have parts, will construct!

[MLVA123]

Ok, so I ordered trannys and chassis from Angela on Wednesday, and received them Thursday! Nice turnaround, eh? Beats the snot outta HWT, from what I've read here.
Came home from work today and had my ST35 box waiting for me. Nice manual, Shannon, and the board looks sweet! Went on mouser and ordered parts using the BOM and manually added stuff from the top of page 2 of the parts list. The big orange caps are back-ordered though.

Alas, I forgot to include the tubes and tube sockets. Where's the best place to get them?

[DG]

Angela again :-) .... or maybe AES (www.tubesandmore.com). They usually have all the new production tubes they carry in stock as well as the tube sockets. Their NOS selection is kinda dwindling over the last couple of years though.

Ned at Triode electronics is always great to buy from too. I've never bought sockets from him but I assume he has those as well.

[Shannon Parks]

Ned and AES both stock the 9-pin ceramic PCB socket for $1.95 each (the one with a 13/16" tail diameter). Both have super deals (and nice variety) of all the tubes.
Angela is now my favorite Hammond depo, but for the life of me, I can't find decent 6BQ5/EL84 prices on the site. Am I missing it somewhere? Also, the 9-pin PCB sockets that Angela stocks look to be the same footprint as the Chinese ceramic ones, and are touted as:

Made in Japan for ultra High End audio gear and the most discerning tube audio hobbyists, Angela sockets are among the very best you can buy.

The problem with these is that they have a solid brass center post which needs to be removed with a Dremel tool (to be seated on the PCB). $4.75 each, too. Too much work for me (and $$$).

Shannon

[Guest]

Sloooowly getting the remaining parts to come in. Yesterday, I was met by a little brown box from Triode electronics, containing my tubes, sockets, jacks, and binding posts. (I really liked the ones in audioray's pics on the site - they looked soopadeeelux!).
So as soon as my mouser box gets here, I can start - wooot! 8)

Question: How did audioray get that nice red look w/ pinstripes on his chassis? Is it some sort of self-adhering vinyl covering? I definitely like that better than the aluminum look.

[EWBrown]

I find Angiie has the best transformer prices (of course, AFTER I got some form AES) and yes, I'm STILL waiting on HWT to come across, going on ten weeks now. I have gotten some "encouraging" e-mail and promises, but then those don't match up to EL84s too well... :x


I get my tubes from AES, on E-bay, at local swapmeets, etc, and if the "orange drop" caps are on backorder too long, AES does carry them.
Could be all us ampbuilders depleted Mouser's stock :twisted:

/ed Brown in NH

[EWBrown]

I would SWAG that the AudioRay used red enamel paint, and vinyl press-on pinstripes. However he did it, his amps look great, and definitely original.

Hammond has steel chassis pre-painted in gray and black enamel, I'll be going for black on a couple of 17 X 10 X 3 chassis and bottom covers.
Steel is a little harder to work, but is a lot more solid for mounting those heavy transformers. I started out planning to usae 12 X 8 X 3 aluminum,
it will fit, but I want things a little more spread out, and the extra strentgh.
The aluminum chassis will end up on small SE amps or something else.

/ed B in NH

[Shannon Parks]

I'll email AudioRay and see if he'll post some of techniques. He definately is talented when it comes to making a chassis from scratch - a true DIYer.

As far as Mouser depleted stock, in general, just drop me an email and we can try a substitute. Back-ordered parts could arrive a day later than the rest but also I had to wait a month because of a back-order on binding posts once (the gray ones which I originally used). Everything can be subbed. The 10W resistor can be subbed to one value higher, for example. Coupling caps can be bought from all the tube resellers as EW mentions. I'm thinking of creating a carbon film resistor parts list for those interested - let me know.

Shannon

[EWBrown]

When I ordered the small parts (resistors, caps, hardware) I took the parts list and multiplied X5, just to have extras on hand, as most of the values are usable in other circuits I'm working on.
Subbed 18 PF for the 20 pF micas, and 47ohm 10W for the 50 ohm, 10 watts, and 1.02K for the 1K, just so I wouldn't have to wait for backorders.

Also worked up a BOM for the Dynaco ST-70 PC3 replacement board (original Dyna design copy) but have not yet ordered, that is AFTER I get the 35s working, and have gotten the ST-70 thoroughly checked out.

Just getting over a case of "the shingles" (chicken pox "replay") which has sidelined me for a few weeks, I can make it to my work OK, but I'm pretty well zonked by the time I get home in the evening, so progress on anything has been, well, nonexistant.
Probably a few more weeks before i'm back to 100%.

/ed Brown in NH

[Shannon Parks]

Ed,
I can feel for you. I had shingles a couple years ago and it felt like I'd been in a real, bad fight where I'd been kicked by a bunch of thugs in my side - for a month. :x
Get well, my friend!

Shannon

[MLVA123]

Firstly, Ed: GET WELL SOON!
The mouser box came in late last week, and has sat lonely on top of all the other boxes since I've been painting and working on the other honey-do list things that buy me the necessary time to work on MY projects!

I have carved out time on Saturday to go over to a friends house and start on chassis layout and drilling, and maybe even some component stuffing. Shannon, did you ever get around to putting the template drawing done? It would certainly be a time-saver and prevent me from having to go buy graph paper! Ha!

-Michael

[Shannon Parks]

Michael,
I have the template done, but want to check it a final time for errors tonight - measure *thrice*, cut once. :)
Whoever uses it first, please double check it with the board laying on top and let us know. BTW, it's not to scale of course - it just lists the dimensions in mils.
Thanks,
Shannon