For the last few days I’ve been applying oil to the SET chassis. It now has four coats of oil, cured and buffed out. There’s only one decision left for the chassis.
Continue readingTag Archives: Chassis
Overlapping Projects and Getting Things Done
This afternoon I’ve been working on another amplifier project. This particular one is the 6L6 SE-UL for which some readers have been looking since I published my Optimization of the 6L6 SE-UL page back in March of 2019. I recently realized that it had been three years since I published that data set and that it was probably time for me to get the project started. So this afternoon I’ve been investigating driver stages for the amp.
Continue reading6AS7 SET Finally Starts to Move Forward
It looks like the weather has finally broken here at CascadeTubes and spring has arrived. Yesterday, the 6AS7 SET chassis got its first coat of oil. The purple heart used for this chassis is definitely much deeper in tone than that used on the The 6DJ8 Headphone Amp.
Continue readingThe Color Preamp Tales of Woe
As you may know I’ve been waiting on components to finish my “Color Preamp”. I thought that I’d have my output coupling capacitors by now, but I was mistaken. It seems that my parts supplier, after promising to get the parts right out to me, spent three days trying to find the parts in their warehouse, then sent me a refund. But I thought I’d outsmarted them.
Continue readingQuick Project for the Preformed Chassis
Since I’m still waiting for appropriate weather to finish the 6AS7 SET chassis, I’ve been making progress on a small project for the aluminum chassis from the last post. I decided to put together the “Color” preamp from the post a few days ago. This project will make use of one of the Hammond discount power transformers about which I posted a couple of weeks ago. It’s coming along well, but VERY slowly.
Continue readingAmp Chassis Options
While waiting for appropriate temperatures to paint and apply oil finishes, I’ve been working on a simple preamp project. It’s only a handful of parts and to avoid complications with finishing a handmade chassis, I decided to use a preformed aluminum project box I had sitting on my shelf. I quickly regretted that decision.
Continue readingAt the Assembly Crossroads
I’m working on two projects simultaneously right now; the 6AS7 SET and the Triode Test Jig. In the last couple of days I’ve made progress on both. However now I appear to be at an impasse.
Continue readingMuch Better Patina This Time
It’s been a tense couple of days waiting for the patina to set on the 6AS7 SET top plate. But I just placed the copper on the chassis and it looks great!
Continue readingThe SET Moves Forward
With the return of some more normal weather here I got the chance to work on the SET chassis today. Specifically I got the bare copper plates chemically treated for the patina for which I was looking. They look good. Or, more accurately, they look just the way I imagined when I first thought of doing this. I’m very happy with the results.
Continue readingThe “Indulgence”
When I talked about designing the Dual Triode Test Jig in the “More on Tube Testing” post I mentioned an indulgence. Well the results are in.
Continue readingCompeting Priorities
I’m now just shy of ten weeks into my new routine and there are a lot of projects vying for my time and attention. This situation has made it difficult to make serious progress on my 6AS7 SET project.
Continue readingBack to Work
The Christmas break saw me very busy with tasks other than amp building. So the new SET is a little behind schedule. In spite of it supposedly being a “quiet” Christmas with just immediate family, I ended up tackling several small projects which I had been putting off and I helped my daughter move. And of course I was back at work this week as well. Now that doesn’t mean that I got nothing accomplished, it just means that things are progressing slower than anticipated. This is where I’m at:
Continue readingThe New SET is Finally Set
No, really, it is. I swear. This time I’m sure!
Continue readingBump In The Road
So I took some time the other day and got all the purple heart planed to thickness and ready to go for the new SET amp. Then, when I was checking all the layouts, I discovered a problem.
Continue readingFinally, A Decision
Well, it took a while but I’ve finally settled on the wood for the new amp chassis. I had narrowed the decision down to either the Purple Heart as I used in The 6DJ8 Headphone Amp or the Wenge that I used in the Dummy Speaker Load. So I took a careful look at both previous projects.
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