Messages

What is ET?

Can't the enclosure be drilled after all the finishing is completed?

ET is envirotex, which is a hard epoxy you pour over your finished pedal for a thick, clear, rock hard (abs) finish. It's similar to stuff they use to coat the counters at bars.

The only way I could think of doing sides and have them be ace would be to do each side on its own before you do the main area of the enclosure. At a minimum though, you'd be looking at 2 days per side plus another 2 for the top. Finishing would take a bit more time that way!

I always do the sides with ET and it can be a challenge.  I changed my process a bit on my last enclosure and it improved the results.  I bought an inexpensive (~$8) lazy susan in a kitchen store.  I covered it with aluminum foil and found an old plastic box to rest the enclosure on.  The size of the box is taller than the enclosure but smaller than its perimeter so that the enclosure's bottom edges are about 1/2" above the surface of the lazy susan.

I leveled it and poured ET on the top and used wooden craft sticks to push the ET over the sides.  I have always used these sticks on the sides - like icing a birthday cake.  The difference is that the lazy susan allows me to turn the enclosure without touching it giving me equal access to all sides.  My results this time were a great improvement over previous builds.  I must point out that the sides always have ripples in the ET, I never gotten them perfectly smooth like the top.  This time was better, though.

Also, don't underestimate ET's determination to fill the screw holes.  For my last build I had 3 layers of masking tape of the holes.  Two of them filled with ET anyway.  One of them is still full of ET - I couldn't chip it out.  Obviously I need to improve my masking technique...

I always use electrical tape and have never had it bleed through. Might be a bit more expensive though...

I always love the distressed look, whether intended or not. Nice work!

Nice work. Keep em coming!

Yeah, this is gorgeous! Is that the krylon shimmer we talked about a while back? LOVELY!

My only worry would be related to how porous the fabric is, and whether the text would actually absorb into it and discolor or darken it. Keep us posted, as I am definitely interested in how this comes out!

all of juansolos builds make me happy in some way. This is no different.

I usually will etch or build and populate whatever I can whenever I can, it's getting around to casing them that is the trouble. I'd say I have around 25-35 in my "ready to box" drawer at any given time. I'm pretty good about finishing a pcb before I start another though. Sometimes I will doublefist....

They are tung sol from what I can read. Don't know enough about tubes to id further

I just wondered with what was in there if perhaps a decent mini tube amp could be made, no matter

Yeah, it's definitely toobz, however my knowledge is so limited on amps and the unit is so old that I think it would be best (as suggested) to gut it and use as the basis for a cool first amp project. I'll keep you guys posted! It is winter and I have been itching for a big project...

I wouldn't bother with it as a radio.  If that's a Zenith K725, they're a rat's nest of point-to-point connections with seven tubes and no isolation transformer (== dangerous).  It does look awesome, though.  A Tweed Princeton (5F2A), a single channel Tweed Deluxe (5E3), a single channel 18 Watt or one of the Phat Ass variants they rave about on the Weber amp forums would fit nicely in that chassis, though.  You're gonna have to buy transformers, though.  Still I think gutting it and building a simple amp would be a lot easier than restoring it.  Just my $0.02.  Good luck!

That's exactly the advice I was looking for I was checking some of the various 5e3 kits out there. Seems like a good place to start with amps.

They are tung sol from what I can read. Don't know enough about tubes to id further

One of the cleanest builds I've seen. Super sharp!

And I don't know what to do with it yet! The image is from google- Mine isn't clean yet so I wanted you guys to see what it will look like shortly. It powers on but I am only getting white noise. Since my knowledge of tube based circuits is approximately zero, I'm thinking getting it working may not be worth the effort. HOWEVER. This would look killer as an amp enclosure ( i really want to build an amp). Anyone have any thoughts?

Seriously, good to know. Experimentation is knowledge is progress.