guitargeek

Hey lookit! I made sumpin'!

I'm still designing the circuit for my amp, but I knew I wanted a new rectifier board, which is it's own little circuit board for turning alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC), which is what the tubes run on.

Here's the old one:



Back in the 60s they made the circuit boards out of this pressed fiber board called "fish paper". It's not made out of fish, doesn't really have anything to do with fish. It's sorta like wax impregnated cardboard, and it warps and curls up when it gets hot.



I'm using Garolite G10 for my circuit board. This stuff is pretty much bullet proof, and won't warp no matter what. This is a little piece left over from the circuit board I made for the last amp I built:



I cut it to size:



Sanded it and rounded off the edges:



I laid out the circuit with my spanking new honeycomb grid, simply copying the old layout:



Cut out the paper template and stuck it to the G10 with double sided tape:



And it's ready for drilling:



Holes:



Peel the template off:



Fender used eyelets, like what your shoelaces go through. I'm using turrets, which are nice because they hold the components up off of the board:



Push the turret through the board, and use the special tool I made to "suage" or flare the bottom:




Turret tops:



Bottoms:



Since I don't have much money to buy new components right now, I'm recycling as much as possible from old circuit boards. These diodes worked fine on the old board, so I just moved everything over to the new board. I can always change them later. In fact, I plan to change them later. I want big fat diodes in there...

Check it out!



I should have the circuit figured out soon, so I can show you guys how that's made. It's pretty similar to what I did here, only bigger and more complex.

I know, I know, you're on the edge of your seat...

As an aside, today is my second anniversary.
Hey, I'm not dead yet! Wahoo!