Make Ruger 10/22 & SR22 look like AR15

Sprucing up the Ruger .22 Rifle into a M4 look alike

Anyone who has a Sr 22 probably loves the original M16 look that the rifle was designed to replicate.

Though it comes close, its not quite there yet. Yes you can get to Nordic components & buy some accessories, but they are very expensive, heavy, & hard to source. And unfortunately Nordic isnt the most interested in selling to overseas buyers either, cant blame them.

In this article, Ill point you to a few cheap cosmetic things that will give your SR22 that real assault M16/M4 look.

First, youll need to ensure your magazine doesnt give away the fact that its a .22

An original Ruger 25 round banana mag is also available, but its too skinny & gives away that its a .22LR calibre rifle. Also, in a place like New Zealand, you need an E cat license, else youre in trouble using a 25 round mag.

Well, here is a solution, a new trader on trademe called kiwistocks

And theyre also on facebook now

KiwiStocks on trademe makes these little dummy magazine extensions to fit any original Ruger 10 round rotary mag.
They just clip into the bottom & give your Ruger mag the .223 M16 magazine look!

No modifications of any kind needed, & they are easily removable & re-attachable.

Ok, its just plastic, but hey, the point of this exercise is to make the SR22 look sexy, & this little mag does it well.

Ive seen stuff like this on US sites as part of complete kits they sell to turn a Ruger 10/22 into a tommygun, but this is new, & its homegrown, love that!

The same kiwistocks fellow also sells a M16 style replica muzzle compensator :)

It slides onto your barrell & just looks cool. Its made of plastic & is quite light weight but strong enough to do the job. It has no effect what so ever on hiding the flash or what not, except that it looks brilliant!

There is also a shell deflector thing

And for those of us who want to get trigger happy on the range sometimes without the spraying our fellow shooter next to us on the range, the same kiwistocks also sells a plastic Shell deflector that just mounts off the scope rail, ingenius!

And my favourite, the angled slip on sunshade for any scope, this is just awesome!

This turns gives any normal scope a more military style look. Thats pretty handy.
Otherwise you'd only get such looks only out of a double the price tactical scope.

And then you want some picatinny weaver style rails to screw onto the front grip.

There are a few people on trademe that sell those. This kiwistocks guy seems to be the cheapest, but I have never done any quality checks against the other sellers.

Im not sure if I'd personally trust ABS plastic if you actually wanted to mount something on the rail, but saying that, well made ABS stuff is pretty strong.

Then there are accessories like a replacement scope rail made of plastic.

Helps reduce the weight of the rifle, which is great coz the SR22 though not heavy, is definitely not light enough to easily carry around.

Check out the plastic replacement front hand grip area.

It looks much more like the M4 & is lighter coz its plastic. In many ways that gives it a more authentic looks because its ABS which is very close to the material used on synthetic stocks.

... And all this stuff is Made in New Zealand which is such a breath of fresh air :)

....And its CHEAP AS..!!

Creating Punchy bass from the Sub Woofer

Sub Woofer tuning for clean & fast bass

In this post I share some techniques I use when optimising speakers with sub woofers in situations when the bass seems too muddy. 

Its like everything is hammering the bass but there is no distinct beat & all you hear is a thunderous vibration.

Many Home theatre & audio enthusiasts have faced problems with bass cleanup at some stage of their setup, & hopefully some of these tips will help investigate & fix your particular issues.

When I say punch & mid bass, one would assume I want things to sound like a car boom box, but thats not the case.

There is no shame in expecting better or more amounts of bass, but in some audiophile forums if you bring up the subject of more bass, they assume your're an idiot who has no appreciation of natural flat music.

I will state a few steps to try out to get more out of your HT setup.

The Scenario to demonstrate techniques with:

Ill use a scenario that I found most challenging to get right, & thats when you use a floor stander that can go almost as low the bloody sub in the first place, though not the same amount of db in those low frequencies.

The process works with any speaker, its just harder with floor standers that have a deep bottom end.

Im not a fan of automatic stuff, its never perfect. But these days, its a good start.

Audyssey, MCACC, YPAO etc all get you started because they give you a 'real' frequency indication of what has been done from the perspective to get things flat. This is needed so that you can then only make the enhancements you need rather than have to fix too many issues at once.

The Factors

CrossOver frequency:

No factor has more impact on your overall bass than cross over frequency.

You want to set the crossover to a point where the main speakers & your sub have a slight overlay in certain frequency.

Conventionally, you would check the frequency response & match them such that the sub takes over what the front cant handle. But the problem can often be that the whole setup creates flat bass that can be measured by a machine as being audible across the entire spectrum, but not necessarily punchy bass that has a presence with an attack, rather than just vibration you can feel in your heart.

Eq setting in your receiver:

If your receiver has an auto calibration system, start with that. It will even out the fronts so at least they are set to a reasonably 'flat' starting point, so you know what parameters to increment.

Woofer Volume:

I would recommend setting the woofer volume to 30% before firing up your auto calibration system.

 

B&W HTM61 vs HTM62 vs LCR60 & CC B&Ws

B&W HTM61 Centre Channel Speaker

No centre speaker in the entry B&W linieup has a more commanding presence than the beautiful & powerful HTM 61.

But when you throw that kind of money & sacrifice so much WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor), you want to ensure it was all worth it.

If you are not sure what centre you need, or just cant afford a HTM61 or dont have enough space for the HTM 61, & want to consider the others B&W centres, then please read my previous article on HTM62 vs LCR60 vs CC6 vs LCR3 here.

This article compares the HTM61 to the HTM62, to analyse if people with the floor standers truly are better off with the bigger centre.

The primary objective for me upgrading to the 61 was NOT bass, it was the FST midrange.

The main reason I bought the 683 over the 684 was NOT the 2 woofers, it was the FST midrange!

So is the HTM61 significatly better than the HTM62, & worth the extra cost & space?

Short answer, YES!! The HTM61 is leaps & bounds better than any other 6 series centre speaker.

It is better in almost every way. The 3-way design has proven itself to be the king again.

Rarely would one suggest taking a stereo source & upscaling it to DD PL2x 5.1 as being worthy to test a centre speaker. But on this speaker, it actually makes a huge improvement.
Frank Sinatra never sounded this good out of the other speakers I have had.

I was simply playing out of a USB drive off my Marantz SR6004 with MDAX & Audyssey Flat turned on, & there is extensive improvement on the vocals.

If you have the B&W 683 & can afford the HTM61, & you have the approval of your lady to place a tank under your TV, then I have no doubt in recommending the HTM61.

Every other 6 series speaker is second class in comparison. The HTM 61 has met my expectations, & I despite it looking rather out of place under my TV, I dont mind it as the sound is brilliant.

I would also go so far as to recommend the HTM61 with 685 or 686. A lot of people ask me if a large centre will 'overpower' thier fronts. This is almost never a problem in my experience, because your centre channel levels can always be set down in your receiver. The timbre matching will not change with any new 685 / 686 + htm61 / htm62 lineup.
And contrary to opinion, you very much want a centre that is capable even for movies, because a lot of full range content is put through it.
The centre channel is NOT just dialogue, tough that is the main purpose in the original specification, it is no longer the norm. Sound engineers are putting a hell of a lot of content through it, & most tiddly centres are just dying when it comes to delivering all that.

So no matter what speakers you have from the new 6 series lineup, be it the 683, 684, 685, 686 or even the LM1, VM1, DD1! I would say go with the best centre you can get, it will do your systems justice & not cause any harm.

I had very high hopes from the HTM 61 & it is the one speaker that I really expect to blow my soundstage out of this world & one should not be able to decipher dialogue moving between the drivers.
 

This 'dialogue' also applies to multi channel DTS music DVDs which are my main use for my HT, so when I hear Don Henley's voice or his guitar in the Hell Freezes Over DVD from the centre channel, it should sound no different to the 683 fronts when the guitar is recorded for the front channels within the mastering of the same song. The sub crossover should be only a few Hz off from the Floor standers & I want to hear the 60-70Hz bass coming from the centre in a clean & rich prominent way.

The opening track on that DVD is a good starting test.

I am glad it has worked out.

Next, I will move to Starwars Ep 3 to check if Anakin sounds the same as his voice moves through all 5 speakers in the opening battle scene.

More coming tomorrow.

Tips for the Up 3d printing software

Tips to make UP! 3d printer software deliver

As per my previous post on the UP! 3d printer, getting things to work correctly is finicky.

It loves to break, or complain about your model.

In this post, Ill share the solutions to problems I faced:

1) The model looks hollow, but prints solid.

Check if you can do a repair in netfabb. The basic Netfabb version is free, if you dont have it, download it from this netfabb download link. You dont need to fill out personal info, its optional.

You might find that netfabb in its wisdom decides to completely close the faces as part of the repair, which isnt what you wanted, but this will get you a step closer to what you actually want.

Here, you can use a simple 3d program like TinkerCad to assist. IMport the stl into TinkerCAD, Clone the appropriate shape from the part that you want to make hollow, & then do a hole out of that in TinkerCad.

For example, if you want a tube running through the middle but the model file doesnt have a closed face at the hole opening edge, your print will fail. In that case, the netfabb repair will close that tunnel opening hole. Then you import that closed model, clone it, extend its length & do a hole cut in tinkercad.

Its easier than it sounds :)

If you have a professional program, obviously they all have their own respective tools for difference cutting.

2) Error: Part material not enough, Add material?

This one is a pain. It poses a question & yet does nothing after you click yes.

It doesnt withdraw the plastic or extrude any, it just stops printing & does nothing.

I read some of the threads on pp3dp support forum that suggested clicking to add a new spool & estimating the material. That seems to have done the trick.

3) Model has issues that cause it to not print properly, or fail the print due to support errors

Do a automated repair in netfabb, frankly, it rarely fixes the problem. What it does do though is let you see the triangle mesh & clean up any unnecessary complexities in the model.
After that, export the model as a .stl file from netfabb or other such program & import that stl file into TinkerCad.

Despite my disappointments with some aspects of TinkerCad as stated in my previous tinkercad post, its quite handy to get tinkerCads import mechanism to automatically fix the issues in that stl.
You see, tinkercad is designed for 3d printing so all models are automatically 'solidified'.

This works well as long as your model doesnt have any more than 100000 mesh triangle faces. Some models will. In which case, see if you can fix holes from netfabb & do some simple repairs in netfabb, often that reduces the number of faces just enough to get the model to import in tinkercad.

If you still have too many faces, download the free meshlab tool & perform a face cout reduction there. Do a google search on it, pretty easy to do.

After youve got it in tinkercad, simply do an export from it. Go to the Download your model to print option & it will give it back to you in stl format. Easy :)

4) The raft keeps on lifting, which is partly due to the head not being close enough to the platform.

This one is most annoying of them all. The printer is very delicate, despite what marketing you might read.
The whole platform & head assembly constantly move, & are attached on a central vertical arm.
This arm has to follow laws of physics, the longest unsupported end toward you is obviously going to droop, or it will be over-compensated, causing drooping in the back or vice versa.

I have to keep re-aligning this printer so often! I wouldnt call this 'robust' by any measure.
Im told this might be because I always use the printer at the fastest speed settings, but hey, it didnt say that when I bought it. Im using it under its designed operating specs, so as a consumer, I expect it to work & hold on.

5) The head assembly goes a tad loose & starts shaking every couple of prints!

This is perhaps the biggest engineering screw up of this device. Why on earth would you use just 1 screw to mount a large heavy moving object thats exposed to extensive inertia??!!

I mean, you dont need to be a rocket scientist to know that 2 screws will be just right.

The excuse is that 1 screw allows tolerance should there be a nozzle collision with items on the perf board, but that is not a fair argument as you can have 2 screws across the same plane mounted on the same yet tad longer piece which will also allow the same amount of head tolerance in the vertical axis.

I was offered a updated metal mount though which seems better as it fits the rails & I look forward to trying it, but I wont be using it extensively because that metal has no tolerance what so ever. Its either riid or flaky, they have to find a compromise.
Tightening the bottom screw helps, but come on, the thing is moving as fast asn an inkjet printers head! That screw aint gonna hold hard is it?? & if u tighten it way too hard, youll risk damaging the screw threads, so be careful :s

TinkerCad - Usable, but not great

Tinker Cad Free Version

TinkerCAD is perhaps the most popular free 3d modelling software around.
Its web based, & thats perhaps the main advantage.
Its not free as in open source style, its just 'free' enough for you to get into it.
There is a free trial, & a pro version.

This free version makes all your work publicly visible. This isnt too bad, just dont name the file something useful if you dont want people actively looking at it. Thankfully all rights stay with the creator so thats good.

Its all hunky dory when you are dropping some of the ready made shapes around & manipulating or exporting them into .stl files for you to 3d print, but you try to get creative with it & TinkerCad will tolerate you for a while but ultimately shit itself.

Its very slow once the design goes past the basics. No its not my hardware, my Radeon HD 6630 happily manipulated & rendered 3ds Max files.
Tinkercad literally re-renders the whole scene in front of you, every single basic shape, & thats where it often has a minor crash.

Here is what these crashes & model corruptions look like:

In terms of modelling functions, frankly, there arent any.

The only thing you can do to the ready made objects besides the simple resizing/rotating/moving is to use them like dye's to cut other objects. They refer to these as holes.

In 3d speak its basically cutting the mesh of the parent object by the intersecting area of the child object that youve positioned as overlap. Thats the entire philosophy of modelling in the free version.
I cant comment on the paid version, if it improves I dont know.

I was making a very simple design, purely geometric, but it had some curves in it.
Now if you have a rectangle, & god forbid you want to curve it a little so its a bit like a banana, then youre pretty much screwed. I got around with by using predefined shapes & then cutting them out.
There is no smoothing filter, or any mesh modifier. No way to join adjascent faces, or cut them.

Its basically 3d for people who have never touched a 3d program before.

For this target audience who are focused on using the 3d printer & making simple stuff rather than precision models, tinkercad is more than adequate, especially being a free product.

Using it is like writing with pencil, except your'e not writing with the lead, you're just scratching lead  randomly & then using the eraser to actually write in what you want!

After a few of these 'holes' are cut, the whole thing starts getting corrupted & the model looks like all the parts you ever used suddenly got dumped there.
Its extremely frustrating as it starts breaking things & changing shapes that you didn't modify.

The examples make it look all awesome, sexy & powerful. Its not.
If geometric right angles shapes is what you want, yup all good, try to add some elegance, tough luck.
The built-in cylindrical & spherical objects are fine, but its creating your own curved objects thats the problem.

Now as you can imagine, the internal complexities of the model which are just nothing but multiple model cross sections being activated or hidden etc impose such constraints that the model becomes un-editable with slow performance.

You try to make any change, or even rotate the view & it will error & crash.

Also, for some stupid reason, any change automatically leads to a save, which is silly, as that takes too long, & even a simple undo will take forever.

And the undo function doesnt even work sometimes when the model starts to get more detailed.

You can actually see it quickly recreate every single object youve dropped or cut in the model before it re-renders the view for you, & thats after every little change. Its nasty.

My design is almost complete, but I cant add the last few details, as it keeps on crashing!

An error shows up asking you to contact support, & thats just as annoying because it happens after every single click.

Thankfully, their support emailed me back promptly, so thats a good start.

Lets hope they get the issue investigated & resolved soon, which will be a good judge of their capability.
My speculation is that this wont be fixed too soon given the nature of how its related to their root design philosophy, usually you cant change those things that quickly.

Yesterday I got an email from them saying they have noted the issue but dont have a fix for it yet. Good on them for replying back, but as expected, no surprises there with not having a fix.

I will work on this & finish my model, & then, stay away from it for creations that require extensive manipulation of their basic steps.

TinkerCad is handy for cleaning up stl models which have holes etc

Youll often be in a situation where something you made looks fine to the eye but the 3d printing software will mourn about it not being a complete solid model etc.

Since tinkercad was designed for 3d printing as the target audience, it lets you import stl files & will automatically clean them us & 'solidify' them, within reason.

You can then export those stl files back out & your printer program will mostly accept them!

This is brilliant, & is perhaps worth sticking around with tinkercad for such simple manipulation.

Have a read of my UP! printer software tips here for details

B&W ASW608 sub woofer

The B&W ASW-608 is every bit a sub you want, without the size!

Something so compact never sounded this good!

An elegant 8" woofer may seem a bit wimpy, but despite its small size, it makes a commanding pair even with my B&W 683's

This is a real gem of a speaker especially if you are hard pressed for cash,or space.
This little sub is very worthy of consideration for those who would buy the heavy weight ASW610 in the perfect world, but cant.

Its a sealed enclosure design.

I appreciate there are theories around how the right kind of baffle ports play a big role is bass, but in my experience, a good music oriented sub has almost always been a sealed unit.
The bass is crisp, clean & not hollow.

I dont like speakers that just vibrate under the pretext of deep bass.

Best for:

Hi-fi music is what this little baby was made for, & with the intention of pairing your 685 or 686 class bookshelf. It does that job better than you might imagine, please do audition it.
In my opinion, it suits the 684 & 683 just as well.

The sound between 50-80Hz is rich & deep.

I would highly recommend this sub even to those considering a velodyne sub or people who own a different brand of main speakers.

The B&W manual suggests placement on one side of the centre speaker, just before the front, for best music performance. But in my personal opinion, it sounds much better in the corner.
Given the fact that there is no bass port, it may be the reason the bass sounds better in the corner.

Some disadvantages, though minor:

As expected, the 8" cone is not designed to be delivering sub 30hz bass at its peek & will sometimes rumble a bit rather than being clean.

The mid bass is fast to a point that the enclosure creeks a bit. It gives the impression of being so tight that something is pulling it aggressively, sometimes this makes the bass sound like it ended abruptly.

This is a complaint I also have from the mid bass of my much loved B&W 683s.

The unit gets very hot rather fast even though I use it at only 30% volume. Not a safety issue as its within operating temperatures & wont burn you, but its something that could be improved.

2 of the readers have had their amps blown within unreasonable time, as per their comments below, which is not very good given the asw 608 though entry level is not a 'cheap & crappy' brand. One would expect it to last longer.

It is also not fair to warrant the electronics for lesser amount of time then the speaker driver.

B&W should look into this, & consumers should be aware of this before they buy an asw 608 sub woofer.

Do you own a ASW608? What are your thoughts on its performance, what do you pair it with?