I've delayed work on the amplifier project to rebuild a home for my Nelson Pass-designed "Bride of Son of Zen". I'm presently trying to sort out the outboard power supply.
The base for it will be a glue-up of hardwood 1x2 from the local big box. (I don't have a jointer nor a planer, so I'm going with the S4S stuff.) The bonus is that this will serve as a model for a future workbench top.
The transformer and chokes, rectifiers and capacitors are housed in an aluminum box I picked up at Tri-State Electronics. I'd have prefered a steel enclosure, but they didn't have any. "They rust" was the terse explanation.
Anyway, I have an IEC power entry module which doesn't appear to fit within the aluminum housing... at least not without displacing the voltage stabilizers, which I don't want to have anywhere near the AC power wiring.
By extending the base out beyond the housing, I can use a wood skirt around the unit to hide external wires. It's going to end up looking a bit like a tube amp, including the protruding power supply reservoir caps.
Mahogany? Maple? Walnut? Okay, probably not Walnut... that's way more expensive than I want for this. Stain is not an option; I'm thinking shellac, or shellac followed by oil, as used by Dave Knipfer--the so-called "Rude and Crude" method, which looks anything but crude when done. See here and here for info, and here for an important safety note.)
At any rate, I'm trying to take my time and do a good job here. These metal boxes aren't particularly cheap and I'd rather not scrap this one and begin yet again.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
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