Scary things that happen to your projects & t-nuts are evil

World would be in a better place if we remove t-nuts from the earth.

Today is Halloween, and lets start with some scary pictures of my DIY projects.

First up is, what happens to the PCB when your solder iron goes bad.


I can look at that and be proud of myself that I got the thing working.
It wasn't always like that. More like... ...
This was my first PSU (power supply), and being new to the game, I made some errors.
Having the solder iron go down did not help.

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Next up. T-nuts. This happened yesterday.
Last year I bought a custom speaker cabinet. The manufacturer did not send me the screws to use.
I didn't know what size, so I tried a couple. It is possible during this time, some of the t-nuts came loose.
Unbeknownst to me, this open a portal from hell to let demons out and possess my speaker.
Fast forward a year and while playing bass, the low G note. Not a string, but a note, and the speaker makes an
annoying rattle/harmonics/resonate sound. Yuck.
As I try to locate the sound source, I noticed the t-nuts loose. Could this be it?
There is only one way to fix this problem. Tear apart the cabinet.


I had no choice. Did I want to do a half ass job or do I want to do it right?
While the grill cloth was on, I could not verify what the problem was. Tearing if off helped me see what is going on.
I know NOW, I could have kept it on, but still would have damaged the cloth with all the hammering.
Bought new T-nuts, hammered them in with glue, and used new screws. This better work.


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Nearfield monitors are awful. Time to build new ones.
Bought speakers and crossovers from madisound and speaker cabinet from parts-express.
It is my job to make the holes in the cab.
Being new to this router thing, I tested it out on scrap wood first.
When it came time to do the real job. I accidentally positioned the peg wrong. Ooops. Live and learn.



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Wire bundle.








Do you have any pictures of your work place that is scary looking?
Is there a fire waiting to happen?

Please post.

No scary stories...I see you have a Trio pre...and is that a Slave pwr amp above it ?
I have two Trios (used to have three !) ...and a slave, I like 'em



T-nuts installs can be an art , especially if the speaker hole is cut even a tad large.
Mounting drivers properly is a task well worth done well .

...keep rubbing those rocks together
regards,
Elwood

No scary stories...I see you have a Trio pre...and is that a Slave pwr amp above it ?
I have two Trios (used to have three !) ...and a slave, I like 'em

...keep rubbing those rocks together
regards,
Elwood

Rocks?

Yes, that is the Trio, and up above is the matching Dual-75. Absolutely no plans on selling either of them, they are keepers. To me, they are the standard I am to build all my amps to. Though, the clean channel on the Trio is awesome, the scream is a bit fuzzy for me.

Here is my version of a triple pre-amp. Parts bought from Londonpower.

This one is much better. It has a fender clean, marshall mean, and a high gain scream, sometime in the future, I'll add the trio clean.

Rocks?

That was a vague reference to a quote from "HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy" ,
a compassionate poke at the frustration involved in the learning curves we encounter as humans.

Love the Homespun gear !! I might have to get my feet wet, londonpower seems like it could be a good option,
thanks for sharing !!

I like the size of the chassis you're working with, you could park a car in there! I've had the same problem with T-nuts, they're very annoying.

Do you have any pictures of your work place that is scary looking?
Is there a fire waiting to happen?

1) Yes
2) Possibly
Below is a Weber 'Tweed Bandmaster' kit I'm putting together, my first attempt at building an amp. It's been shelved for the last few weeks/months and I won't get a chance to finish it off until December. The problem here is the size of the chassis - it's barely wide enough to accommodate the board without cables coming off the ends of it, so it's going to be an absolute PITA to shoe-horn it all in there.

The chance of fire is raised significantly depending on whether I've read the transformer specs correctly or not - if I've wired it for 110V it'll catch fire about 2 seconds after hooking it up to the 240V coming out of the sockets down here...

Here is a front pic of the londonpower triple preamp.

If you ever owned a GrooveTube Trio, this is my attempt to mimic it.
Except mine will have 4 channels, and the send/return knobs from the effects loop will be put in front with another level knob.
Before I get there I have other fish to fry.

Jamie, this is all a learning process.
My first attempt was like you. Too small of a chassis.


My fingers could not move in there. Very hard to work with.
Hammond makes the large 17.5 x 11 x 3.5 (i think). It is what I am using now and what is really cool is having to buy replacement parts is easy. They don't sell the sides or lid, but they do sell the front and back panels separate, which is cool, because there is 99% of the chassis work.

I made some more modifications to the preamp since then.
Here it is now. Everything works like before.

Last edited by meowmix on Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Below is a Weber 'Tweed Bandmaster' kit I'm putting together, my first attempt at building an amp.

That is pretty cool. Easy for them to sell the parts and have you do the chassis work.
I can understand why you run out of space so easily. You are building both the preamp and power into one.
Mine are separate, it makes life easier to swap out preamps.

The chance of fire is raised significantly depending on whether I've read the transformer specs correctly or not - if I've wired it for 110V it'll catch fire about 2 seconds after hooking it up to the 240V coming out of the sockets down here...

Jamie, don't you have a fuse in there to prevent this from ever happening?
I think I have blown over 20 fuses during my builds. lol.

Kevin puts in the 115/240 switch in his power supply. I doubt my amp will ever make it to Canada.

I can't believe how expensive that switch is. $5. Then again, C&K makes some excellent parts.

Here is my Bass preamp I built a couple of days ago. I used mostly old parts to test it.
Eventually I will find a better home for it, but it is good to know it works.


Here is my first power amp

This too is working. I need to add the PowerScaling function. Notice both transformers are outside. Both of them would not fit inside, and this amp is built specifically for EL-84s. Oh, just in case you are wondering. All those wire will be tucked away and trimmed when I finish how I want everything set up. I keep things flexible until it is time to bolt the thing down.

Those Toriodal Transformers are funny creatures. Great for inside, but trying to find a metal housing for them is a crap shoot at best. Here I bought from antec a cover. Turns out it won't fit.

Stainless Steel metal bowls from the 99 cent store will have to do.

Last edited by meowmix on Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

my first attempt at building an amp.

This is my first attempt too.
You start off small....
Install Power supply. Test the heater voltage and the V+.
Everything good, go to next step.

Add the line out.
Here is that pic. 2 simple parts and I can play guitar through it. The sound has no character but it works.
Then I go to the next step, and on and on it goes.
imo, the amp your building it all at once. It must be difficult to test each part before moving on to the next.
I hope you stand 10 feet away when you turn that thing on for the first time. (that's what I do )

Jamie, don't you have a fuse in there to prevent this from ever happening?
I think I have blown over 20 fuses during my builds. lol.

Its fused, but I'm unsure as to whether it'd blow before doing at least a bit of damage. I once plugged a 110V wall-wart in to see what happened and the thing went up in a plume of smoke in no time flat
I'm actually considering getting another chassis, the one they provide is seriously small. I've seen some neat Weber kit builds, but I'm not that neat to begin with