Something new is coming

Hey, funny you should mention it.
I started a thread over there yesterday. You should get a few early adopters from there. I've noticed an undercurrent of interest in DIY on Headfi lately and I think this'll be a dandy kit for those folks to get their feet wet.

https://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/crack-bottlehead-otl-476650/

 
Hi, my name is Miguel and I saw the post in Head Fi on the Crack and came over to read about it. I have soldered in the past, most of the time successfully but I have had a couple of mishaps w/ circuit board type of amps. Anyways I am looking forward to this new amp but I have a few questions if I may.

1. Will the aluminum plate be pre-drilled to accept the components, plus will it be sized to fit in the wood base.
2. Will the wooden boards be pre-cut and ready for assembly?
3. How much work to finish the wood? I like to use beeswax w/ a lite stain on many of my projects.
4. Does the wood bass come in pine or just alder?

Thanks.
 
mrarroyo said:
1. Will the aluminum plate be pre-drilled to accept the components, plus will it be sized to fit in the wood base.
2. Will the wooden boards be pre-cut and ready for assembly?
3. How much work to finish the wood? I like to use beeswax w/ a lite stain on many of my projects.
4. Does the wood bass come in pine or just alder
Click to expand...

The aluminum plates are laser cut and ready to go.  No machining is required. 

The wood pieces for the base are cut and have a groove for the top plate to rest in. 

Finishing the wood is completely optional.  Plan on maybe a little sanding, then stain away. 

The wood bases are alder only.  A Google search may find wood workers who have made Bottlehead bases in other finishes, and sometimes they offer custom bases for a fee. 
 
Having only four headphone amps (including my S.E.X.) I went ahead and ordered a Crack.  It only makes sense with three pairs of Grados, a pair of HD650 Sennheisers, and a pair of AKG 702s lying about...

Good work, Doc.

 
mrarroyo said:
 .  .  .      4. Does the wood bass come in pine or just alder?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Just to add a little.  Think of alder as Pacific Northwest pine without the pitch.  It has prettier grain than the pine I am used to in the South.
 
I am very interested in purchasing this kit up but, alas, I have ZERO kit building experience.  How long would something like this take to build and what are the minimum basic tools required?  I would not in all likelihood be building on a regular basis or even infrequently.  I do not mean to ask if this info exists elsewhere but I am new to this forum.  Is there a sample manual available to download?

Would it be worth purchasing the tools/equipment needed (thinking I may not use the much in the future) or should I just have it built?

Thanks in advance for any help.

JP

 
The description says two evenings.  Make that three and you can be safe.

This is a list of tools:

Suggested Tools

The manuals mention these as a must:

Eye protection, slotted tip screwdriver, needle nose pliers, wire cutter, wire stripper (12 Gauge and smaller), soldering iron (40W is ok), volt-ohm meter, light source, sharpie marker 7 a towel to keep the top plate from being scratched.  (this list lifted from the Eros manual, I bet Crack is the same)

I bet the kit starts with the power supply, and ends with the audio circuit.  This gets you used to soldering before you get to the most critical circuitry.  
 
Hi jp,

Yes, build it yourself! Crack is what we used to call a Skill Level I kit, intended for first time builders. Two things happen when you build it yourself. First is that you gain confidence to look a little more deeply into all of your gear and make more educated decisions about future equipment purchases, because you gain a little more understanding of how the stuff goes together (and how much gets spent on the parts inside vs. the fancy face plates). Secondly you will experience a very neat thing I call Proud Papa Syndrome. Because you have built gear yourself it automatically sounds a little better to you than it would if you bought it built.

When we figure how long it takes to build a kit we usually look at how long it takes one of us techs and then multiply that by some factor. Not including the cosmetic stuff like chassis paint or polish and stain and varnish on the base ( which you can either leave plain and simple like the product shot or go crazy with like some of the cool kit builds you can see in the forum gallery) the actual assembly is easily doable in a couple evenings and folks with a kit or two under their belt will probably finish it in one evening. Another interesting phenomenon is what I call post construction let down. Some folks hurry to get sound only to realize they really should have slowed down and savored the pleasure of building the kit. You get lots of listening time with the finished kit, but you can't really go back to the assembly phase.

We really understand the first timer here, and I think the community here have an unprecedented reputation of support for newbs. If you get stuck on some step and post about it here you will usually get an answer to your question within a couple hours.
 
Let me add that I am a Latin teacher with little technical knowledge and I have built a lot of these kits.  The easy ones and the complex ones.  You can do it.  Just practice soldering on some spare parts or some cheap parts from Radio Shack.  Watch a soldering tutorial online, its not hard. 

The manuals are the best in the business, truly.  If you can tell a resistor from a capacitor you can easily do this, and from looking at the underside of the Crack amp, this is the one to cut your teeth on.  The manuals have great instructions and Doc's hobby of photography makes the manuals incredibly well illustrated.  The pictures are clear and let you see if you have done it correctly.  You need a soldering iron, solder, needle nose pliers, wire stripper, some screw drivers.  Can't think of anything else off the top of my head.  It really is fun to do and being able to have people listen to it, be amazed, and then you say you built yourself and it only cost $200.  Well, its about as much fun as you can have in audio.
 
Someone should post a link to the soldering tutorial online.  We lost the animation we had at the old site when the poster (can't remember who) closed his site.  It was a good animation.

And I will echo Paul's support of the manuals.  I have built kits since the mid 60s.  These are the best I have even seen.  The pictures almost tell it all.

 
Many, many thanks to all for the encouragement.  I still don't know if I am up to the task (certainly all thumbs here) but I am starting to think otherwise what with all this wonderful support!  As the owner of several tube amps - IMHO - there is no other way to go!

Regards,

JP
 
Yeah, but we ought to have a link here to help the new guys.

Ok, JP, where are you?  There might be a Bottlehead near who would look over your shoulder.
 
Go for it JP. You might think you won't build another kit, but I'd be willing to bet otherwise. It's habit forming!

The forum members are extremely patient and helpful. This has to be one of the friendliest places on the web.

Doug
 
Thanks for the response, I would use this opportunity to obtain a better soldering station as well as magnifying glass. ;)
 
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