6V6 2204...

Cool project. But in practice, you have created several ground loops. It is similar to the old school method where the chassis is used as the ground conduit. If the design is not a high gainer, it'll probably still work fine.

I've milled several hundred boards using a specialty machine designed for the purpose. You have overcome the cutting depth problems nicely with your equipment.

There really is no added ground plane capacitance. There would need to be a second plane, not ground, that is a few mils away from the ground plane in order to have significant board capacitance. That means a multi-layer fabrication. That's a high frequency decoupling technique, and doesn't really apply to audio.

Anything that makes a design clean and still work is game to me. Looking forward to the rest of your project.

 

Very neat!

I think I see some very good solder joints. I've had trouble with the wetting, especially on top of the turret. What the trick?

 

So your telling me to practice...
Yeah right, as if my next expensive guitar isn't gonna make me a guitar god!

 

solid state rectification gives less sag and is supposedly more reliable . i've had my home made amp rebiased a few times . i'd like a Vox 4 watt point to point amp next . amp pictured is very clean and Dirty when cranked . 22 watt Deluxe reverb design point to point without Reverb channel . chromed copper chassis . in Ash cabinet

 

The "tricks" are basically:

1. getting both sides of the joint heated evenly, in a short time, on the first attempt.
2. owning flux

To pull off trick #1 you need to always be thinking about the mass and heat sinking ability of both sides of the joint. A little component lead is going to heat up way more easily than a big chunky turret. To raise the temperature of such different things evenly you need to bias your heating heavily to the turret. A chisel bit with the flat on the turret and the thin edge a hair away from touching the component lead is a good starting position. With your other hand hold the solder on the turret to watch it's temperature. When the turret begins to melt the solder nudge your bit over so you have good contact with both the turret and lead as you quickly fill the hole and complete the joint. Don't linger longer than needed, remove and reapply heat, or try to touch it up. It should be done in one smooth flow.

And when that doesn't work... let the joint cool then apply flux to the joint and simply try again to raise the temp of both parts evenly, flow the solder in one go, then get the heat off. If you find the turrets you're working with resist wetting every time then you may want to apply flux before the first attempt even.

 

I’m following along with interest. I wish I had a sheet metal brake. I switched from electronics and fabrication to programming and software development 20 years ago and I really miss having a shop at my disposal.

 

red with yellow stripe is the center tap. That goes to the negative end of the first filter cap. (ideally it's dressed with the reds)

red with blue stripe is a bias supply. If you're doing a fixed bias output stage you'll use this, if cathode biased you can heat shrink it off and bundle it away.

edit: oops not a champ thread. originally added some irrelevant champ info

 

It's hard to get a good image, but here is mine: