Yup, Another One... Kraken 50 Build: Round II

[FourT6and2]

Now with more snarl and 400% more aggression!

[g1]

Very nice work. What/why is the purple?

[scottosan]

Very nice work. What/why is the purple?

Pretty sure it's shrink wrapped diodes

[FourT6and2]

Pretty sure it's shrink wrapped diodes

Shrink wrapped Krakens.

[Justin Thomas]

I thought they were Kraken eggs...

Justin

[g1]

Something shameful that needs to be hidden? Or is there some functionality that the wrap serves?

[FourT6and2]

Something shameful that needs to be hidden? Or is there some functionality that the wrap serves?

I dunno. They come heat-shrinked already. I just like purple, so I added it. One contains 12v diodes and the other 20v. Different builders who do this same Jose/Cali circuit use different types of clippers. Some use diodes, some zeners, some use other various things. They all do the same basic function.

[FourT6and2]

I really love having a power transformer with solder tags. Makes wiring it up much cleaner. Wish more companies would do it this way.

[FourT6and2]

[SoulFetish]

Oh, dude (not Dude, with a capital D. I'm talking to you, FourT6and2)... Hey, I just got it! 46 & 2, like our chromosomes

It only took me 3 months to crack the case and actually read your name correctly. Don't I feel like a Tool!
(see what I did there, dropping the "Tool" reference in just for good measure)

Anyway, let me steer this back on the tracks. I noticed you gang up your ground terminals, so I thought maybe these may make you life a little easier. I use them to fasten grounds at the filter nodes and love'em. I've been to give you the heads up about these solder terminals if you're interested:


Newark has these as an example:
19.05.745 - ETTINGER - SOLDER EYELET, 3X ANGLED, 0.169" | Newark element14
I got mine from through ebay, shipped from Israel and remember them being inexpensive.


But, the holy grail of ground terminals still evades me. For the life of me, I don't know where the hell Morgan Jones got his hands on these –

But, I can't find these anywhere, and I'm pretty good at sourcing components. Much better than I am at reading comprehension when it comes to people's names.

[FourT6and2]

lol dude.

Stacking them up on a bolt is nice because you can rotate them to whatever position works better for lead dress.

[catalin gramada]

Stacking lugs on a bolt is questionable, specialy when we talk about signal returns due to unavoidable mechanical contact residual resistance. I made myself multipole lugs whenever I need it from a piece a plumbing copper pipe. Cut it on lengh, plane straighten, and cut out with a scissor how many pole you want, staining at the end. It takes ten minutes to made a couple if you design a good template.
There are some "tricks" to make a easy soldering multipole lug. I make the section of the base of each lug as small to limit the thermal transfer from the top of the lug to the rest of the piece.

[mikepukmel]

Stacking lugs on a bolt is questionable, specialy when we talk about signal returns due to unavoidable mechanical contact residual resistance. I made myself multipole lugs whenever I need it from a piece a plumbing copper pipe. Cut it on lengh, plane straighten, and cut out with a scissor how many pole you want, staining at the end. It takes ten minutes to made a couple if you design a good template.
There are some "tricks" to make a easy soldering multipole lug. I make the section of the base of each lug as small to limit the thermal transfer from the top of the lug to the rest of the piece.

Catalin, if you stack them, can you clean off one side of the stack and use a heavy 100W soldering iron and put a bead of solder down to the chassis to get rid of the additional resistance? Ive been scouring the web for photos of vintage chassis like the one Im working on, and I don't know if its factory, or later changes, but many of the chassis with lugs bolted to the chassis have had the lug soldered. Is there any reason for not doing that?

[Thoriated Tungsten]

Nice work. I would recommend moving the center tap of your 2x 350V secondary over to the HT PCB. Specifically the negative terminal of the first filter cap, right after the rectifiers. There are exactly zero good reasons to have the ripple current from the HT supply flow through the chassis. Make the HT supply PCB be completely 'floating', then route ground and HT to the rest of the amp.

[catalin gramada]

Catalin, if you stack them, can you clean off one side of the stack and use a heavy 100W soldering iron and put a bead of solder down to the chassis to get rid of the additional resistance? Ive been scouring the web for photos of vintage chassis like the one Im working on, and I don't know if its factory, or later changes, but many of the chassis with lugs bolted to the chassis have had the lug soldered. Is there any reason for not doing that?

Welding bolts/lugs on steel chassis is perfect. When don.t - I think plated crimp washers is acceptable compromise from a standard perspective