Any problem with building an all-wood cabinet?

[hembrook]

I like the way a classic metal plate on a wood base looks, but I don't really see a reason shy I could not build the whole shebang on a wooden box, correct? Is there any grounding/shielding considerations to take into account? Thanks.

Robert

[mesherm]

I have built amps in chassis made entirely of lexan plastic and had no shielding/grounding issues. One thing I did was to put a solder lug under one screw of each of the transformers and daisy-chained them to ground. As long as you pay attention to star grounding and wire routing you should have no trouble with a non-conductive chassis. Keep in mind that a lot of input and speaker jacks and potentiometers have limited threaded length since they are usually meant for metal panels.

[hembrook]

I will have to take care with certain switches, jacks, etc. This is true. I run into the same issues with guitar building. Luckily there are specialist shops that can hook a brother up.

Thanks for the feedback!

Robert,
Mannheim

[terrydaniel]

You know, I've been looking very seriously at old silverware chests. They run 3-4 inches high, in various sizes suitable for an amplifier, are quite well made of nice wood (walnut, rosewood, maple, etc), and can be had for $5-10 at your local antique mall. I'm thinking just gorilla glue the lid to the base and whack out the bottom. They generally have velvet glued to interior, so rip that out and glue pieces of blank PCB on the inside, copper side out for a ground plane. Jacks, posts, etc. expect a thinner material for mounting. You could cut "cartouches" out of an old PC case for this, and paint/veneer them. I can't see where it wouldn't look and perform just like uptown. I will probably build my SET this way.

[Vince]

Now that is "out of the box" thinking!!! Love it. Vince

[EWBrown]

One of the folks over at Bottlehead built up a shunt-feed, parallel feed 45 amp (a variant of the Paramour II 2A3 SET amp) on an all wooden enclosure.

Outside view:

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/bottl ... 24072.html

Under the hood:

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/bottl ... 24073.html

This is definitely a strong and serious contender for the highly vaunted "Pounds per Watt" DIY amp category Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_06

/ed B in NH

[crispycircuit]

Metal cab offer shielding from 60 cycle hum (house wiring) and block RF (CB radios, Computers, radio stations,etc).... Wood does NOT offer shielding.... Happy Holidays to all!!!

[77seriesIII]

Maybe wrap it in tinfoil! I think there was a good site:

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

[crispycircuit]

An excellent site! Yes there was this lady in town that wore an aluminum pot on her head so you couldn't read her mind. She also had 20 locks on 1 door. Everyone took good care of her, got her new pots for xmas..... So yes shielding is important. ...

[wiredbecker]

You know, I've been looking very seriously at old silverware chests. They run 3-4 inches high, in various sizes suitable for an amplifier, are quite well made of nice wood (walnut, rosewood, maple, etc), and can be had for $5-10 at your local antique mall. I'm thinking just gorilla glue the lid to the base and whack out the bottom. They generally have velvet glued to interior, so rip that out and glue pieces of blank PCB on the inside, copper side out for a ground plane. Jacks, posts, etc. expect a thinner material for mounting. You could cut "cartouches" out of an old PC case for this, and paint/veneer them. I can't see where it wouldn't look and perform just like uptown. I will probably build my SET this way.

Now this I wanna see. I like the way you think. If it were me, I'd try to preserve the cool cantilevered top for easy tweaking access. Just loosen two bolts and voila! the whole complex apparatus flips up allowing you to get at the guts. Bottom of the chest could be counterweighted with the transformers so it doesn't flip over while you're having a cursory look.

You could do a Halloween themed amp because, correct me if I'm wrong, this looks kind of like a coffin. It's late, I don't know what I'm saying.



You could retain the drawer and turn it into a kind of PCI slot, with easily swappable parts. Wait no, cooling fans sucking in cool air form below. I'm gonna stop now.

[SDS-PAGE]

Don't forget that many baking trays make good chassis too. They are available at any local grocery stores. Also, I have seen some people turn their Apple computer into a fish tank. I bet you could do the same for an amp, w/o fish and water, of course.

[parabellum]

I wish I thought of silverware chests before I broke my back making a wooden chassis from scratch. That was the biggest pain in the ass ever!

[nyazzip]

one practical reason not to use alot of wood is the fact that it is a thermal insulator. i'm striving to dump heat from my st-35, not retain it. i wish my chassis had radiator fins all over it.
also, if anything inside/atop of the amp ever decides it wants to get to 450 degrees, then your wooden chassis might catch on fire.
on a sidenote, last night i had a dream in which my amp got blazing hot and there was an oily waxy goo welling up from it, like something from a sci-fi movie. think i must have been reading too much about oil capacitors before bed

[hembrook]

Oil that is. Black Gold Texas Tea.

We used to have the problem with M1s and M14s. If you fire them enough the llinseed oil and CLP in the wood would start to boil out. not a good feeling. Oil transfers heat a LOT better than wood.

So Far, I have had good feelings with my diamond plate on my GSG. I think I might drill some small (1/8") holes between the ribs to act as vents. So far, heat is nto a problem. The power tranny runs very cool, and the other resistors and caps are as per GSG spec.