Head Cabinet Started

A good friend of a friend that owns a cabinet shop out here in South West Missouri spent a little time and built me a really nice head. I would have not been able to do as good as job.

Thanks Ed!

Parts order #4 Mouser

AHHHH more parts. This is my latest parts order from Mouser.

Light bulb current limiter

After a trip to Lowes and scrounging around in the garage the limiter is built. When first powering on a newly built amplifier, use a bulb limiter or Variac. It will keep you from destroying some very expensive parts if there is any problem with your amp. The picture shows a 75-100 watt lamp, but I typically use a 25-60 watt to start with. If there's something wrong with an amp, it will draw too much current and the light bulb will blow. But it's better to blow a light bulb then a $150 transformer.
Variac, or variable autotransformer, is a device to vary the output voltage from a steady AC input voltage (wall outlet voltage). It can maintain a steady voltage during a wide range of load conditions, allowing for very smooth variable control of voltage.

http://tubenewbie.com/light_bulb_current_limiter.html

Update

Well I recieved the McMaster Carr order in today which was several spools of hook up wire. This allowed me to put the finishing touches on the turret board. I also placed another Mouser order last night for switches, fuses, etc.....

Parts order #3

Parts ordered from McMaster Carr
20 AWG, UL1015, 600 VAC solid hook up wire
Black
Red
White
Yellow
Green
Orange

Chassie Prep.

Chassie primed and ready for turret board and paint.

Turret board fitted to chassie.

Chassie painted.

Circut Board complete

Well my Mouser Inc. parts came in yesterday. Populating the turret board has begun. After a few hours of work yesterday and today I have been able to complete placing all of the capacitors, resistors and diodes onto the turret board.

RUNNING TOTALS

10-22-2009 HOFFMAN AMPLIFIERS $31.14 ($6.95shipping incl. in cost)

10-29-2009 MOUSER ELECTRONICS $43.77 ($6.45 shipping incl in cost)

11-07-2009 McMaster Carr $31.07 ($9.25 shipping incl in cost)

Parts order #2

This order was from Mouser Electronics. These parts will populate the turret board along with all of the potentiometers. Potentiometers will be used for volume,bass,treble and gain etc. There will be more orders from Mouser but I am breaking it up in chunks to distribute costs. So now that the turret board is finished I am waiting for this order to come in to progress further.

Turret assembly part 1

1. Blank garolite board (turret board)

2. Taped the layout to the board and used it as a drilling guide. Layout was drawn in a cad program at a 1:1 scale.

3. Drilling through the paper template into the garolite board with a 3/32" drill bit. This is the correct size for the turret to fit through. I used a speed square as a straight edge as a back stop to drill the holes nice and straight.

4. Holes drilled

5. Labeled the bottom of the turret board. I wanted to make sure I didnt put the turrets on the wrong side of the board.

5. To install the turrets I used a staking tool I got from Hoffman Amps. It consists of two bolts, one with a hole down the shaft to accept a turret and the other has a point on it to flare out the lug. The drill press was used as a light duty press. It was able to supply enough force to swage the turret

6. Top view of installed turret

7. Bottom view of installed turret

8. Finished turret board.

Turret Parts arrived today

The turret parts from Hoffman Amplifiers arrived today.

1. Garolite turret board 12" x 3"

2. Turret lugs

3. Turret lug installation tool

4. 3/32 drill bit

High Octane Guitar Amplifier Build

I have decided to build an all tube guitar amplifier. The Hi Octane is an amp designed by the folks at AX84.com. It consists of a high gain preamp, a 3 band eq and a single EL84 power tube which is cathode biased and delivers 5-7 watts of power. I hope the project will be a great learning experience which will offer many challenges and rewards, as well as a rockin' amp!

I have started this blog to cronical the process of the build.



http://www.ampage.org/homebrew.cgi?cat=ga&sb=&so=hl&page=1042746110Tgexode

Follow the link above and click on projects then high octane.

Initial posting

Well Here I am sitting in the recliner recovering from neck surgery, Anterior Cervical Discectomy with Fusion to be exact. It has been 8 days since the surgery and I am feeling great.