Too much talk of tools, and not enough of What Are You Building Today? I made a lamp.

 

 

 

Nice lamp, Doug. 

Me: I've got two nephews that are budding YouTubers so for Christmas we made them fake Creator Awards for them.  I've got three coats of gold paint on them and they look acceptably funny.  Here's what they looked like unfinished.

 

Whoa, I am going to have to postpone showing the finished toy box until some of this awesome stuff moves to the previous page.

That is the most awesome way to use cutoff cabinet scraps. Just beautiful Doug!

Circle hole cutter tech has definitely moved up in the world!

I'm wanting to build some 12v trigger cables for my Parasound Z stack components. The shortest ready made I can find are 3'. I'd like to build a nicer looking cable at any rate. I'm planning on using a nice Nuetric connector...

 

I'm just not sure what wire I should be looking for. Any recommendations?

1 hour ago, swt61 said:

I'm wanting to build some 12v trigger cables for my Parasound Z stack components. The shortest ready made I can find are 3'. I'd like to build a nicer looking cable at any rate. I'm planning on using a nice Nuetric connector...

 

I'm just not sure what wire I should be looking for. Any recommendations?

Any copper wire will work, you just want to make sure it will fit the connector. Microphone cable is the go-to when building them for audio, but is overkill quality wise. 

FYI you can get premade 1ft cables , they will just be TRS which doesn't really matter. 

11 minutes ago, naamanf said:

 

FYI you can get premade 1ft cables , they will just be TRS which doesn't really matter. 

I guess trs wouldn't matter, come to think of it. Where would I find them in 1 ft.?

4 minutes ago, swt61 said:

I guess trs wouldn't matter, come to think of it. Where would I find them in 1 ft.?

Markertek has them. Also in non-right angle plugs.

Perfect! Thanks Naaman and Jim!

38 minutes ago, swt61 said:

I guess trs wouldn't matter, come to think of it. Where would I find them in 1 ft.?

Amazon also sells a couple in the $6 range. Just search 3.5mm TRS. Some of them you have to select to them choose the length. 

Looks like you have enough pre-made choices Steve.

But if any of you guys need mic cables, I have a bunch of Mogami 2549 (non-terminated) plus Switchcraft xlr's (male and female) that I don't need.

Just PM me for freebees.

I managed to get this working in Proteus.

Headphone protector. A combination of Kevin’s comparator based protector and Stax delay circuit.

Delay time set by C1/R8. LED D1 is blinking when relay is disengaged and steady when engaged.

The screenshot shows U1 detecting an error – relay disengaged and LED is blinking…
 

A matching caddy to hold all of my turntable paraphernalia. 

When are you going to build your listening chair so you can actually try this system out?

Could be a fun project. I could build a beautiful chair, but could I build a comfortable chair? And at heart I'm kind of a LA Z BOY.

BTW, I forgot to mention my cheif ergonomics engineer, that layed out the design much better than I would have. Thanks Professor Milo!

I am contemplating a router table as I find the ergonomics of the Festools handheld less than desirable. Think I might ditch both of those and get a table with some non-Festool router attached. 

Is the Rockler Pro cast iron top with their pro fence, pro stand and a Incra Masterlift worthwhile?

The lift is great. Al has one, too. It's made by JessEm but with a few small changes for Incra.

I have the rockler cast iron table (the one that works as a table saw wing - not sure if they have another in a more standard size). I think it is fine but not ideal. I bought it so I could use magnetic hold downs and such, but it turns out that the lift plates are aluminum, so the area where a magnet will be helpful is too far from the router. Cast iron is also useful for vibration dampening, but routers are pretty vibration free, so it is not that big of an issue. Where the cast iron was useful was using it as a table saw wing, but I have subsequently removed it from the saw as I found the setup didn't work for me.

On the downside, the bottom of a cast iron top is not smooth which makes attaching clamps a pain. It also makes attaching a fence difficult. Additionally, rockler lift plates are their own size which means that your lift will have to fit it (incra obviously makes one that does) and you will be stuck with rockler if you ever want to change the table, get a new lift, etc. That may or may not influence what fence you can get. My top came with the "benchdog" fence which is functional but not my favorite. I've looked at the other brands of fences, but it's not clear that they will fit any better.

1 hour ago, VPI said:

I am contemplating a router table as I find the ergonomics of the Festools handheld less than desirable. Think I might ditch both of those and get a table with some non-Festool router attached. 

Is the Rockler Pro cast iron top with their pro fence, pro stand and a Incra Masterlift worthwhile?

My opinion of the Festool stuff is they are excellent tools,  but designed for little European craftsmen named things like Lars, Otto, Klaus, and Gunter. If you have the space large dedicated tools will always be easier to work with.  

That table/fence look pretty good, I would just verify you can put stops on that t-track. As for the lift Incra stuff is solid. I don't have much use with it but the Saw-stop I have seems pretty bullet proof. 

Yeah, I was not sure about the weight or maintenance of a cast iron top, but the collection of obese men with canes that work at Rockler said it was the best. 
 

They did have the Saw Stop Professional 1.75hp table in stock, but only with 52” so a bit big for my space. 
 

I also almost picked up a Jet Bench Top drill press since they have 15% at the moment and it seems to be small enough to work where I want it. 

Edited December 31, 20205 yr by VPI

Another recommendation for the Incra lift. As for the table, the Kreg stand and router table top looks decent to me. Either way I'd recommend the Milwaukee 3 1/2 hp router motor. The old Porter Cable were good, but they were bought out by DeWalt. 

You'll be amazed at how much you can do with a router table.

Edited December 31, 20205 yr by swt61

Yeah, I should have bought a Milwaukee 5625 back when you could actually buy them. End of February at the earliest for all the places I have found that sell the big Milwaukee. 

This one seems like a decent setup.

 

I do like that lift crank.