The Living Room Amp build has begun

[PRNDL]

I just finished gluing the cabinet for the first Living Room Amp.

http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/Photos/LivingRoom/LivingroomAmpCab1.JPG

Check out those 1/4" finger joints - I haven't applied wood filler!
The old 1/2" jig broke, so I made a new one that worked so well that I had to tell someone (hence this post).

The Living Room Amp is an idea to make an amp that is acceptable to our wives and significant others (SO) that have taste (and don't want to see a guitar amp in the living room).

After several months of thought, two ideas passed the SO test. The first was a stained cabinet with a top that opened, sort of like an old record player. Unfortunately, that takes a fair amount of fine woodworking and a lot of work and sanding to look right.

The second idea was a simple tweed amp (my SO loves tweed) with nothing on the front, except the grill cloth.

Here's the web page for the amp
http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/LivingRoomAmp.html

[tubeswell]

Wow I love that incredible fingerjointing! I got to learn that. How did you do that?

[PRNDL]

Wow I love that incredible fingerjointing! I got to learn that. How did you do that?

Thanks!!

I've built a bunch of cabinets with 3/4" fingers. I've been fine tuning the technique, so I knew what was important when I built and tested the new 1/4" jig.

I made the jig from a piece of wood with a 1/4" guide piece exactly 1/4" away from the dado blades. I drilled two holes into the right angle guide of my old table saw to screw the jig into. The secret is to have a precise fit.

[imaradiostar]

Wow, looks like excellent work. I love finger joints- they just look so slick. I've built a bunch of cabs using a similar jig on the table saw and I've generally gotten excellent results. I always used my Dad's shop in the past and he has a really nice Grizzly table saw that I built the jig around. It took a little messing about with a dial caliper and some aluminum tape to tighten up tolerances but as a general rule it worked great as long as the work wasn't too wide. If I got up around 12" wide the slop in slots in the table saw started to become a problem and the joints wouldn't turn out as nice. The dado blade (even a really sharp one) was really revealing of wood quality- anything that wasn't up to par like cheap Home Depot plywood shredded and made for crappy joints. Of course I live in Nashville and my parents are near Philadelphia so I don't get much chance to use his shop anymore.

My wife and I live in a rented house with a basement so I can at least do some woodworking. I'd been considering using a dovetail jig to make my corner joints. I did some research and found that Harbor Freight sells a jig that does OK but the plastic components make for trouble. I also read that the HF jig is the same as one that Grizzly Tools sells under a different name. It turns out all the part numbers I looked up were no longer valid but they've been replaced by a nearly identical unit that uses all metal for the troublesome parts!

Needless to say I was stoked. It's on sale at HF right now for $30, down from about $50. The same unit sells other places on the web for $60-$70. I went to a HF store here in Nashville and bought one last night. I'm so excited to try it but I have to get some more stuff to use it- a 7/16 router guide and a dovetail bit. I need to make sure that the guides I buy will work on my cheap-o HF router...might have to get a real one!

Here's the coolest part- Grizzly and Amazon.com sell all-metal templates for the thing that allow you to make different size joints including one that looks like it would allow you to make 1/4 finger/box joints. I think dovetail will look slick on exposed pine corners but for Marshall style plywood cabs nothing beats 1/4" finger joints!

The only limitation is the 12" max width but that only prevents me from making a full size 4x12 or large bass cabinets. Assuming it works well I've got a big backlog of projects to construct!

Keep up the good work! Maybe one day I can convince my wife that a livingroom amp wouldn't be such a terrible thing.

jamie

[Casey4s]

I just finished gluing the cabinet for the first Living Room Amp.

http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/Photos/LivingRoom/LivingroomAmpCab1.JPG

Check out those 1/4" finger joints - I haven't applied wood filler!
The old 1/2" jig broke, so I made a new one that worked so well that I had to tell someone (hence this post).

The Living Room Amp is an idea to make an amp that is acceptable to our wives and significant others (SO) that have taste (and don't want to see a guitar amp in the living room).

After several months of thought, two ideas passed the SO test. The first was a stained cabinet with a top that opened, sort of like an old record player. Unfortunately, that takes a fair amount of fine woodworking and a lot of work and sanding to look right.

The second idea was a simple tweed amp (my SO loves tweed) with nothing on the front, except the grill cloth.

Here's the web page for the amp
http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/LivingRoomAmp.html

Your 1/4" joints look great, very nice job. I make 1/2" box joints (see my Avatar) on a homemade jig similar to a Dado rig but mine works on a router table instead.

What are you going to do for your grille cloth? The Oxblood looks cool with tweed (IMHO) or the Oxblood with the yellow stripe.

EDIT: A nice prewoven Cane grille looks great with tweed too. (just a thought)

[PRNDL]

I finished routing the edges and making the baffle board.
http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/Photos/LivingRoom/LR_cab1.JPG

I'm going to get some tweed this afternoon and will see what grill cloth material is available. Oxblood Yellow does look cool and might imply a Marshall vibe, although I was considering a radio one, but its unlikely that will be available. My SO likes leather handles, so it will have a definite tweed look.

It seems a bit tall in proportion, but that's to fit the speaker with the baffle board tightly secured to the cabinet. Otherwise there'd most likely be a lot of vibrations.

[tubeswell]

Very Nice

[PRNDL]

Well, I gave up on the "living room" amp idea for a bunch of reasons, and decided to make a Tweed Mini Champ.
http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/MiniChamp.html

http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/Photos/MiniChamp/Tweed3.JPG

I recorded some sound clips last night
http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/Sounds/MiniChamp/Breakdown.mp3
http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/Sounds/MiniChamp/Superman.mp3

[Casey4s]

Well, I gave up on the "living room" amp idea for a bunch of reasons, and decided to make a Tweed Mini Champ.
http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/MiniChamp.html

http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/Photos/MiniChamp/Tweed3.JPG

I recorded some sound clips last night
http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/Sounds/MiniChamp/Breakdown.mp3
http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/Sounds/MiniChamp/Superman.mp3

Ya did a nice job, it looks fantastic. It is almost a cube in shape.

[tubeswell]

Sounds nice too!

[PRNDL]

It is almost a cube in shape.

Hmmm ...

The Tube Cube

Sounds cool!

[Chuck_Farlee]

Very cool.

Do you have a schematic for your amp that you would like to share?

chuck

[PRNDL]

Do you have a schematic for your amp that you would like to share?

I'm keeping it secret for now.

I'm currently under the delusion that I could become a renowned boutique amp builder with this being my first product.

(I might be willing to email you the schematic and layout as long as I get credit when they form a Nobel Prize for amp building).

:D