Does anyone have a source for aluminum or other metal VU meter bezels? Want a raw aluminum finish for a build and prefer the real deal before painting a plastic one.
Aluminum VU meter bezels
- Thread starter StarTrucker
- Start date
Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:
If anyone is looking Hoyt makes a die cast series
I’ve done business with Hoyt.
They will also sell you a new scale (ivory/white, horizontal/verical).
They will also sell you a new scale (ivory/white, horizontal/verical).
sahib
Well-known member
I have just checked their web site. The vu meter prices are quite "ouch!".
https://hoytmeter.com/analog-panel-meters/vu-meters.html
https://hoytmeter.com/analog-panel-meters/vu-meters.html
Their service is excellent though! They sold me some alternate scales (horiz/vertical, white/beige) without any hassle.
I bought a new one then a couple used ones for some odd reason.
Sometimes the odd cheap used one can be made a perfect.VU meter..
I bought a new one then a couple used ones for some odd reason.
Sometimes the odd cheap used one can be made a perfect.VU meter..
MidnightArrakis
Well-known member
At the price that these Hoyt VU-meters are going for.....I can't imagine that they're really flying off-the-shelf too fast!!!
With today's technology the way that it is, do you think that it would be possible to have a metal VU-meter bezel 3D printed? If someone could/would physically send me the bezel, I could "Reverse-Engineer" it mechanically and create a 3D CAD-model of the bezel, which in turn could then be used to feed a 3D-printer and have one physically made. And, I have a friend in Florida who runs a "3D Printing" company making specialized parts for aerospace firms. Worth a try, huh???
Here is a 3D CAD-model I created of the typical small VU-meter used in 1U rack-chassis and "500-Series" modules:
(And.....if you look closely at this VU-meter.....you can also see the meter-display glass cover!!! How's that for detail?).
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With today's technology the way that it is, do you think that it would be possible to have a metal VU-meter bezel 3D printed? If someone could/would physically send me the bezel, I could "Reverse-Engineer" it mechanically and create a 3D CAD-model of the bezel, which in turn could then be used to feed a 3D-printer and have one physically made. And, I have a friend in Florida who runs a "3D Printing" company making specialized parts for aerospace firms. Worth a try, huh???
Here is a 3D CAD-model I created of the typical small VU-meter used in 1U rack-chassis and "500-Series" modules:
(And.....if you look closely at this VU-meter.....you can also see the meter-display glass cover!!! How's that for detail?).
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Disco Volante
Well-known member
I could take your CAD-file and cast or machine it in your favourite alloy... Still cheaper than the Hoyt ones. You'd have to do some fidgety mounting yourself, but that's DIY..
;-)
;-)
MidnightArrakis
Well-known member
>> Are you responding to "ME" or to "StarTrucker"???.....
I don't need an aluminum VU-meter bezel, but I can create a 3D CAD-model of one (as shown above, if I physically had one in my hands to "Reverse-Engineer").
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Disco Volante
Well-known member
I was responding to several me's I guess;-) or maybe my subtle way of suggesting a "joint-forces operation"...
This forum is amazing, the sheer amount of skill and ingenuity in here is baffling.
Cheers, V
This forum is amazing, the sheer amount of skill and ingenuity in here is baffling.
Cheers, V
MidnightArrakis
Well-known member
[This forum is amazing, the sheer amount of skill and ingenuity in here is baffling] -- Baffling? Baffling??? ..... I wouldn't necessarily say that!!! STUNNING??? ..... YEAH!!!.....I certainly would go with that!!! What some of the members on here know about the minutiae of electronic circuits design and theory makes my jaw drop!!!
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I've been unbaffled by this forum many times before and I'm very grateful.
Disco Volante
Well-known member
Thanks for correcting my English;-)) Stunning would obviously be the correct word!
Cheers, V!
(I speak 5 languages, but the analog network retaining all those tiny details is getting older every day...)
Cheers, V!
(I speak 5 languages, but the analog network retaining all those tiny details is getting older every day...)
MidnightArrakis
Well-known member
[Thanks for correcting my English] -- OH!!, CONTRAIRE!!! ..... I wasn't "correcting" your English whatsoever!!! That wasn't the intent of my comment at all. (NOTE: Sometimes attempting to convey certain thoughts and/or feelings through the written word just doesn't work out the way you intended for it to be, ya know???).
However, your use of the word "baffling" may even be possibly correct on some level anyway. The definition of "baffling" is also to -- be confusing -- and I know from some of my own first-hand experiences while reading through some of the threads on here where various "serious and top-level circuit-design members" discuss the parameters to bias a transistor, what effects negative-feedback has on different types of circuitry, how the plate-voltage of a vacuum-tube affects its operation, how the input gain of a mic-preamp is affected by the impedance/turns-ratio of an input transformer and on and on and on and on and on!!! How these members know all of this stuff and all of the minute intricacies of the math involved and such is all >> WAY BEYOND ME!!! << by leaps and bounds!!! Therefore, I am in complete awe and respect of these members on this forum who DO know this stuff!!! And.....as I read through the comments and responses of these "circuit-design members", I am personally left "baffled and confused" as to what it all means because that area is not my forte'. I just take completed schematics and design both the mechanical chassis and the PCB's required to create a "new product". A different expertise.....
"Way Back When" during the 1970's when I would be on a concert stage setting up the microphones, cables and mixing consoles.....I just plugged everything together and it all somehow "just worked". I never gave it any thought of, "GEE!!! If this mic-preamp only had a different input loading impedance I might have been able to get 6dB more gain out of it"!!! Or, "GOSH, GOLLY!!! If these speakers were connected to the amp-racks using 10-GA wire instead of 12-GA wire, then the damping factor of the power-amplifiers would be more effective and the overall PA sound would have been better"!!! NOPE!!! Never gave any of that stuff a thought. I suppose now that I should have, huh???
With you being able to speak 5-languages I know that my lady-friend would -- LOVE -- to have a conversation with you as she is trying to teach herself various Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai) and a bit of Spanish. She's Italian by heritage and is greatly saddened that her "Old Country" parents (direct Italian immigrants through Ellis Island) never taught her their native language. She took and excelled in French when she was in high school to the point that she won a trip to Paris and was totally "gleeful" as she got to be on the Eiffel Tower!!!
So.....I apologize if you thought that I was "correcting" your English. I wasn't at all.
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