Like... should you wrap leads around turrets or only hook them and solder them? When to use solid-core vs stranded? Cloth covered vs. poly? Turrets vs. eyelets? Chassis grounding: screw to chassis, solder to chassis, solder to screw that's trapped to Power transformer lug... when and why? Ground wire vs. tinned copper braid as ground bus?
O'Connor covers most of that in TUT3.
There was a guy that hung around O'Connor's web site years ago and he would always flip when he saw a picture of somebody putting a wire in the center hole of a turret. "Your not supposed to do that!" LOL Your supposed to only wrap the wire around a turret. But we haven't seen anyone here have a problem with it.
I always wrap mine. If I do put a wire in the center hole up from the bottom, I hook the end of the wire over to top of the turret, 1/4" or so over hang, like Sluckey does.
Some guys like turrets, some like eyelets better. You have to do a few builds with each to see which you like better. I ended up using both in the same build. Mostly eyelets, with about 15% turrets. If I use some radial ecaps or have several wires that I can't get all of them in 1 eyelet. I even use 2 different size eyelets and turrets.
I use both solid core and stranded in the same build, most guys do. For signal wire, solid 22 gauge cloth push back braid, it stays in place, is fast, you don't have to strip it. I use it in several different colors. Different color for the plate, cathode (K) and the grid. I use all the colors Doug sells. Easier to trace something when building it and working on it later. O'Connor likes doing that.
With poly, when you strip it you have to be careful not to nick it, which will cause it to break somewhere down the line. That can be a problem with poly coated wire. I don't like stranded as much, for larger gauges, yes, but not the little stuff. Easy to nick/cut a few of the strands off, that bugs me. LOL And it can be a pain to get all the strands to lay down in the place you want to solder them to when you crimp them for a good mechanical connection before you solder it in place. The teflon stuff is great to solder but it's hard to make a good twisted pair because it's so slippery. Always buy/use pre tinned wire!
Never use a transformer bolt to bolt a ground wire too.
It WILL come loose! We've seen it many times here. You have to have a very big and strong soldering iron to solder a ground wire to the chassis. The chassis will act like a heat sink and suck the heat out of the iron. So you need a big chunk of steel for the irons tip. I think guys use 90w or more?
Just use a strong separate dedicated bolt for ground. I use 8/32 with an internal tooth washer on both sides of the chassis, or a keeps nut with toothed washer on the inside of the chassis, internal tooth washer on the out side. Tighten up the nut with a nut driver, then put a 2nd nut on top of the 1st nut with a couple drops of the blue lock tight, medium strength. Tighten the 2nd nut down onto the 1st nut with a nut driver. That will stay locked up.
I just use a piece of 18 gauge wire for my ground buss. Some guys 'lace' up the ground buss with 2 pieces of solid bare wire, 22 or 20 gauge will work. After you read up on bussed multi star grounds, you'll know what you want to use.
I feel like most amp books concentrate a ton on the electrical aspects of amps, and don't go deep on the "how to solder" nitty-gritty.
True but you have to understand the electrical aspects of amps to know why/how to deal with the physical mechanical needs of construction for function, reliability and safety.
Topic: Is there a definitive guide to wiring up a simple 5F1 Champ? (Read 2273 times)