Well...apparently I've screwed up

Ricky Lee · Post by **Ricky Lee** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:31 pm

I'm not a know-it-all and I've had plenty of help from the well experienced around here to get me thru some of these builds, and the one thing that I learned very quickly was wire placement and the twisting with the drill, which I can't stress enough. Here is a pic of the way I did my wiring and as I've said before, it is dead quiet, even with all the controls dimed. The grounds are pretty visible, so if that helps with placement.

http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/2853/jtm4519ta.jpg

thetasigma · Post by **thetasigma** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:38 pm

So what kind of a bit do you put in the drill to twist the leads with? Or do you just use a standard drill bit?

Ricky Lee · Post by **Ricky Lee** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:43 pm

thetasigma wrote:So what kind of a bit do you put in the drill to twist the leads with? Or do you just use a standard drill bit?

I just pair the wires I'm going to twist directly into the drill chuck itself and then slowly operate the drill. Make sure if your twisting leads that are already connected to a component at one end i.e. OT, PT, lamp etc.. that you hold the connected ends to keep from pulling them loose. No drill bit is used.

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 3:36 pm

Flames, could I get a little more info on how much you spaced out the grounds on the buss wire for your amp?

I'll snag a picture for you ASAP, right now I'm chasing oscillation in my '78........

thetasigma · Post by **thetasigma** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:16 pm

I'm posting a picture of my amp. The picture isn't of great quality, but if you guys see anything out of place let me know. You'll probably notice a a purple and a brownish wire twisted up down by the switches, those are the unused 220 and 240v taps for the PT, I didn't want to completely cut them off so I tied off the ends and tucked them away...but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

A new issue came up today when I turned on the amp to test if it still worked.
It didn't turn on, so I checked the fuses, and both were blown

So I double checked the instructions and I had the 1/5 amp and 2 amp correctly installed. So I guess my question is would this be caused by a bad tube or my shoddy wiring?

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 12:03 am

I don't see any reason to refer to that as shoddy wiring, that's a nice enough looking build!!

It's a little odd to blow both fuses at the same time. Get some extras to have as spares for troubleshooting.
The usual first step is to put in fresh fuses. Then remove the power and preamp tubes, but leave in the rectifier. Turn on the amp. If the fuses blow your problem is not the preamp or power tubes and we'll have to look for a short somewhere, or a shorted rectifier (which I've only had cause a big humming noise but never say never.). If the fuses are fine then tubes are a definite possibility, especially if one was flashing. Put in the preamp tubes (usually they're not the issue but stick to one step at a time.) You could even put them in with the amp powered up, one at a time. If the fuses are still fine, chances are your power tubes aren't going to make it. But shut down the amp and install them, then turn it on and see if the fuses blow.

thetasigma · Post by **thetasigma** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 10:58 am

Thanks Flames. I appreciate all the help you guys have given me, I probably wouldn't have made it this far without any of your help. This community is pretty damn cool!