block is what I intend for the base of a Teres project. I will be sanding down and restaining the all the blocks to please the wifey.

Brad · « **Reply #8 on:** 27 Jan 2003, 03:24 am »

The finish on your RM40s looks MUCH nicer than the finish I had on my RM2.

Nice idea on the TT stand....
Love the MAD in red.

nathanm · « **Reply #9 on:** 27 Jan 2003, 06:30 am »

Looks like it turned out great! Man, that's a lot of laminating madness in those slabs! Good use of scraps I'm sure.

In my flexy I notice that as a turntable stand it really isn't very good. If you touch any part of the rack you can make the music warble. You can add BB King-style vibrato to ANY song if you want!

Mine sits on concrete so as long as I leave it alone it's fine, but I have to be real careful about touching anything else while the vinyl is playing, or it can skip. I'm guessing with a non-suspension table it might be even worse. Hmmm.

Darn nice result though. Do you notice any hum when you put the HC1 and PS1 on top of each other out of curiosity?

JohnR · « **Reply #10 on:** 27 Jan 2003, 08:24 am »

Nice!

JoshK · « **Reply #11 on:** 27 Jan 2003, 02:38 pm »

Nathan,

Yeah I was a bit concerned with whether my diy flexy would be a good TT stand as my salamander clearly isn't. We'll see for sure when my TT finally comes. But, I went w/ 3/4" rods for more stability and the 2 1/2" round blocks make it considerably stiffer and more rigid. It was a royal PITA to put the rods through the holes, line them up, etc as I made the holes just big enough to insert the rods. This plays into the rigidity as this shelf isn't moveable with your fingers as the other is. And you knock on it, it is dead solid in comparison to my Salamander. We shall see.

Oh and to answer the other question, no, I haven't noticed any noise when placing the phono on the power supply. I have played with a few options and I couldn't tell the difference. I am however making one more shelf. I intend this shelf to hold my power supply and power supply for TT as well.

JoshK · « **Reply #12 on:** 27 Jan 2003, 03:42 pm »

John,

Have any pointers on how to build the armpod? Arm you going to buy the actually arm mount from Teres or build that too? Since my base will be independent of my armpod I need to make sure they are completely the same size. I am kicking ideas around in my head for the best way to do this. I got a jigsaw Saturday so that I can cut the shape I end up deciding on.

JohnR · « **Reply #13 on:** 27 Jan 2003, 08:35 pm »

Hi Josh, I've made the armboard, haven't taken a pic yet but it's pretty simple. Here's the stock armboard:

http://teresaudio.com/images/t-200kit-lg.jpg

The thickness I was told was 1.8", I'll see how it works out. Check out #6 in the "Hall of Fame", that seems like your idea - ?

JohnR

nathanm · « **Reply #14 on:** 27 Jan 2003, 08:50 pm »

Josh:
That reminds me, you're still gonna have to drill holes for the bearing and armboard and all that, right? Holy smokes, in that case I would not think twice about investing in a drill press and some good carbide forstner bits! Based on that linked picture there's no way you'll be able to pull that off with any hand drill! That's some precision hole-drilling there!

Definitely entering the realm of machinst tolerances rather than carpentry tolerances. I bet that bearing has to fit in there with some wicked accuracy. Hmmm.

JohnR · « **Reply #15 on:** 28 Jan 2003, 05:41 am »

Yes, if the base material is more then 2 1/4" thick then you need to counterbore the bearing hole. I used a 2" Forstner bit. However I would say that there is no point buying a "cheap" Forstner bit, after two holes in softwood this one is toast. Perhaps the ones from McMaster Carr are better than what you get at the local hardware store.

I used a regular 1 1/8" borer bit for the center hole. It could be tighter... oh well. A lot of forstner bits won't drill that deep, unless you pay more for the long shank ones.

Here's a picture of my armboard

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallery;area=browse;user=3

Brandon B · « **Reply #16 on:** 28 Jan 2003, 12:40 pm »

Mcmaster is not very cheap, although they are fast. You can get decent forstners from http://www.LeeValley.com or http://www.Rockler.com. Leevallyey is nice in that they usually carry more than one quality of bit and explain the difference.

BB

JoshK · « **Reply #17 on:** 28 Jan 2003, 12:50 pm »

I used a carbide bit from Craftsman, it was a self boring wood boring bit. I don't know what forstner is. This wasn't those rinkety flat "woodboring" bits that don't do squat unless it is liquid. This looked pretty evil.

Brandon B · « **Reply #18 on:** 30 Jan 2003, 04:51 pm »

A Forstner looks like a metal cup with a sharp edge, a notch on one side with a cutting edge, and a opinty spur in the middle for centering, and a shaft out the back. Sort of a one tooth hole saw.

BB

JoshK · « **Reply #19 on:** 30 Jan 2003, 05:06 pm »

Hmm...not able to visualize, will have to search for one.