Walnut finish

[Bingtou]

I didn't take great pictures or anything, but this is my first build, a Crack that I finished in the early months of this year. I loved the way it sounded from the moment I switched it on. this was my first ever experience with valve-driven audio.

If you don't want to go to great lengths with the finish, I'd like to recommend walnut oil. It's easy to apply, you can buy it at the supermarket, and it even smells good. (It's perfect for food-grade projects like chopping boards too.)

I found that it gives a pleasingly warm colour to some woods. It doesn't do much at all for certain lighter colours - I had limited success with what I think was pine. But it did work nicely with the Bottlehead case. I just applied the oil and rubbed it in with paper kitchen towels, maybe four or five coats over a few days. A later project with a wooden record box and wood varnish/stain came out badly as I have little experience with a brush or painting, so I like the lower skill demands of using oil. And I'm glad I didn't try staining or painting my Bottlehead case as it looks certain that I'd have botched it.

A couple of things you can see in the picture: slight chipping of the wood on the top right of the front board. That's as it shipped. I later made the mistake of applying the BH badge onto this board, but later moved it to the other end, as the top plate can obviously be reversed. I also have the volume knob installed wrong but have since adjusted it so that the minimum volume setting is now at 7 o'clock rather than 6 o'clock. Can anyone tell me about what you can see on the left side of the transformer (resin?). Is that something that can normally be removed from the surface?

 

[Grainger49]

Nice clean work there.  I'm not sure walnut oil is at my Kroger.  Maybe I should check.

Just a guess from the "u" in color, you are on the other side of the Atlantic.  That means your transformer is 240V.  They are made in small batches.  I expect it is just as you say, 2 drips of the lacquer used to seal it. 

However I don't know the safest way to remove the drools without removing the coating on the laminations.  I'm sure an official Bottlehead will chime in and give you some ideas.

 

[Bingtou]

Well technically I'm _from_ the other side of the Atlantic, but _on_ the other side of the Pacific. Of course, the way I look at it, it's this side for both.

I'm in Japan, using the US transformer model, not a 240V.

The transformer jizz doesn't bother me that much actually. At the time, I wanted to get on with building it, and abandoned plans for powder coating the top plate, adding a finish to the bell or any of that stuff (I may go that route with the next project if I can locate some workshop that will do it). So it's a minor aesthetic blemish, nothing more.

 

[ditdah]

Not sure how safe this is... I just sanded the drools lightly...then painted over the transformer with an aged iron look.  I did this on my BeePre and Paramounts.  I taped up the top and bottom first...in case any metal shavings might be sanded.  I've had no noticeable problems doing this.  Don't think I'll paint the transformer again unless it's real bad looking.  I've got a few BH kits now and it seems hit or miss on how "neat" the tranny's come...  My first bottlehead kit was very neat, I left the whole thing naked.  My SEX 2.1 was also pretty neat looking, but painted the housings.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

The drools are a good sign on a vacuum impregnated transformer - it means that there was more than enough varnish in there to get the job done! 

I will generally set the power transformer on the floor in my garage and paint it flat black, which tends to minimize the appearance of any drips.

-PB

 

[azrockitman]

PB, are you saying the paint the power transformer in it's entirety?  With the bell housing on....or off?  Thanks

 

[4krow]

I would like to add something here about painting when it comes to surfaces that are less than perfect. I too have tried numerous ways to make something acceptable by painting it. Unfortunately, paint doesn't cover up much. I have had great success with truck bed liner spray that comes in a can. Because it is a dense and relatively thick coating, it will do a better job at covering up what is hard to ignore otherwise.

 

[Doc B]

Yeah, Shawn did his own Bottlehead amp bases with a rattle can bed liner and they really looked good.

 

[PassionForSound]

I recently painted the chokes and bell end on my SEX kit and had all kinds of trouble with the resin affecting the primer I used. I didn't paint the transformer body (and glad now as I'm worried about what the etching primer might have done to it), but found with the other parts that I had to sand them all the way back to bare metal before attempting to prime. Otherwise the primer would crinkle where it touched the resin.

Here's a shot before the first coat. Even though I sanded them, I didn't completely remove the resin and I later wished I had!


WP_20130910_09_00_51_Pro by Lachfen, on Flickr

 

[4krow]

PFS,

    Do I spy a small dent in the transformer bell or is that an anomaly from the angle that the photo was taken?

 

[PassionForSound]

I think it is just a tiny bit of resin build-up that I didn't fully remove and which effected the light.

I primed the parts directly after this photo before having to strip them all right back to 100% bare metal because I didn't go all out the first time.

 

[Bingtou]

Here's a photo of the underside.

Cosmetic repair is visible where I caught the braided wire with the soldering iron at some point.

 

[PassionForSound]

Wow. Beautiful work!!

 

[Paul Birkeland]

PB, are you saying the paint the power transformer in it's entirety?  With the bell housing on....or off?  Thanks

Yeah, I generally remove the cover and spray the whole stack.  If the transformer doesn't have the cardboard ring on it, I'll use some blue tape on the terminals to keep them clean.

 

[2wo]

At the risk of going off topic. I was just finishing a hand made Chefs knife when I saw this. The handle is Olive wood and Olive oil seemed the natural choice but I wanted it a bit darker. Thanks for the tip...John

 

[Doc B]

Lovely! Did you make the blade?

 

[2wo]

Sure did, endless hours of block sanding...John

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Man, that is really pretty!  Looks way, way better than my olive wood Muela!

 

[STURMJ]

I've never seen olive wood before ( finished that is ). Is it hard enough for a knife handle?...I imagine it would be, those trees can be very old (i.e. slow growing= hard)

 

[2wo]

Olive wood is very tough and pretty hard, about on par with the black synthetic stuff, you see on a good German knife...John