Cindy is coming soon. Help Please

[gahult]

Hi,
Thought I would post these up and see if I have anything messed up.
I need to reorder my grid stoppers (V4,5) duh gave em the wrong Pt#.

The pilot light will need to be put in later after the face plate is on. Must be some way to put a connector on it (easier replacement if it ever burns out).

I do need some help with the input jack, as my eyes are getting old too.
and I can't find a good pic that I can see how its wired up. The build guide layout pic is ?????.

If someone could draw it up for me I would really appreciate it.

More pics to come.

Thank you,
Gary

[gahult]

More

[Ron Worley]

Gary-

Here's the input jack pic. I just make the faceplate hole large enough to pass the pilot light through- not 100% KF, but WAY easier, and it looks virtually identical.

[gahult]

Thanks Ron,
Got her wired.
Do you see any other issues, I was hoping for some "looks OK" or some other...."looks like crap" comments.
Now for the resistors, a 2amp fuse and nuts big enough to fire it up and I'll look fer smoke.
I'll have the camera (and the fire extinguisher) ready, for insurance purposes.

Thanks again,

Gary

[Ron Worley]

Gary-

I guess I have to ask- do you want total anal lead dress type comments, or just big stuff??

2 things jump out at me- no pilot light, and the foam on the caps- it's actually brown weatherstripping that's applied to the cover, not directly to the caps.

Let me know what level of comment you want....

Ron

[fishy]

Gary,

The plate wire for V1-6 looks a bit tight to me. Most of the builds I have seen generally give that plate wire a bit more room around the socket and other wires - input especially.
It might look different now though with the input wiring done. Maybe a recent picture with that done might be worthwhile.

Pete

[gahult]

Hi Ron and Pete,
Well Ron, not too anal , but if you see anything that really looks out of the norm, I would welcome any help being this is my first one. I figured that was where the foam goes (on the cover), but I guess I'm to lazy to measure the location and the caps looked, well ok I'll put it there. The black stuff looked better for thickness and was a bit firmer out of 20 min. of should I get this one or that one. And I'm color blind. LOL

Pete,
Yes it is a bit tight, and I burned it a bit soldering the input wire next to it.
So, I guess I will kill two birds and dress it a bit further away with some nice new wire. Thanks

Well I put together the current limiter and switched it on. No smoke. With out tubes B voltages around 395/400, bias won't go higher than about -25v.
Current limiter bulb glows dim..power on...standby, but no blown fuses and nothing hot. Any thoughts please.

Again
Thanks for your input.
Gary

[gahult]

By higher on the bias voltage I mean -30, -35, -40. Just sets at -20/-25 or so.
Thanks,

Gary

[gahult]

Pete,
How does that look? Better.

Gary

[fishy]

Gary,
Yes, I think that looks better and now you have a little to play with if you need to move it a little. I'm sure someone will let us know if I'm off base with this.
Overall, I think your build looks great. Way better than the first thing I ever did.

Pete

[gahult]

Pete,
Thanks, I used the pics you sent me as a reference a lot.
They really helped, now if I can get this glowing bulb and bias fixed I'll feel better.

Gary

[fishy]

Gary,
Ron had a post about his first build with some startup issues. The bulb limiter is discussed in that. You can expect a dull bulb initially because you don't have a load with the tubes out of the circuit. Limited current flow. Same goes for the B+ voltages. Until you place a load on them they will look very similar. I recommend you read that post as it might also help you further along the road.
As for the bias..... not so sure on that. Maybe someone more knowledgable can help clarify that. Its late and my brain has shutdown and there is no guarantee I can get my head around it in the morning either

Ron has some great pics in his post on the first build he did. He followed Fran very closely and did a great job. Fran is in the files section. Allyn has also posted some of his builds. His work speaks for itself.

Pete

[gahult]

Pete,
Took the limiter off.
No tubes voltage readings are:

Primary 594/604 (goes up and down???)

B1 418v
B2 418v
B3 414v
B4 414v
B5 415v

Filament at V1 6.4v

Bias -26/-32

That's what I have till grid blockers and EL34's get here.

Does that look in line as it should be?

Bias especially.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Gary

[fishy]

Gary,
Your best bet at this point is to reference the startup info in the build guide. You will find some typical voltages. It really does cover this area well.
Follow that closely and you should be fine. There are plenty of people on here that know way more than me and can help if you need it.

I'm not sure what the no load effect on the power side would be so I can't comment on the fluctuation, sorry. The voltages levels don't seem wrong to me though.

Pete

[gahult]

Progress:

Put tubes in V1-V3 one at time.

Readings are:
V1 Pin1 227v, Pin6 196v
V2 Pin1 294v
V3 Pin1 192v, Pin6 187v

B1 420v
B2 417v
B3 317v
B4 296v
B5 278v

Bias -26v

Do these look in line with what they should be?

Thanks

Gary