Leaderboard

You're just green with envy!

Things are looking up again... I just took delivery of some 6mm single flute DLC coated end mills, selling says they are designed to cut aluminium without liquid lubrication. Initial testing looks very good, absolutely throws chips out of the cut into near earth orbit when doing a full width slot. Zero chip welding. Surface finish as good if not slightly better than the 2mm end mill (So far got the speeds and feeds for the 6mm up to 400mm/min feed rate, 1.5mm DOC and 11K rpm). Cutting is very quiet and almost silent at 1mm DOC... The vfd and control box fans are louder than the cutting noises. I am sure there is much more to be got out of this end mill, but I'm progressing conservatively because these 6mm end mills are not cheap and I don't want to push it to destruction. The biggest take away for me is that buying cheap end mills from the manufacturer of the cncs website is not the best move and that end mill quality absolutely radically effects what you can do. I also think i'm going to invest in a oil/air mist system... (the hideous grey mess is the 3.175mm POC (piece of crap) end mill WITH cutting fluid dripped onto the cut... .) middle slot is 6mm end mill 1.5DOC 3mm total depth 11Krpm 400mm/min no cutting fluid no finishing pass no deburring... front slot same settings as middle slot but 1mm DOC and 10Krpm.

Alternatively

James, now you need to add re-anodization to the process 🙂

I might give it a try. Cutting boards is done. Not perfect but getting closer on doing good inlays.

^ and she has a beautiful voice, I liked it a lot.

You gents with the CNC routers can make one pretty easy.

Been a while since I listened to this... so. Be Here Now (Deluxe Remastered Edition) Oasis 1997 https://album.link/i/1523139329 Example: 25 years - dang. I don't know how much I will go back to this, but I liked listening to it again. It has the white noise with a beat and loud singing vibe that I can get into. Kind of a Beatles Helter Skelter vibe, but for a whole album. And then for something completely different. Hoa (Original Soundtrack) Johannes Johansson 2022 https://album.link/i/1626128595 Example: Just lovely. Everything that you would expect from an piano based Anime Soundtrack. But it just happens to be for a game not a movie.

Take 2. I don’t do cutting boards unless they are a gag gift.

Here's a long but VERY eye-opening twitter thread of what's going on that details one Russian paratrooper's account of his experiences. TL;DR the levels of corruption and incompetence in the Russian armed forces is simply staggering and defies any comprehension to people who are used to relative competence in western countries. And if you're wondering "how can Russia be losing with so much modern equipment, or have all of these capabilities that they don't use" etc etc... read this. Now take a look at the 600 foot yachts Russian oligarchs sail around on and ask yourself where that money came from, and then thank your lucky fucking stars that you live here and not there. I asked a Russian/Ukrainian friend what his take on all of this was, and he simply said "you know how some countries have a mafia? Now imagine if the mafia had a country." P.S. If you don't have a twitter account, just replace "twitter.com" with "nitter.net" in the url. Nitter is a free open source front end for twitter and while it's buggy, at least it won't require you to sign up or collect your data without asking.

Built a Megatron. Seems to be the perfect amp to build during the seemingly unending shortage of 10m90s. I used up my final few pieces of 10m90s and C2M1000170D for this simple build, and it gave me some mild anxiety and regret for not hoarding up those sands. However, the build experience and result are worth it. Build process and after thoughts I started off with a pair of generic chassis from Taobao. 32cm wide, 8cm tall, 35cm deep. Silver and black anodised aluminium. They weren't available in other finishes but this looks clean enough to me. They do have some minor scratches and dents if you look hard enough though. The casework was done by a laser etching service provider I found on Taobao. The end result was a clean and modern appearance. Inside the PSU are a pair of +/-450V GRHV, +/- 15V GRLV, delay board and a 270VA toroidal transformer. The idea was to create a PSU that can be used by both the Megatron and the Grounded Grid amp units. These components fit the chassis nicely with little room for a third GRHV board for the 300v rail for Megatron. Outputs are split into AC and DC outputs. Transformer specs: The heatsinks for the amp unit were probably redundant since most of the heat comes off from the top. The amp board could probably fit into a smaller and lighter chassis, but I chose the same chassis as the PSU just so that they can stack. The amp build was straight forward and relatively easy compared to a Carbon build or any of the KG dynamic amp builds, due to the low component count. I did not use any boutique components in this build. The coupling caps are Wima, and the voltage rail decoupling caps are Siemens. Volume pot is an EIZZ-style stepped attenuator, internal signal wirings are pure copper. Special care was taken when routing the heater filament wires to avoid hum. Amp testing and adjustment was simple. Just ensure the all the rails are as spec'ed and that's about it. The voltage offset settles automatically after power on. No need to fiddle with any potentiometer when the amp is powered on, so it is much safer to test than the Carbon or the T2 family. Sound I used the Megatron with ES-1A, and here is my impression of the Megatron after comparing it with GG (on the same PSU), Carbon (450V GRHV 15V GRLV) and Mini T2 (triple GRHV). Currently I am using the Megatron with a quad of Mullard XF2 and PSVane EL34PH. The front end tubes are all Valvos. The sound of the Megatron is warm, slightly thick in the mids, and non fatiguing and airy in the treble. It sounds very natural and the imaging is holographic with good recordings. While it is very detailed, it does not ruin joy if the recordings are of poorer quality. Older or poorly mixed recordings have a smooth timbre and organic vibe when heard from the Megatron. While the Megatron's treble is not as extended as the Carbon's, it complements the overall signature to create a very complete soundstage and convincing sense of separation and space. What makes the Megatron standout from crowd lies in its low end - it is an amp for bassheads. It has by far the most THICC bass compared to my other amps, even more than the Carbon. The bass extends as deep as the Carbon, but the Megatron has a nice lift in the mid bass that makes my ES 1a slam extra hard. Listening to EDMs and fast pop tracks on E-Stats is finally satisfying, and I can finally stash away my planars. Carbon is like an antithesis to the Megatron. Carbon is like a clean cutting razor with little tolerance for inaccuracies where as Megatron adds a lot of joy and flavour into the listening experience. Carbon also sounds a little linear. Although the stage is wide, it is not as deep as the Megatron's. GG sounds more organic than Carbon in general. The GG's signature is quite dependent on the tubes. With the XF2s, GG is warm and clean, but doesn't deviate far from the Carbon sound. The bass isn't as tight and fast, and treble could sound stiff and slightly shrill with the wrong tubes - such as the re-issue Mullard EL34. Mini T2 sounds slightly leaner and cleaner than the Megatron, and has a much smaller bass. It is as enjoyable a listening experience for me, but the Mini T2 was much harder to build - by sheer component count. Tube placement and choices Placing the EL34s in this manner shown below allows one to use two matched quads of EL34 if matched octets are unavailable. Initially I used cheap Linlai tubes for the front end and had issues with sound imbalance and hum - turned out that the tubes were the culprits. Switched to some cheap NOS and the issues were gone. So my advice would be to use well built tubes from reputable makers. The 12AU7s affect the sound significantly. The option to roll tubes makes Megatron extra fun to use. More photos of the internals and the back of the amp coming up soon, when I am more free. I would say that the Megatron is my favourite amp - until I build the T2.

Last cut of the entire project and I managed to throw a tire, somehow. I guess I need to buy new tires for the bandsaw now.

Is this thread indexed by google? I forget. I had a dualski colonoscopy and endoscopy yesterday. The prep work was gruelling in extremis. The good news is that I don't have any obvious symptoms. The bad news is that there's no explanation as to why I'm sick so severely and so often. Today I am operating at like 1/10 power. Unsure if I'm doing my radio show tomorrow or not.