Sillitoe Lathes

[Sillitoe]

Cuts from the 3rd and 5th dynamic Smokestack Lightning heads.

1kHz 7cm/sec tone at start of each.

5th head- https://www.dropbox.com/s/0797021o1whuslg/5th%20head%2C%201kHz%207cm%3Asec%20Squarepusher%2C%20The%20Exploding%20Psycology.aif?dl=0
Ableton, IRAA, FabFilter Pro Q2, Mackie D2 dj mixer (with firewire sound card), QSC GX3 amp, 0.5 fast blow fuses, no RC network, MyShank big hole 7inch with MyShank diamond.

3rd head- https://www.dropbox.com/s/q9lwlvpszmzkgd3/3rd%20head%2C%201kHz%207cm%3Asec%201983hendrix%20cut.aif?dl=0
Ableton, IRAA, FabFilter Pro Q2, Mackie D2 dj mixer (with firewire sound card), 300watt monoblocks- right channel toroidal transformer buzz present, (delivery guy must have dropped it, this buzz is also in the previously Smokestack Lightning cuts), 0.5 fast blow fuses, no RC network, MyShank big hole 7inch with MyShank diamond.

Playback- Shure M44-7, SL1200, NI Z2 mixer/ soundcard, Ableton.
Playback system is still a bit hot on the right channel...

Cheers
james

[Bahndahn]

Hey Sillitoe!

Nice work!!! You really have managed to produce a clean dynamic head, I cannot hear or see the system resonance on the 5th head!

I tried looking for it visually, but was unable to identify it

Screen Shot 2016-06-11 at 3.30.43 PM.png

Thanks for sharing these updates, you are on to great things! I'm sure we would all be interested in seeing your head design if ever you feel like sharing some visuals. Keep up the great work!

[Sillitoe]

Hi Bahndahn!

Thanks mate, yes I'm very happy with how these are going

Smokestack Lightning 5- White Noise .png

Smokestack Lightning 5- Correction .png

Smokestack Lightning 5- Spectrogram .png

Highpass 20Hz, Lowpass 18kHz.

I hope to improve channel separation.

Cheers
James

[Sillitoe]

Smokestack 5 EQ tweak spectrogram.png

Smokestack Lightning number 5, eq tweaked, cut from iTunes m4a (great album!) without eeq or depth control (hence the two tracking errors).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/le12ecxskw3wmsc/Smokestack%20Lightning%205%20EQtweak%2C%20Fatima%20Al%20Qadiri-%20Dragon%20Tattoo.aif?dl=0

Still need to build these heads with greater precision for wider stereo.
Soon I'll have access to some awesome people in a great listening environment (with amazing gear ) so development will really accelerate.

Everyone who's already contacted me- thanks for your patience.

Cheers
James

[Sillitoe]

One example of why you want a nicely calibrated pitch system- to anticipate that wide 30Hz stuff kicking in!

Smokestack Lightning number 5 dynamic head with Ableton/ arduino pitch (as seen in previously posted locked grooves vid) and fixed pitch.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ii49ouhp4egt4ln/Smokestack5%201kHz%207cm%3Asec%2C%20DJ%20Khalab%20%26%20Baba%20Sissoko-%20Bognya%20%28Clap%20Clap%20remix%29%20.aif?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2y4w6etzfbtnpmo/Smokestack5%201kHz%207cm%20sec%20DJ%20Khalab%20%26%20Baba%20Sissoko-%20Bognya%20%28Clap%20Clap%20remix%29%20FIXED%20PITCH%20SKIPPING.aif?dl=0

Cheers
James

[EpicenterBryan]

Hey James,
Great stuff going on there!

I noticed on both of the last cuts that one channel is hotter than the other by a few dB. I'm sure you will get that balanced. But I wanted to hear your channel separation so I played with the file in Audacity to level the channels and then I discovered Audacity has a Stereo to MS and MS to Stereo function. That might be useful for you until you nail down why the vertical modulation isn't quite right. The idea is you could do a special encode of the audio before cutting by widening the stereo field (difference between L and R).

So get this: In Audacity, highlight the file and select Effect, Matrix: Stereo to MS. Then "split Stereo track". The top track becomes L+R, and the bottom becomes L-R. Then put some gain in the L-R (bottom track). Try 6db as an example. Then select "make stereo track". Highlight it and select Effect, Matrix: MS to Stereo. If it clips, you will have to play with the gain settings here and there. But when you play it back you will hear a much wider stereo image. It may be totally exaggerated compared to the original file. Then you can cut that and see if the playback is significantly closer to the stereo field you really wanted in the original source.

It's just an idea so you can get more channel separation until you nail down the vertical issue.

Bryan

[Sillitoe]

Hi Bryan,

Cheers!
Yes this is a playback issue, you can see the same things in the cuts that I've made with the Caruso, I also mention this on page 5 of this thread (and the top of this page)... But it seems to be getting more pronounced, probably thrashed Shures .

I'll get around to using a different (really nice) playback soon, then we will really hear what's on the disk!

Cheers
James

[EpicenterBryan]

Yes this is a playback issue, you can see the same things in the cuts that I've made with the Caruso...

Ahhh. I've been busy so I haven't caught all the posts, and there are lots of valuable ones!
I totally get what you are saying about the playback cart. It will be interesting for you to try playback on another turntable / cart combo. Have you checked the VTA on your tone arm / cartridge? I think the SL1200 MK2 turntable has an adjustment for that.

Bryan

[Sillitoe]

Yeah, I'll get a nice tonearm with a couple of cart options setup on this first production model lathe asap as this current situation is far from ideal.

I'm looking into EPA100's and a few other tonearms for these SP10's.
Probably a Shure V15, and maybe a Shure SC39ED as GeorgeZ shared that this is what GZ uses for lacquer playback in a recent thread.

Cheers
James

[Sillitoe]

IMG_1714.JPG

The first samples of hardware arrived today, still waiting on a few parts that weren't in the box.

[Wortoll]

Wow! impressive!
where did you find the small XY-table (suspension box adjustment)?
I try to find one but they all seem terribly expensive, or way too big.

Regards,

[Sillitoe]

Hi Wortoll,

Thanks!
You can get them from me if you purchase one of my lathes!

Cheers
James

[Sillitoe]

image.jpeg

Suspension box mounted.

Waiting on the missing parts before I can start testing.

I need to make a couple of minor revisions and also finish the control console.

[Bahndahn]

Wow! impressive!
where did you find the small XY-table (suspension box adjustment)?
I try to find one but they all seem terribly expensive, or way too big.

Regards,

Many places carry these little micrometer-screw 2 axis positioning mechanisms, be sure to search for 'linear stage' if you are having trouble coming up with results using other search terms.

Here is a place that offers a wide variety as well as custom slides:

http://www.genericslides.com/index.html

Happy building!
B

[Sillitoe]

image.jpeg

Mechanics have gone together well.
Everything is working as intended.

Currently waiting for more sample parts, working on a few minor revisions, control console layouts and refining the Smokestack Lightning cutterhead design (plus a bunch of other stuff )

Cheers
James

[mischmerz]

Have you made any price calculations yet? I would be interesting to know if your lathes will fit my budget. Because if not I might as well stop drooling


m.

[Sillitoe]

Hi Mischmerz!

Thanks
I'm calculating along the way, but making changes and revisions too.
I need to be sure that pricing will allow for a great quality system with customer support to match.

I had thought that I could post a price once these machined parts had arrived, however, not all of them were up to a standard that I consider acceptable for a commercial product, some didnt even arrive at all
The machinist is redoing most of the order for free but I may look for an alternative.

Anyway I'm very very close now...(although I'm aware I have been saying that for a while haha).
I'll post both here and in the Classifieds section soon.

At the moment my focus is on the making the complete system available asap, then I will look into selling heads, suspension boxes etc...

Thanks for the support and patience!

James

[IRF80]

Wow is all I can say, I haven't logged in for a while as I have ran out of money for my project but just come accross this and it's next level.

Superb achievement. I too have wanted a Caruso for a long while and I have not yet completed any of my bodge cutter head's but once I have a working lathe with a low noise floor I will ultimately want a Caruso - Hopefully Flo will still be making them when I can scrape some ££££'s together.

Very inspiring, I especially like the cross cut mitre saw hack.

Unfortunately, I have far to go with my very basic Rek-O-Kut inspired project...

[Bahndahn]

Looking wicked!

I assume this is mostly aluminium? Of course the sliding rails are some sort of steel, but the overhead and so on is aluminium?

In any case, what kind of flex factors are you dealing with in this setup? How much weight does it take to move that overhead, when extended fully, 0.001"? This is an important statistic for potential buyers who may have a heavy cutterhead. It looks robust, so I hope it can hold a lot of weight. The square corner design does localize a good amount of stress at those corners, but its not a high-load device so it shouldn't matter.

Looking forward to the finished product!

[Sillitoe]

Cheers fellas!

Bahndahn, the hardware is over-engineered for the application.

Cheers
James

(Whoops, didn't mean to bump this topic haha)