Metalwork - Lathe and Mill topics: July 2026

Thursday, 16 July 2026

Re: [Amateur-repairs] Test Equipment Question

May I safely presume your new system relies on present "equipment" in ones home hobby shop? (your comment " depending on how much ancillary equipment you might already have."

How does your system depend of the accuracy and repeatability of those existing equipment?

As a retired developer, I have an extensive collection of electronic test equipment...some quite expensive for it's day, but all out of calibration and likely specifications.

What does your new system bring the hobbyist that a $200 China built LCR doesn't?

Terry WA7LGY

On 7/15/2026 2:03 PM, K8BYP via groups.io wrote:

Since the Users here are more 'hands on...'

I have developed a very low cost L-C-R test system that can measure

down to 5 decimal place resolution and about 0.1 % accuracy.

AT RF FREQUENCY

Commercial units are on the order of $5,000 - 20,000 USD for a few MHz test frequency.

My system should be able to go VHF, but I haven't verified that.

Is this of any use to the Amateur world?

Cost "guess," $200 - 2000 USD, depending on how much ancillary equipment you might already have.

Dave K8BYP

Re: [Amateur-repairs] Test Equipment Question

"Chimichanga..." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Whats really annoying about "that" equipment, the new omron etc cookie cutter digital boxes, is that they have high end features, hidden in SW. If one only had the unlock codes!

Re equipment, nice assortment, good engineering economy. Yes, agreed as to class of buyer; you self identify as an engineer, the vast majority of 'us' today have no clue what that equipment is for.

Id likely not go for $2000 either, since I have little need for this. But for what need theres been, nothing can replace it.

The $20,000 USD, 8 MHz LCR box cant find self resonances at 41 MHz...( Why doesnt my new circuit work???)

On Thursday, July 16, 2026, Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z via groups.io <sohosources=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

OP: As a hobby ham engineer: At $200? You bet. At $2000? Never. :) Well, unless I win the lottery. My LCR is a DE-5000 (bought for $110, now about $200). I have scopes and a spectrum analyzer that a very generous Santa gave me in 2014. I have a GPS-disciplined counter from 1975. I have a Chimichanga-brand signal gen, plus some vintage signal generators for fun. I have a couple late '70s HP benchtop DMMs that still spec well.

For my "class" of potential buyer I think I'm fairly typical. Although your instrument sounds fantastic, I don't see myself paying more than $200 for one, as my needs and finances probably don't support it.

So, here's my vote for the $200 price point! :)

Regards,

Kirk, NT0Z

Rochester, MN

My book, "Stealth Amateur Radio," is now available from www.stealthamateur.com and on the Amazon Kindle (soon)

On Wednesday, July 15, 2026 at 05:14:03 PM CDT, K8BYP via groups.io <davecbyp=gmail.com@groups.io> wrote:

Very good insider info. Such is used in quartz crystal manufacturing for production testing but such co's wouldnt want my approximation of test eq, they have money for real equipment.
A TW XTAL house sent me a prototype crystal run with QA data to 6 d.p., so thats beat my meager attempt by quite a bit. That was SSB filter XTALS for the Drake TR rigs.

Such gear is so far beyond most Amateur uses I cant imagine who'd want it. Ive used it to exactly verify network calculations and components, but how often is that done?

An inexpensive Nano could be used for general testing but a VNA isnt really suitable for that, it expects a characteristic R-50 termination.

Most of my testing is with a B&K 5.5 digit DMM to measure a capacitor, and resonant circuit with an AWG and MW diode probe (10 USD), to calculate inductor values. But thats $1000 USD in gear.

The B&K handheld LCR Meters are now up to 500 USD, but not great for RF use.

????

On Wednesday, July 15, 2026, David VK2CZ via groups.io <16240244c1=gmail.com@groups.io> wrote:

Hello Dave,

Your development sounds very interesting. Having spent 10 years of my career in manufacturing a significant amount of RF systems with NEC and Ericsson, component validation was only sampled using frequencies up to 5kHz.. we relied heavy on manufacturer QA.

If was to assess say a resistor at say 50Mhz, I'd probably use a component jig with a network analyzer.. then of course using kelvin clips become useless..

That said, still thinking of possible applications.

David VK2CZ

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Re: [Amateur-repairs] Test Equipment Question

OP: As a hobby ham engineer: At $200? You bet. At $2000? Never. :) Well, unless I win the lottery. My LCR is a DE-5000 (bought for $110, now about $200). I have scopes and a spectrum analyzer that a very generous Santa gave me in 2014. I have a GPS-disciplined counter from 1975. I have a Chimichanga-brand signal gen, plus some vintage signal generators for fun. I have a couple late '70s HP benchtop DMMs that still spec well.

For my "class" of potential buyer I think I'm fairly typical. Although your instrument sounds fantastic, I don't see myself paying more than $200 for one, as my needs and finances probably don't support it.

So, here's my vote for the $200 price point! :)

Regards,

Kirk, NT0Z

Rochester, MN

My book, "Stealth Amateur Radio," is now available from www.stealthamateur.com and on the Amazon Kindle (soon)

On Wednesday, July 15, 2026 at 05:14:03 PM CDT, K8BYP via groups.io <davecbyp=gmail.com@groups.io> wrote:

Very good insider info. Such is used in quartz crystal manufacturing for production testing but such co's wouldnt want my approximation of test eq, they have money for real equipment.

A TW XTAL house sent me a prototype crystal run with QA data to 6 d.p., so thats beat my meager attempt by quite a bit. That was SSB filter XTALS for the Drake TR rigs.

Such gear is so far beyond most Amateur uses I cant imagine who'd want it. Ive used it to exactly verify network calculations and components, but how often is that done?

An inexpensive Nano could be used for general testing but a VNA isnt really suitable for that, it expects a characteristic R-50 termination.

Most of my testing is with a B&K 5.5 digit DMM to measure a capacitor, and resonant circuit with an AWG and MW diode probe (10 USD), to calculate inductor values. But thats $1000 USD in gear.

The B&K handheld LCR Meters are now up to 500 USD, but not great for RF use.

????

On Wednesday, July 15, 2026, David VK2CZ via groups.io <16240244c1=gmail.com@groups.io> wrote:

Hello Dave,

Your development sounds very interesting. Having spent 10 years of my career in manufacturing a significant amount of RF systems with NEC and Ericsson, component validation was only sampled using frequencies up to 5kHz.. we relied heavy on manufacturer QA.

If was to assess say a resistor at say 50Mhz, I'd probably use a component jig with a network analyzer.. then of course using kelvin clips become useless..

That said, still thinking of possible applications.

David VK2CZ

Wednesday, 15 July 2026

Re: [Amateur-repairs] Test Equipment Question

Very good insider info. Such is used in quartz crystal manufacturing for production testing but such co's wouldnt want my approximation of test eq, they have money for real equipment.

A TW XTAL house sent me a prototype crystal run with QA data to 6 d.p., so thats beat my meager attempt by quite a bit. That was SSB filter XTALS for the Drake TR rigs.

Such gear is so far beyond most Amateur uses I cant imagine who'd want it. Ive used it to exactly verify network calculations and components, but how often is that done?

An inexpensive Nano could be used for general testing but a VNA isnt really suitable for that, it expects a characteristic R-50 termination.

????

On Wednesday, July 15, 2026, David VK2CZ via groups.io <16240244c1=gmail.com@groups.io> wrote:

Hello Dave,

Your development sounds very interesting. Having spent 10 years of my career in manufacturing a significant amount of RF systems with NEC and Ericsson, component validation was only sampled using frequencies up to 5kHz.. we relied heavy on manufacturer QA.

If was to assess say a resistor at say 50Mhz, I'd probably use a component jig with a network analyzer.. then of course using kelvin clips become useless..

That said, still thinking of possible applications.

David VK2CZ

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Re: [Amateur-repairs] Test Equipment Question

Hello Dave,

Your development sounds very interesting. Having spent 10 years of my career in manufacturing a significant amount of RF systems with NEC and Ericsson, component validation was only sampled using frequencies up to 5kHz.. we relied heavy on manufacturer QA.

If was to assess say a resistor at say 50Mhz, I'd probably use a component jig with a network analyzer.. then of course using kelvin clips become useless..

That said, still thinking of possible applications.

David VK2CZ

_._,_._,_

Groups.io Links:

You receive all messages sent to this group.

_._,_._,_

[Amateur-repairs] Test Equipment Question

Since the Users here are more 'hands on...'

I have developed a very low cost L-C-R test system that can measure

down to 5 decimal place resolution and about 0.1 % accuracy.

AT RF FREQUENCY

Commercial units are on the order of $5,000 - 20,000 USD for a few MHz test frequency.

My system should be able to go VHF, but I haven't verified that.

Is this of any use to the Amateur world?

Cost "guess," $200 - 2000 USD, depending on how much ancillary equipment you might already have.

Dave K8BYP

_._,_._,_

Groups.io Links:

You receive all messages sent to this group.

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