50lbs of S.E.X. in a 5lb chassis

[ssssly]

My MQ iron rebuild for my S.E.X. is nearly complete. Changed the layout a bit as well to make room for some soup can sized caps (actually changed out all the caps but the 220uf PS caps), mundorf silver/gold signal wire, and slightly revised ground scheme. Hoping I won't pick up any hum off the PS caps in the center will have to wait and see until tomorrow when I should have it up and running. Wish me luck.

 

[johnsonad]

Holy smokes!  I'm impressed by how much you fit under there!  I'm actually at the moment try to figure out how to mount some 6uF KBG's in my Paramounts.  It will be easy compared to that!!  Thanks for the inspiration and I hope your project sounds great

 

[ssssly]

The biggest thing to fitting anything els in there was relocating the PSU caps. With those things sticking straight up off the solder posts was no way to fit anything else in there. Not to mention the major PITA it is to get those things in there in the stock configuration. Not a huge fan of lengthening pathways but I think it will be a worthwhile tradeoff as long at the connectors going to them don't pick up or induce unwanted noise. Have been debating switching out the teflon for something better insulated. I'll see how it sounds this way first.

At the moment I am tring to figure out how to do resistance and voltage checks. Think I am going to just alligator clip the big suckers in to the circuit, do the checks, and then just be very careful soldering them in. Is pretty rare anymore that I solder a bad joint so it should work out. Got my fingers crossed.

 

[Grainger49]

ssssly,

I had the same concerns as you about the KK Teflon metal bodies.  I put shrink tubing on my smaller Teflon KKs.  I could not find a shrink tube large enough to go around the 0.22uF@600V but the 0.1uF@200V fits nicely.

 

[ssssly]

Was actually speaking about the teflon coated wires going from the 220uf panasonic caps in the center to the terminal strips on the sides. Planning on redoing the heater circuits on perf board to better locate some stuff in the future but for the time being there are signal and power wires that are pretty close to one another. Come to think of it I think I am going to change those out for some shielded cable tonight. Should only take a few minutes and can't hurt.

But yeah, the metal bodied Russian caps make me nervous sometimes. One would think the interior and exterior would be isolated from one another but you never know until you put some juice through it I suppose. And I would rather not have a 600v surprise. I don't have any heat shrink big enough for the .1uf I put in there. They are 1000v oilers that I had purchased a while back and came across while looking for the big 24uf motor runs.

Been thinking of cotton wrapping the 2uf russian oilers. Also wondering if they will be OK hanging upside down? As they look like they have a head and a tails. Gonna give it a shot as is and pay close attention when turning the amp off to listen for any leak.

Well off to solder. This has inspired me to get some work done on these tonight. Enjoy.

 

[Grainger49]

I am certain the outer shell of the KK Teflons is simply a shell, not connected to either lead.  But my worry was that it would short out something else on a terminal strip.  I just noticed the spikes.  That should improve the air flow under the amp.  Good idea.

I have seen oilers often installed in AC units "upside-down."  That is, terminals on the bottom.  I don't know that they have a designated top.  So I think you are safe.

Is that 4 Obbligato caps on the top plate between the two oilers?

Nice work!  I don't often show the belly shots of my messy Bottlehead pieces.

 

[ssssly]

The bundle of four caps in the middle are just the stock Panasonics. Replaced the 10000uf with a Mundorf M-Lytic and the 1000uf with Nichicon Muzes (are still the stock ones in the photo.)

I prefer spikes to the rubber feet. And on this one I actually needed them to raise the amp up a bit. The oilers stick out the bottom a couple of mm. They are resting on top of the MQ chokes as it is and there is no room to move them further down with those soup can Solens down there.

Took the teflon wires hooking up the Panasonics out and replaced it with the stock belden shielded wire that came with the kit.  

Must have wired something horribly wrong though. When I did the resistance check tonight 20 & 40 were 0 ohms and A4/B4 were 244 ohms. Should be the other way around. Didn't have time to trouble shoot tonight, so will have to wait till tomorrow.

And thanks for the compliment. Was inspired by Wardsweb's super clean builds. It's no Wardsweb masterpiece but I am pretty proud of it. Or at least I will be once it is making music.