H Posted April 28, 2013 Author Posted April 28, 2013 I had a bit of a re-think on the way I was adding components to the main board last night. When I tinned the eyelets, I filled each entire eyelet hole with solder which has proven problematic when trying to load more than one component into an eyelet. I spent a while today removing the solder from the remaining eyelets (leaving them tinned) and loading up the remaining components onto the board. All too quickly, it was lunch time and I had to clear the kitchen table :-/ Still a few components left to load and I've managed to mislay a single resistor so need to buy a pack of 10 of them to complete the board. Next time there'll be ten minutes of soldering components and then the leads to the tubes, pots, etc, will come into play
DetroitBlues Posted May 1, 2013 Posted May 1, 2013 Soooo Close! I can almost smell the tubes heating up!
H Posted May 8, 2013 Author Posted May 8, 2013 Unexpected day off today so I broke out the soldering iron Added the last of the resistors to the power tube sockets, wired up the bias assembly, finished the heater circuit for the power and pre-amp tubes and got the PT wiring hooked up to the rectifier socket. I enjoyed that
H Posted May 8, 2013 Author Posted May 8, 2013 Well, I enjoyed it until I realised I needed to twist the yellow and red pairs from the PT to the rectifier socket. Five minutes and done
Genericmusic Posted May 8, 2013 Posted May 8, 2013 Well, I enjoyed it until I realised I needed to twist the yellow and red pairs from the PT to the rectifier socket. Five minutes and done
yoslate Posted May 9, 2013 Posted May 9, 2013 Looking ab fab, Howard! Can't wait for the first test drive, at speed!
DetroitBlues Posted May 9, 2013 Posted May 9, 2013 The slow process is a killer, especially when all you want to do is crank it up!
H Posted May 9, 2013 Author Posted May 9, 2013 Some more time on the amp guts again today First of all, I twisted up the red and yellow pairs to the rectifier socket. Then I finished off the PT wiring aside from the bit that connects to the power cord. Then I added the lead wires to the capacitor board, fixed it to the underside of the chassis and brought the wires through. I pulled through the wires from the choke and the OT and wired the OT items to the output jacks, etc.
H Posted May 9, 2013 Author Posted May 9, 2013 Same thing for the reverb driver, pulled the leads through and wired them to various places. Finally, I started soldering on the lead wires from the pots (the two volumes receiving special treatment with RG174 spec wire to eliminate oscillation) and from the pre-amp tubes. There are also a few leads that I've started on the component board itself as they'd be difficult to add once I've begun soldering others on.
H Posted May 9, 2013 Author Posted May 9, 2013 This is the home stretch now, I'm about 85% done on soldering After that, unless I've been really thorough, my initial debugging sessions might end with expensive clouds of smoke The bad news is that my next decent run at the amp won't happen for around a week. I might get an hour here or there but I tend to make the best progress with an uninterrupted three or more hour stretch. Yesterday I got four hours, today four and a half. Watch this space - in a couple of weeks it's going to get noisy
Genericmusic Posted May 9, 2013 Posted May 9, 2013 Watch this space - in a couple of weeks it's going to get noisy
CustomEagle Posted May 11, 2013 Posted May 11, 2013 Wish I had seen this thread sooner! You may find that the Sprague "Orange Drop" capacitors sound a little different than a vintage Vibroverb but it's all subjective, that's why this is so much fun! Just out of curiosity, what type of filtering capacitors are you using and what are the voltage ratings? The reason I ask is that for 6L6GC tubes, you're looking at 450-475VDC on the plates. Ideally, you'd want caps rated at 500WVDC but the schematic actually shows 450WVDC. In your pictures, those capacitors look a little small to be rated at 450 but it's hard to tell from a picture. I can tell you from personal experience that if the filter caps aren't rated at the proper voltage they'll fail fairly quickly. Again, I wish I had seen this sooner... Your soldering and prep work is very good! Best of luck on the rest of the project!
H Posted May 11, 2013 Author Posted May 11, 2013 Hi Andy, the filter caps are TAD 16uF and are rated at 475V. They are well within spec for the build - as you mentioned, I've done plenty of prep work! It's a Vibrolux Reverb, not a Vibroverb, so not so much power on tap. I used Sprague Orange Drops in my 5E3 build and they did the job well. They're easy to get hold of here and not too expensive. This build is correct to the AA964 schematic but there are several components (speakers mainly) which will make mine not sound 'vintage' - it doesn't bother me too much as long as it gets in the territory I did a bit more today: all the leads from the component board are now attached and just need hooking up to the pots and jacks. I'm missing a 10nF ceramic disc cap which is now on order, as is the reverb pan. Nice to hear we have another amp builder on the forum
noonesperfect Posted May 11, 2013 Posted May 11, 2013 Where did you gain the knowledge (and cojones) to build your own amp? Your narrative here is really impressive. Brad
H Posted May 12, 2013 Author Posted May 12, 2013 Where did you gain the knowledge (and cojones) to build your own amp? Your narrative here is really impressive. Brad The knowledge came (and comes) from extensive reading, YouTube videos and making mistakes that I have to put right I built a 5E3, including the cab, and documented it here about two years ago. That was my first build and I was more scared of cutting the wood than the soldering, etc Here it is: There were three reasons for that build: - I wanted a hand-wired 5E3 - I wanted to make one myself - I wanted to show other people on the forum that with care and planning even a woodwork and electronics novice like me can make a good amp. Glad you're enjoying the thread - keep watching, there's still a way to go yet
bolero Posted May 12, 2013 Posted May 12, 2013 this is very cool!! thx for taking the time to take pics & document etc
H Posted May 12, 2013 Author Posted May 12, 2013 Well well well! An outdoor plan we had for today was abandoned due to heavy rain here, so I got a few more unexpected hours in. The soldering work is now complete! All leads patched into the main board, etc. I'm happy with my lead dress and quality of soldering. I've rechecked all the connections against the layout and all are present and solid. She's looking good OK, I lied - I still have one component to solder onto the main board but that's not due to arrive until Tuesday earliest I may also add the jack earths onto the earth bus wire if I get bored I also have an outstanding query with ClassicTone regarding the PT wires; I'm not certain about the bias board wire nor which wires should go to earth and which require soldering to a blind tag strip. This PT has taps for 100, 120, 220, 230 and 240V - that's a lot of spare wires!! Until I have a definitive answer, I'm not even going to think about powering it up.
gpuma Posted May 13, 2013 Posted May 13, 2013 Well well well! An outdoor plan we had for today was abandoned due to heavy rain here, so I got a few more unexpected hours in. Rain? In the UK? How could those extra hours be unexpected? Fantastic work H! Keep it up... (can't wait for clips)
H Posted May 13, 2013 Author Posted May 13, 2013 The reverb tank arrived today so I fitted it. I remembered to remove the foam packing before screwing it to the base of the cab
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