Custom wooden base

[ju29]

Hi everyone

my crack is on its way and I should receive it in couple of days (wouhou !!). In the meantime I wanted to share with you the custom wooden base I've built couple of days ago.

Flamed maple with couple of discrete bird's eyes. Very (very) fine sanding // shellac washcoat // 2 coat of dyeing // handmade french polish (not finished, only one pass done) // many other fine sanding between each steps.

I'm very impatient to receive my Crack. I'm much more confident in woodworking than soldering and hope the building will be fine. What I worry the most is cold soldering.. I don't know if could even notice them by myself if I do some. Anyway, if I have questions I'll ask here..

Almost forgot, I coloured in back and white the two faces of my template. I think I'll go with the white/ivory top... opinions ??

 

[Grainger49]

Very nice.  I noticed the grain continuing around the corner.

 

[Chris]

Nice....

 

[JamieMcC]

Stunning looking forward to seeing the finished result.

 

[Strikkflypilot]

What a stunning base! Fantastic.

As for soldering, I recommend these PACE Professional training videos, easy to grasp and fast to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837

 

[Natural Sound]

WOW! That's beautiful. I especially like the grain matching. You really made the most of a gorgeous piece of wood. Great job.

You should be fine with the electronic assembly of the Crack. Its one of the simpler Bottlehead amps to assemble. Here are a couple of tips. Keep the tip of your soldering iron clean with a damp sponge. Then add a little solder to the tip of the iron after cleaning. Follow the excellent Bottlehead instruction manual closely. Take your time, check your work then check it again. If you have any questions ask them here on the forum. This is a great group of people that can help you out. Good luck.

 

[ju29]

Thanks a lot for your encouragements. And Strikkflypilot, thanks for the link. It's very appreciated, that's exactly what I needed ! And yes about the continuing grain, I cut the wood from a single piece of wood.

It's funny, at the beginning I was worried about the shipping delays. I was thinking it was quite a long time to get it. Since I consider it as part of the build... The time needed to decided and know how to finalize the project and get things ready... That being said I wished I could get it today !

About the wood base it may sound strange but I may do an other one later but with a rustic or spalted/flamed maple this time (if I find the right piece of wood for it).

Ok, let's check the usps tracking now... 

 

[amioutaline?]

Wonderful!

 

[Deluk]

Superb. Very sellable too, if you fancy a little business on the side. 

 

[amioutaline?]

Superb. Very sellable too, if you fancy a little business on the side. 

I dunno...like I told HW when we corresponded about my JMW9T being too tall on the standard HW-19 arm board and I made a thinner, damped and veneered version: upon seeing it, he said "you could start a business with those". My reply was, "why screw up a perfectly good hobby".

 

[Strikkflypilot]

How true...

 

[ju29]

Yep, I've been building instruments (uke/acoustic guitars/weissenborn) for few years now as hobbist and started recently to sell some. I know the feeling and I totally agree...

QUESTION #1 : Canadian post says that I should receive the kit tomorrow (22nd of October) and consider now a mirror-like top. I think it will fit with any base in the case I want to build an other one in the future. As the result I'd like to get something like this :
(superb built by Lugnegard)

I know polishing by hand IS an LONG and HARD work and since I'm impatient to start soldering I was wondering if using something like rust oleum mirror effect would give a similar effect. Any suggestion about this ?? In that case I plan to put few layers of primer first and sand finely so as to get a perfect even top before applying the mirror effect...


QUESTION #2 : Also, it may sound like very specific but my soldering tip is a 1/32" fine point tip. Is it too small or should I be ok with that ? I question myself about this after having watched the videos of soldering and the 2 second rule to do the solder (too fine tip may not head enough and would force to keep the soldering longer). My soldering is a 40 watts..

Thanks a lot for your help/answers !

 

[Paul Birkeland]

The pointy tip will be ok, just use the side of it for more exposure to the joint you're working on.

The mirror polish on the top is tough.  If someone asked me to do it, I would go the sanding/polishing method, then shoot it with a clear coat to keep finger prints off.

The paint will be a lot easier, especially if you lay down 2-3 layers of primer under it (the chassis plate comes with a brushed finish that you will need to primer over).

If you are in a bit of a hurry, I would just have it powder coated.

 

[kgoss]

Another option for a shiny top plate is to have it chrome plated.
If you do go the powder coat route be sure to scrape the finish off on the underside where each terminal strip is mounted. The center lug on the terminal strip should have a ground connection to the plate.

I really like the base you built. I think it would also look great with a copper finish.

 

[JamieMcC]

For a few dollars you could use some Mirror Chrome Vinyl Wrap off of ebay the stuff they do cars with there are some different mirror colour choices available also. Peel and stick sounds good to me knowing the amount effort (and product) it takes to polish aluminium to a mirror finish.

 

[borism]

My vote is for a powder coated, black top plate. That would seem like a nice contrast to the beautiful wood base.

 

[ju29]

Hello ! THANKS EVERYONE for your answers/suggestions, it helps a lot !

The kit finally arrived this afternoon (!!!)

So I've started to work and decided to polish by hand (powder coat seems to be too expensive according to the estimate I received). So I did it the way people suggested in other former posts : wet and dry sandpapers, step by step 220 to 2000 grains, straights passes and then perpendicular ones, and so on // and use after that a polish (Mothers aluminium polish)


I think it look good BUT don't be fooled... There are still plenty of micro-scratches. They have been caused by the polish I've used. I may give an other shot later tonight. I read I could also use an other polish (Billet metal polish) which seems to be finer. But I don't want to spend too much time with the top. I want to solder now and am impatient to listen music with my Crack !

 

[amioutaline?]

Before you give up on powder coat, or anodizing which resists finger oils and scratches a lot better, try walking into a metals finisher with the plate and ask if they can just put your hobby item in with a regular run. All these shops run black routinely at least twice a week and it costs them nothing. I've never paid more than $25 for a top plate anodized. Once, the shop owner was around and when he heard I was building a tube amplifier as a hobby told me to keep my money.

 

[ju29]

Hello, I spent the day yesterday building the Crack.

I still have to install the Bottlehead power cord kit and the speedball upgrade. I'll do it within the couple of weeks.

Everything went as it supposed to until the voltage checking, terminal 13 more precisely. I did a short-circuit touching the 270 ohm 5w resistor (between the terminal 21U and the 15U) and the terminal 13 during the checking. There was a little "bang" like a cracker.

The tubes seems to be ok (they still glow..), the fuse is also ok. I have to figure out the pb now. I tried the Crack with cheap headphones. It works fine until the left hear stop working in the headphone after couple of minutes. The voltage changed between before the short-circuit and after (terminals 1 to 12). The ones at zero remained at zero.

That's a shame to fail at this point. I guess I do my own experience. I'll be more extra careful the next time...

I'm going to open a new thread in the dedicated Crack section about my issue. I hope it will be an easy fix !

Have a good day !

 

[bare]

Very nice work. Museum quality. I appreciate seeing this. I'm wrapping up building first Quickie/Quicksand and looking to do custom cases. Just undecided what to do.
bare