Western Electric 16a in the house.....

yep... finally... we16a.... more soon as I listen to GIP 555's and originals... and I have a sneaky idea for a mating basshorn...

peace,
me

new job, new locale, new climate, return of an old philosophy...

.

as many of you know, I have long strived to make, in house, as absolutely many parts in my gear as possible... somehow, the past few years, in an effort to make maybe a few more things, but mostly thinking about division of labor leading to higher quality, I shopped a few parts out.... bad idea.... I lost a lot of money and all the control.... but I learned... and I learned that hard lesson relatively early in my life.. and now I am really excited to have that lesson propelling me forward.... on my old philosophy.... I now dream of having blocks of raw materials dropped off at one door and finished goods going out the other... huge blocks of brass, steel, tantalum, tungsten, copper, silver!...

reality will bring me back down eventually, (let's all hope I make some tubes first!)... but for now, I am happily learning to master this machine:

you may recognize the fellow in the background... that's my fellow hifiheroin addict..... I can't believe this is the only photo I have of the Hurco... I really like their new styling... very deco.. and I *love* hammertone grey...

the Hurco does cool stuff like this:

to within a ten thousandth of an inch!  yep, that is the tolerance to which I trammed the sub plate (Robert calls this a spoil board) that we made.... one-thirtieth of the diameter of a human hair.... so this will help me catch up on some orders that include metal work....

in general, I am finally feeling like I am again on the rails... I knew I was headed in the correct direction, but it just felt a bit like I was bumping along railroad ties.... I am finally feeling like that serene late afternoon photo above.... taken from my new spot....

oh... I almost forgot... one person is not happy about this new venture... Bessie... this is her expressing her displeasure in the form of riding low after a metal pickup.... she clearly likes walnut better than brass... I am teaching her that they go *together*...

peace,
me

mu SUT's for charity

Our good friend John Chapman of Bent audio is offering up a pair of near unobtanium Mu SUT's in copper for a charity he supports.  100% of the bid price goes straight to the cause and he even picks up shipping out of his own pocket.  The full story is Here.

dave

the dog and puppy show.

This is the last coverage from RMAF from Peter at AVshowrooms.com.  I really like his videos because they give far more insight than the 50 words and 5 pictures the typical show report gives.

The funny thing was after I let the pool cue on a string comment slip I felt I needed to tell frank and he quickly corrected me that is was a broomstick on a string.  I thought for a bit and given the lengths gone through for a high end cue.... it was actually a perfect description.

dave

it's all about the bread.

and a hefty dose of sweat, oil, protection and tools.

the yellow slide

lions and tigers and barrets.  OMI