Boothill 5F1 , New Builder

[hackworth1]

Looks good, Herb. Everything is in the right place. Orientation of e-caps is correct. Bus looks good.

Just check your solder joints. Make sure you can't pull them out by tugging on them. The back of the board looks a little light on solder in the holes. That indication alone doesn't mean the joint is not good. You be the judge.

The back of the board is a nuisance to access - once you have everything buttoned down. New builders sometimes leave some cold joints back there which will break loose as you know.

You can see and feel a great joint when it happens. Ideally, you want nicely domed joints which are the product of hot flowing solder and a clean smooth tip. They won't all be perfect, but as long as they're good joints...

You'll have a good time.

[CraigB]

Originally Posted by hackworth1

Ideally, you want nicely domed joints which are the product of hot flowing solder and a clean smooth tip. They won't all be perfect, but as long as they're good joints...

You'll have a good time.

Yep, you'll know it's good when they cool if they look shiny rather than dull.

Just a real small point - on the power tube side of cathode bias amps, I like to put at least a little bit of space between the bias resistor and the bypass cap and/or other local e-caps, if there's room to do so. Not an absolute necessary thing, I just like to do it. That resistor will get hot.

Looks good Herb!

[hackworth1]

Originally Posted by CraigB

Yep, you'll know it's good when they cool if they look shiny rather than dull.

Just a real small point - on the power tube side of cathode bias amps, I like to put at least a little bit of space between the bias resistor and the bypass cap and/or other local e-caps, if there's room to do so. Not an absolute necessary thing, I just like to do it. That resistor will get hot.

Looks good Herb!

Good Point. Herb has left plenty of room and slack on the leads so that he can pull them away from each other.

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by hackworth1

Looks good, Herb. Everything is in the right place. Orientation of e-caps is correct. Bus looks good.

Just check your solder joints. Make sure you can't pull them out by tugging on them. The back of the board looks a little light on solder in the holes. That indication alone doesn't mean the joint is not good. You be the judge.

The back of the board is a nuisance to access - once you have everything buttoned down. New builders sometimes leave some cold joints back there which will break loose as you know.

You can see and feel a great joint when it happens. Ideally, you want nicely domed joints which are the product of hot flowing solder and a clean smooth tip. They won't all be perfect, but as long as they're good joints...

You'll have a good time.

Thanks for taking the time to look this over Dave , and you were right on about the back of the board , I gave all the wires a good pull and one poped out , I re-soldered it and doubled checked all my solder joints front and back , I did re-flow a few joints that looked suspect to me . Thanks again Dave , will be asking more questions at the next stage I'm sure :)

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by CraigB

Yep, you'll know it's good when they cool if they look shiny rather than dull.

Just a real small point - on the power tube side of cathode bias amps, I like to put at least a little bit of space between the bias resistor and the bypass cap and/or other local e-caps, if there's room to do so. Not an absolute necessary thing, I just like to do it. That resistor will get hot.
Looks good Herb!

Hey Craig , thanks . I did bend/move that resistor a touch away , I was thinking about that when I loaded the board but it slipped my mind until you picked up on it.
On the soldering , yea , I have noticed that when the joints cool down , also have noticed how the solder flows on a good joint , BTW , that WES51 is great :)

[adirondak5]

Got a little more done this evening , till my eyes got tired , board is mounted in chasis , jacks and switch are installed and connections soldered to board , tranny's are mounted . Dave was right , that brass plate makes a good template

[hackworth1]

Looks good.

Herb, you do not need that green ground wire on the input jacks. I used to isolate the inboard input jack and I have found that it is not necessary to do that.

You have 3/8 inch star washers behind each input jack. Each jack makes ground to the chassis by its body. Technically, the green jumper is making a ground loop - so it is doing more harm than good by being connected. Snip it out of there and away you go.

That's a 1 watt Allen Bradley 1.5K ohm resistor on the far right. Nice long leads on that sucker. Those 68K input grid resistors are also 1 watters. Exclusive offerings to TDPRI members upon request while supplies last.

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by hackworth1

Looks good.

Herb, you do not need that green ground wire on the input jacks. I used to isolate the inboard input jack and I have found that it is not necessary to do that.

You have 3/8 inch star washers behind each input jack. Each jack makes ground to the chassis by its body. Technically, the green jumper is making a ground loop - so it is doing more harm than good by being connected. Snip it out of there and away you go.

That's a 1 watt Allen Bradley 1.5K ohm resistor on the far right. Nice long leads on that sucker. Those 68K input grid resistors are also 1 watters. Exclusive offerings to TDPRI members upon request while supplies last.

Thanks Dave , that makes sense with the ground loop. I'll snip that ground wire outta there the next work session .

[CraigB]

That looks good, Herb! Nice shiny solder joints. Glad you like that Weller station. Not to be picky, but I usually make the leads from the input to the grid resistors as short as possible when not using shielded wire. Again, not a big deal, just cut those shorter if you have a tendency to pick up radio stations. Same with red wire going to the volume pot, it looks like you could shorten the path a bit. Sweet!

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by CraigB

That looks good, Herb! Nice shiny solder joints. Glad you like that Weller station. Not to be picky, but I usually make the leads from the input to the grid resistors as short as possible when not using shielded wire. Again, not a big deal, just cut those shorter if you have a tendency to pick up radio stations. Same with red wire going to the volume pot, it looks like you could shorten the path a bit. Sweet!

Thanks Craig , yea , the Weller is sweet . I did leave those leads a touch long , first timers uncertainty , I'll shorten them up , and thanks for keeping an eye on this :)

[adirondak5]

Got the back boards made up and the cleats in the cab , sealed with polycrylic , just waiting on my tweed to come.



Question for Dave or anybody else that knows on the PT , I am using the Weber layout sheet , the colors are different on the PT I have than whats shown on the Weber layout , the PT I got from Dave P-TF22772
Has 2 black wires , I am thinking one black to blue on a/c cord , the other black to fuse , also the red with yellow stripe goes to ground ? I am also thinking the two reds , two yellows and 2 greens go to the locations shown on the Weber layout , the OT I got from Dave has the same color wires as the Weber layout so I think they are OK to go where shown , just not positive on the PT .

[CraigB]

The black wires are the primary, so you're correct on those, one to the fuse, one spliced to the blue (neutral) wire.

Yes, yellow/red is center tap of the two red wires, the high voltage winding, goes to ground. You can confirm this for yourself by setting your meter to K ohms and measuring between the two red wires. Say that measurement is 300 ohms. Now measure between red/yellow and one of the reds and it should be approx. half, 150 ohms.

I usually solder the HT center tap to a ring terminal and fasten that down on one of the power transformer bolts as my main ground point, so the first two filter caps (-) and the power tube cathode/resistor (-) are also grounded there.

You are correct on the rest, same as the Weber layout: Two greens, 6.3v filament winding. Two yellows, 5v rectifier filament winding.

Cab's looking good!!!

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by CraigB

The black wires are the primary, so you're correct on those, one to the fuse, one spliced to the blue (neutral) wire.

Yes, yellow/red is center tap of the two red wires, the high voltage winding, goes to ground. You can confirm this for yourself by setting your meter to K ohms and measuring between the two red wires. Say that measurement is 300 ohms. Now measure between red/yellow and one of the reds and it should be approx. half, 150 ohms.

I usually solder the HT center tap to a ring terminal and fasten that down on one of the power transformer bolts as my main ground point, so the first two filter caps (-) and the power tube cathode/resistor (-) are also grounded there.

You are correct on the rest, same as the Weber layout: Two greens, 6.3v filament winding. Two yellows, 5v rectifier filament winding.

Cab's looking good!!!

Craig , thanks for the help , its nice to be sure of yourself with this . My tweed just showed up with UPS , and I just got done gluing the standoff strips for the grill cloth on the baffle , should be able to get a lot done tomorrow .

[adirondak5]

All done soldering and wiring , not as neat as most of you fellas but I am pretty confident in all the solder joints , don't know if I'll try it before or after I get the cab covered with tweed but here's a few pics , hopefully there's no boo boos

[adirondak5]

Well , I might as well see if this works , so using the BYOC startup procedure , I installed the chasis in the cab , turned on the power switch , no tubes installed , nothing plugged into any of the jacks , plugged the power cord in while watching the pilot light , whada you know , the light came on , no sparks or explosions ,no smell , so far so good , unplugged the power cord , installed the 5y3 rectifier tube , light came on , tube started glowing after a minute , no smell , no sparks , unplugged the power cord , installed the preamp tube , plugged power back in , preamp tube started glowing after a minute , no sparks , no booms , unplugged power cord , installed speaker in baffle and plugged into speaker jack , installed power tube , made sure volume is at the lowest level , plugged power cord in , power tube starts to glow , all tubes glowing , no sparks or bad stuff happening , slowly turn up volume , it is making noise , turned power switch off , plugged in guitar , turned back on , turned up volume , got a bit of a squeal , and some static break up , but it does work , now just gotta figure why I got the squeal and get that sorted , I still need to install the tweed on the cab also , just wanted to see if it worked or not , guess I'll go discharge the caps and take it back apart so I can get to covering , I'm pretty happy that it is making noise

[thorton077]

Thats great it almost worked perfect first try! Hope you find out the noise issue.

[Jimmy Rocket]

Swap your OT leads to kill the squeal, I'm having trouble imagining the other static noise you're talking about but it could be a dodgy preamp tube.

The squeal is like a runaway train of positive feedback and swapping the primary leads on the OT should create the negative feedback that you need. Negative feedback -bad for children, but works pretty well in this design. ;)

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by thorton077

Thats great it almost worked perfect first try! Hope you find out the noise issue.

Thanks thorton , gonna try switching the OT leads , keeping my fingers crossed .

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Rocket

Swap your OT leads to kill the squeal, I'm having trouble imagining the other static noise you're talking about but it could be a dodgy preamp tube.

The squeal is like a runaway train of positive feedback and swapping the primary leads on the OT should create the negative feedback that you need. Negative feedback -bad for children, but works pretty well in this design. ;)

Thanks Jimmy , so switch the red and blue lead from the OT , I'll give it a try :)

[DesmoDog]

My 5F1 squealed too. On advice from Dave I reversed the leads to the output jack and it cured it. I think he said I could reverse the leads to the output jack OR the leads from the OT? Don't quote me on that... For me the output jack was easiest.

FWIW I get a static-y sound at anything over about 6 or 7 on the dial. I'm having too much fun with it to take it apart and try to fix that though! I figure when I pull it apart to Tolex the cabinet I'll address the noise.