Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II


“For those who want the moon but can't afford it or those who can afford it but like to have fun and work with their hands, I'm willing to give out a recipe for a true high-end 'table which is easy to do, and fun to make as sky's the limit on design/creativity! The cost of materials, including 'table, is roughly $200 (depending, more or less), and add to that a Rega tonearm. The results are astonishing. I'll even tell/show you how to make chipboard look like marble and fool and impress all your friends. If there's interest I'll get on with this project, if not, I'll just continue making them in my basement. The next one I make will have a Corian top and have a zebra stripe pattern! Fun! Any takers?”

The Lead in “Da Thread” as posted by Johnnantais - 2-01-04

Let the saga continue. Sail on, oh ships of Lenco!
mario_b
Well Mosin,
Seems that a simul-post with Jean has left my caution moot. Seem's Jean is going to rock on, as well.
All best,
Mario
Ok, I have been following this. Are we talking about slate over plywood/mdf or just a slate (only) plinth?

Has anyone actually worked slate with woodworking tools? The only web reference that I found recommended a jigsaw.

Finally I would hope that anyone cutting slate at home is wearing a mask - I remember seeing something on TV about silicosis or miner's lung disease - which appeared as soon as miners began using steam powered drills. I recall that some miners went down after as few as 2 or 3 days on the drill.

Mike

PS: Wait 'til you see my new speakers :)
I would not go against 1.5 - 2.0 slate with the jigsaw.
Wet saw with diamond blade is more like it IMO.
Or take it to a local shop - it might cost you around $100 for few straight cuts.

Mario,
got the router(2) , got the jigs(thanks to you.. remember).
I am good. All I need is time & this forum to guide me through.
Thank you and John for all your work and time to share with the rest.
Mario,

Talking about outside the box ideas is my forte. Thanks for reminding me about how the thread started, though. Bear in mind that we are talking about DIY things, so I see the discussion of slate to be appropriate, and just because someone embarks upon an expansive project doesn't mean that nothing is to be discovered by those who are not so inclined. Nothing is created from a vacuum; things all start someplace, and sometimes that someplace is an esoteric one. You can do almost anything on the cheap, if you set your mind to it.

That said...

I'll take it line by line.

"The issue is not whether or not slate has internal resonances, but whether or not slate can draw away and kill noise from the 'table as effectively as a wooden plinth, and even if so, without recourse to extremely expensive/time-consuming procedures."

I placed a Litman pediatric stethoscope directly on slate within one centimeter of a mounted motor, and heard no noise. Try that with wood.

"Slate may have no internal resonances (I'll find out), but it is the metal of the top-plate - regular or Reinderspeter - vibrating against the slate, a hard surface - which will cause noise/resonances in the metal itself, without being drawn away, to cause problems."

Everything in the physical world has resonances of some sort. Whether one would hear noise from a top plate would depend entirely upon the construction techniques used, or lack thereof. Wood is much more problematic in that regard, as many know.

"There are no perfect surfaces. Imagine metal hitting wood: you get a dull thud. Imagine metal hitting stone: it sets up a high-frequency ringing."

How is relevant in any context applicable to turntable construction? It isn't. "Direct Coupling" should handle that hurdle, right? LOL

"Which is why I referred earlier to the ceramic ball phenomenon: an extremely hard material (harder than metal), which seemed like a good idea, but which in the end fabricated the illusion of increased detail rather than its reality (the metal-to-ceramic created a disparate-material barrier which filtered out the bass frequencies in order to unnaturally highlight midrange and high frequencies)."

This is totally application dependent, and apples and oranges when used in a discussion about slate. There is no correlation at all. Further, it simply is not true. What it may do is emphasize the inadequacies of a given platter, or other component, or not. More likely is that the surfaces are incompatible due to lack of research of the builder. Ceramics are designed to run on certain surfaces, but not all. Google is your friend on this point.

mosin
Mosin,

It would seem that expansiveness on the DIY level also would lend to a give-and-take sharing of information. Instead we have two posts from you which “take on” Jean "line by line" as you say. The palpable tenor of which is clearly not to share and gain, but to imperiously “red pencil” someone who you’re out for.
How long are you going to carry this Mosin? Is it worth the load?

- Mario