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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: Epoxy Glue?

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5/27/2000 6:50 AM
Steve Ahola	Re: Epoxy Glue? DaveK: So what vintage were those Dumbles? Did they have the second relay for the P.A.B. (AKA tone stack defeat "P"re "A"mp "B"oost)? The post OD tone stack from the Skyliner amps? BTW was the preamp circuitry mounted on a wooden board? Just wondering about these things! --Thanks! Steve Ahola

5/23/2000 4:50 PM

Re: G10 boards for amp circuit boards

I personaly favor, old vintage marshall style of the board, where you have a hole grid of 3/32 holes sread over 1/4 inch distance, this way it is very flexible and doesn,t dictate any design limitations, I have those boards made in a large quantaly for my vintage marshall and marshall clone work/restoration, so if anybody wants them contact me at dr-mike@worldnet.att.net, price is $13.50 for the baord of 4.5X8.0 inches, I have references from fellow ampagers.
Mike Kach
www.mandgamplification.com

5/23/2000 5:33 AM

We use Garolite xx (black dense fiber board) for our chassis products. We also source the Garolite G10 (in what I call 'standard circuit board green') for special order models. Both from McMaster-Carr. We layout, program the CNC mill, drill, eyelet or turret, etc. Not really economical under quantities of 20 or so due to the autocadding and programming setup, but it's nice, square, repeatable, delivered ready for parts stuffing, and you own the design, 1:1 plots, prints, etc. A 5F6A size would be around $20 in quantities of 20 using 1/8" green G10 with around 60-80 holes eyeleted or turreted.

Ted
WeberVST

5/23/2000 5:57 AM

Chuck:

    What parts were you planning to epoxy? That stuff can get pretty messy and wherever the mixture isn't perfect, you will have spots that stay sticky forever...

    Eyelets can be used to hold some items or you could use threaded inserts. If you have to glue something use Silicone II (the fumes are less corrosive to parts than the original RTV silicone); sometimes I will add just a dab of hot melt glue to hold things in place until the silicone cures.

    In designing your board and layout, make sure that you don't "paint yourself into a corner". Figure that you may need to remove any of the boards or pots later, and decide where you plan to desolder the board if you need to remove it (without having to removing all of the other components). One thing nice about eyelet or turret boards (compared to printed circuit boards) is that the components and the solder joints are all on the top surface; you don't usually have to remove the board to change practically any of the components...

--Good luck!

Steve Ahola

P.S. Here is one trick that epoxy is good for... if you have a press-on knob with a hollow back and the plastic that "grabs" the shaft breaks, find the smallest size copper tubing that will fit over the broken plastic pieces and then fill it with a good quality epoxy. The epoxy is used basically as filler and to hold the copper tubing in place. I have used that technique on appliance knobs and plumbing handles, and have never had one of the repaired knobs break later. Another way to repair knobs (without epoxy) is to wrap a ~18 or 20GA bus wire around the broken plastic pieces very tightly then add some solder to fuse the bus wire into a solid ring.

5/23/2000 8:24 AM

steve, well i wasn't going to say b/c i was afraid i was going to get attacked. but what im basically going to do is copy printed circuit boards, but do it using solid core wire (pure silver.. ok, another opening for attack). so im going to start simple w/ effects pedals, fuzz, etc. i think im going to build an identical printed circuit board pedal and AB. anyways, im not going to have any eyelets or turrets (unless neccesary). im going to lay down all the teflon 20ga wires just like a printed circuit board. where a junction ends the wire will stick up like a turret. where theres a junction and the wire keeps on going there will be a "bridge" where the wire pops up and then goes back down. so my concern is how to stabilize the wires where there aren't connections. i was going to try and epoxy them down after i got everthing else figured out, unless i can come up w/ a better way. silicone isn't strong enough when its thin, and i don't like the milkiness. BTW, i know its going to be a mess. well, there you go, thats my attempt at doing something a new way. I don't have a scientific reason for doing this, its mostly for fun and to try and experiment. also, my ears can hear the difference between silver and copper and stranded/solid wire FWIW. not that it really matters when your trying to make music. I like the extra mojo though.
take care,
chuck

5/23/2000 9:53 PM
DaveK	Chuck,I think an easier way to do what you're thinking about is to use perf board or get a few boards from Mike(which are excellent btw.)You can run the wire through the holes in the board and basically do the same thing,but in a non permanent manner.Pre-drilled board and turret lugs are very easy to work with,hold things together great,and you can always tweak your circuit. DaveK

5/27/2000 6:45 AM

...or Chuck could just drill holes where the component leads will be (without hassling with eyelets or turrets). With an insulator board below, he could just shove the leads and wires in from the top (to hold them in place) and then solder them up. I think that the solder on the top and the bottom of the board would hold them securely... they might wiggle around a bit but I don't think that they would pull through. (I get confused with all of those little holes in perfboard!)

--Thanks!

Steve Ahola

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