Yesterday I did the final metal fitting and drilled the mounting holes in the metal pieces. This allowed me to finish up all the marking and drilling on the wood chassis. This morning I applied the first coat of oil to the spalted alder. It looks very good.
Continue readingI’ve been on vacation for the last couple of weeks but I’m back now and ready to get moving on the 6L6 SE-UL amplifier.
Continue readingI have finally finished cutting and marking all the metal for the new amp. Now comes the long process of getting all the pieces drilled and finished.
Continue readingToday I finished putting the final shaping details on the 6L6 SE-UL spalted alder chassis. All it needs now is a final sanding and the oil finish.
Continue readingToday I made my final decisions about which piece of wood would go in each position and orientation. This amp chassis is going to be a work of art!
Continue readingThis morning the power transformer for the 6L6 SE-UL arrived from Edcor. And even more importantly, I’ve got the spalted alder converted to dimensional boards. Now I just need to select what goes where and I can begin milling the chassis.
Continue readingI just got a notification from Edcor. The power transformer I ordered for the 6L6/KT88 SE-UL Amplifier on the 2nd of May (just 9 days ago) shipped today! I thought I was going to have a lot more time to get the spalted alder chassis into shape.
Continue readingI added a note to the end of the 6AS7 “Purpleheart” SET amplifier page concerning power tube variability and their use in this amp.
Continue readingI’ve been making an effort this morning to get my head around the internal layout of the 6L6 SE-UL amplifier. Unfortunately, I keep being stymied by the sheer physical size of many of the components.
Continue readingEven though I’m waiting on a power transformer and some oversized components for the 6L6 SE-UL amp that doesn’t mean that all progress has come to a standstill. The new amp needs a chassis. And a new chassis means it’s lumber selection time.
Continue readingYou may have noticed a change to the CascadeTubes home page this morning. Things have moved around a little bit.
Continue readingThe gear switching I’ve been doing on this rainy afternoon has been putting the 6AS7 “Purpleheart” SET in the “finished” column of the ledger and getting to work on the upcoming 6L6 SE-UL amp. And I’ve already run into a delay.
Continue readingYesterday, after setting the B+ and installing the power supply dropping resistor, I tried out the 6AS7 SET. To say that I am pleased would be an understatement.
Continue readingI first announced this SET on September 18th, 2020. It’s only taken me about 19 months to get to this point. To be fair, that 19 months was fairly eventful, including both my retirement and much of the COVID madness. But tomorrow, the slow methodical process of testing can finally begin.
Continue readingAlthough sometimes it may take a little disturbance to the system, as it turns out, you can teach an old dog new tricks.
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