Hi I am pleased to see a few people have looked at my tonearm, I spent about two years of my spair time developing it and it came out far better than I ever expected it's strengths being it's ability to track anything at 1.5g and transiat response that leaves my dac in the darkage, the sound stage is also pritty amazing but really complicated passages with lots going on do show up its only sonic weaknesses.
Now it is time to start again from scratch and put all that I have learnt into a completely new design, I have an idea for a tonearm floating on a film of ferowfluid.
Can I pull it off ? who knows ???
I found a piece of lignum vitea on huddersfield market the other day, just about long enough for a 12 inch arntube (see photo ) in the morning I will make a start.
Call this a kind of blog, catch you all in a day or two. Bob.
Now it is time to start again from scratch and put all that I have learnt into a completely new design, I have an idea for a tonearm floating on a film of ferowfluid.
Can I pull it off ? who knows ???
I found a piece of lignum vitea on huddersfield market the other day, just about long enough for a 12 inch arntube (see photo ) in the morning I will make a start.
Call this a kind of blog, catch you all in a day or two. Bob.
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I managed to find another hour before tea
so I set up the collet chuck and got on with the drilling "not a nice job" I must have made about twenty arm tubes by now and scraped at least three on the drilling, you can never be sure the drilled holes will meet in the middle as the drill always follows the grain of the wood to one extent or another and this armtube being made of lignum vitea with a grain is runing all over the place.
So to cut to the chase the holes drilled from each end did not line up as well as I was hopeing, I reckon the misalignment is about .3mm
But considering it is my first attempt at a twelve inch arm and also my first attempt at making one out of lignum vitea I am not too unhappy.
It will probably be midweek before I can get back in my workshop.
Bob.
so I set up the collet chuck and got on with the drilling "not a nice job" I must have made about twenty arm tubes by now and scraped at least three on the drilling, you can never be sure the drilled holes will meet in the middle as the drill always follows the grain of the wood to one extent or another and this armtube being made of lignum vitea with a grain is runing all over the place.
So to cut to the chase the holes drilled from each end did not line up as well as I was hopeing, I reckon the misalignment is about .3mm
But considering it is my first attempt at a twelve inch arm and also my first attempt at making one out of lignum vitea I am not too unhappy.
It will probably be midweek before I can get back in my workshop.
Bob.
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Hi I managed to get about four hours in the shop today which gave me a chance to make a good start on the headshell. there are three more parts of the headshell to make and a good bit of polishing and I need to send off to China for some titanium screws to make it look good.
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Hi the lathe is an Optimun made in China, not a very good machine but just about good enough
Before I retired I worked for near on fifty years in aeropsace. much of which was on a Hardinge c/lathe HLV????
regards Bob.
Hi Back again I spent a couple of hours working on the prototype for my new floating ferrofluid bearing today. will post some photos of the exterior parts as I make them but the actual bearing will remain a secret becaus it just might work !!!!
If it does not I will use the bearing I developed for the Ebony Warrior which is similar to Schroeder but by no means a clone
If it does not I will use the bearing I developed for the Ebony Warrior which is similar to Schroeder but by no means a clone
Hi back again as mentioned in my last post I have been working on the prototype of my new tonearm bairing.
I had a bright idea once before about twenty years back, I was convinced that I was on the verge of fame and fortune and then slowley the cracks in my idea began to appear and bit by bit it all frizled away to nothing, so this time although I was absolutely convinced it was going to work I knew that until I had a working prototype it was all just pie in the sky.
***************** I have a working ptototype admitedly 300% of final size and not ready to build into a working tonearm. it is 100% unequivocal proof of concept.************* Step aside Frank Shroder there is a new kid on the block " even though I am on the wrong side of seventy "
I had a bright idea once before about twenty years back, I was convinced that I was on the verge of fame and fortune and then slowley the cracks in my idea began to appear and bit by bit it all frizled away to nothing, so this time although I was absolutely convinced it was going to work I knew that until I had a working prototype it was all just pie in the sky.
***************** I have a working ptototype admitedly 300% of final size and not ready to build into a working tonearm. it is 100% unequivocal proof of concept.************* Step aside Frank Shroder there is a new kid on the block " even though I am on the wrong side of seventy "
I managed to pick up a Hardinge HLV a few years ago, its in decent worn condition, except for the headstock bearings, which had been replaced just before I bought it. It sure beats the old raglan 'LittleJohn' which preceded it.
I couldn't be more appreciative of your posts about the making of this arm. A few out there just don't make the grade. Yours tells me that you have some real and usable experience for this project. I might have missed it, but did you have some specifications about these arms? mostly just curious.
IT FLOATS JIM BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT
May I thank you all for your support, 1st I would like to point out that the new arm that I am working on is nothing like a "well tempered arm" when I say it floats this is nothing to do with displacement ! it is more like levitation.
As I said in my last post I now have a working prototype bearing but it needs lot's more work to turn it into a working tonearm, I have two possable idea's but no idea which is best so I have desided to put the lignum vitae armtube and headshell aside until I know which of the two possabilities is the best way to go.
To day I turned two armtubes in African Black wood and started making a pair of simple headshell's towards testing the two possable design's.
See Photo's.
May I thank you all for your support, 1st I would like to point out that the new arm that I am working on is nothing like a "well tempered arm" when I say it floats this is nothing to do with displacement ! it is more like levitation.
As I said in my last post I now have a working prototype bearing but it needs lot's more work to turn it into a working tonearm, I have two possable idea's but no idea which is best so I have desided to put the lignum vitae armtube and headshell aside until I know which of the two possabilities is the best way to go.
To day I turned two armtubes in African Black wood and started making a pair of simple headshell's towards testing the two possable design's.
See Photo's.
Attachments
Hi again it's all the little bits and pieces that take the time, but I believe they are the most important thing when building high end audio.
Every last detail that may in some way enhance the final sound is well worth the effort, all the little details that by themselfs make a negligable difference to the overall sound, all work together to make high fidelity.
The headshell on my last tonearm was made from a laminate of ebony and lignum vitae bonded together with a secret adhesive the idea was to construct a very low mass with both high ridgidity and good damping. With this arm I am changing the balance a little in fabour of ridgidity by making the headshell from solid lignum vitae with a laminated damping pad between, to mount the cartridge also made from four 1mm layers of lignum vitae and my secret bonding agent. see photo's 1-3
I also made the finger lifts using 1mm stainless steel wit a tiny turned lignum vitae head, there is no other wood that will allow itself to be worked like this, I am amazed it is no longer used as an engineering material as it once was, i have long searched the net for others doing precision work in this incredable material and apart from a couple of guys in the USA making clocks, I seem to be on my own.
Every last detail that may in some way enhance the final sound is well worth the effort, all the little details that by themselfs make a negligable difference to the overall sound, all work together to make high fidelity.
The headshell on my last tonearm was made from a laminate of ebony and lignum vitae bonded together with a secret adhesive the idea was to construct a very low mass with both high ridgidity and good damping. With this arm I am changing the balance a little in fabour of ridgidity by making the headshell from solid lignum vitae with a laminated damping pad between, to mount the cartridge also made from four 1mm layers of lignum vitae and my secret bonding agent. see photo's 1-3
I also made the finger lifts using 1mm stainless steel wit a tiny turned lignum vitae head, there is no other wood that will allow itself to be worked like this, I am amazed it is no longer used as an engineering material as it once was, i have long searched the net for others doing precision work in this incredable material and apart from a couple of guys in the USA making clocks, I seem to be on my own.
