n_maher

Define cheap.

Even top plates need love too. What I've found to help keep costs down is to not infill the engraving. Using a black panel makes it very easy but I was pretty happy with the silver on silver as well. It helps if you can use your own material but still, even those prices are pretty reasonable from both CE and FPE. That said, I did an awful lot of building using only a cordless drill and a single stepped drill bit. Chassis punches definitely help bridge the gap if a drill press ends up not being an option.

1. You can get the SKILL thru Amazon for $117, shipped free if you're a prime member and use the HC link to throw some $$ at Todd. 2. I agree that the lack of a worklight is a bummer. Even in a pretty well-lit shop I still loved having a light on my drill press and used temporary solutions on the milling machine to be able to see well enough. 3. How many panels do you have to do? While I clearly love doing things myself when it comes to panels, I'm pretty content these days to draw them up and send them to Heinz (camexpert) and have him do it. Even for pretty complex pieces I'm usually into them for less than $60 (if I already own the material) and the end product is much nicer than I could ever produce even when I had a multi-thousand dollar milling setup.

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Anyone heard from Kerry lately?

If all the tubes flashed they would all be bad. The light from one filament, running at a significantly higher voltage than it wants, was probably enough to make it look like they were all lighting up. I once wired a transformer wrong and put the full HV winding on a tube (woops) so I've actually seen what it sounds like you experienced. My experience with tubes is still pretty limited despite having built several projects using many different kinds but in all that time I've never had a tube misbehave like you described. I suppose that it's possible, but if these are new, barely used tubes it seems somewhat unlikely.

Sounds like for some reason the HV shorted to the filament. That's the only thing I've ever seen make a tube go into headlight mode. Could have been a flaky tube but make sure that you don't have anything actually shorting out near that tube. It'd be a bummer to start blowing through EL34s, even cheap ones. Nice looking build though. All the posts here and in the main DIY thread have kicked me in the pants enough to start working on my lowly KGSS again...

Happy birthday, Grahame!

The only downside to dual primaries is cost. Birgir, how are you implementing the latching switches? I thought that most of these weren't capable of switching the voltage and/or current levels that we need them to. Or am I just over thinking this? [edit]I just looked at the specs of one of the 22mm Bulgin latching switches, clearly I'm wrong since they're rated for 250VAC/5A which should be sufficient on the primary side of most headphone amps.

Done! Good for you, Raffy.

Happy Birthday!

This!

That deal was sick, less than the current cost of the frame.

Decent show.

Happy belated day, guys!

Thanks for sharing, I like it.

Chopin is my vodka of choice thanks to a recommendation from Jacob I believe. I find it to be substantially better than Grey Goose.

There are certainly differences between grain and potato vodkas and I've tasted them. Now, whether or not I could taste the difference between well and premium grain I have no idea. I'd like to think I could as there certainly seems to be a difference when I drink a well drink compared to a decent one, but I'm not going to bother putting on a blindfold to see if I can.

Peter, You don't need to ask for understanding - we all get it. Hang in there and try to take some small measure of comfort in the fact that clearly you've given this cat a wonderful life.

The wireless upload is cool, but that's the only part that interests me and just cause I'm lazy.

Yes, he's out there again this year. But CES doesn't technically start until tomorrow so I'm not sure how much you'll see on IF until tomorrow at the earliest.

As a guy with paws instead of hands that looks like it would be rather difficult to handle.

Al, Outlaw Audio (no slouch IMO) sells the SR5007 which is a pretty strong endorsement in my book. They used to sell the 7007 as well but list it as sold out now.

Either chem, civil or mechanical really depending on what specialty of fluid dynamics you want to deal with. It was my least favorite civil engineering class.

Have fun, guys and gal!