First build

[demonufo]

Differently? Yes it most certainly is. It will need wiring directly across the heater string on the first power tube socket.

[hotshot9911]

lol alright thanks demon! before I start soldering is there any tips you guys can give me?

[neikeel]

Don't rush, read the instructions three times before you start, measure each resistor value before fitting, keep your leads straight where you can, pause and check your work often.

It will be a good idea to print off a large picture of the layout and you intended product on a board up in front of you too as reference.

Have fun!

[hotshot9911]

Thanks neikeel!I wanted know from you though lol how do you solder?someone told me it was best not to solder using the iron directly but to heat up your part and apply the solder using the part you are soldering to??? when you feed a wire through like a ground lug do you have the wire fed through it already then solder over it or do you get the solder onto the part then heat it back up and feed the wire through??thanks neikeel lol sorry about all the questions but I want this to be a good build.Thanks and please respond back-Jake

[hotshot9911]

oh ya! guys what do you think is best for cleaning the flux residue? I have 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol but I think someone said something about using 91% because the 70% kind of leaves a film??I am using kester 63/37 44 solder wire

[neikeel]

Never heat the component lead unless you cannot help it (unless it is a flying lead etc).

You trim your wire or component lead (measure twice - cut once) bend the lead at 90degrees to fit in the lug neatly, or if it is split turret lay it in to get good physical contact, and then apply heat to the lug or turret. After a few seconds (depending on the power of your gun) test the component side of the joint with the solder (I keep mine on the reel) to see if it melts. If it does gently feed just enough solder in to fill the gap between the component and lug, do not try to build a big blob of solder.

What turrets or lugs are you using? Whose board (ie solid/perforated, paxolin or fibreglass)?

The best way for a newbie is to use a board with a hole next to the turret/lug and feed the wire up the hole and then wrap the stripped back bit of wire around the lug one whole turn (again good physical contact) and then solder. Also wire all your black bus wire on top of the board (plenty of good examples around) so you can make sure they are correct and maybe trouble shoot more easily later. Components go in later.

Ps if you use that soder there will be minial splatter - clean up depends on your board mmaterial and as you get better there will be virtually nothing to clean up. I use paxolin boards and just knock any dry bits off with a cotton bud (q-tip?) with a little contact cleaner on it.

[hotshot9911]

Thank you so much neikeel! I am going to post some pics at the bottom for ya guys and tell me if anything to your eye is suspicious lol but its been two days now I have been working on it and so far I am very satisfied except for a few joints(solder joints) lol but very few,I am thinking about at the end of my build going back and soldering the ones I dont like and re doing them,which is only like 3.I will be done for tonight and tomorrow pick up again but I sent every page from the 50w metroamp instructions to my email and tonight I am going to open them on my Xbox in my room and just check over my work like 4 times from page 1 but what do you guys think so far???

sorry guys for some reason it wont let upload any of the pics on here so I uploaded them to a photo sharing site-

http://postimg.org/gallery/3dtxmo936/5bbc43eb/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[hotshot9911]

ok guys I looked over my progress and everything seems to be in good order except for what I think is one mistake I made.I noticed on the metroamp ot primary's they are brown,red and white.You twist and route the red and white to the v4 and v5 while the brown wire is used later to connect to the board.Ok on my classic tone they are red,white and blue I twisted the red and white but now that I notice I am pretty sure it is the blue and red wires that are twisted and routed to v4 and v5 while the white wire is twisted with choke.but I am putting up a diagram of it but other than that to me everything else looks were it is supposed to be.Thanks guys and I cant wait to get this started up again see ya guys later!

Im sure you guys know exactly what im talking about lol I just like involving the diagrams

[demonufo]

The only Isopropyl I have is 99% for cleaning tape heads. Works great.

[vh junkie]

ok guys I looked over my progress and everything seems to be in good order except for what I think is one mistake I made.I noticed on the metroamp ot primary's they are brown,red and white.You twist and route the red and white to the v4 and v5 while the brown wire is used later to connect to the board.Ok on my classic tone they are red,white and blue I twisted the red and white but now that I notice I am pretty sure it is the blue and red wires that are twisted and routed to v4 and v5 while the white wire is twisted with choke.

Given what you posted, I think you are right about which wires go to v4/v5... I would just add that you should make both wires long enough to go to v5 pin3. A lot of the time you will need to reverses these two wires, and if you leave the wire going to v4 too short, you will not be able to do that.

[hotshot9911]

thanks man but I am wondering what do you mean by you are going to have to reverse the wires?

[neikeel]

thanks man but I am wondering what do you mean by you are going to have to reverse the wires?

The red wire and blue wire are not infrequently labelled the wrong way round, such that if you test the amp instead of getting negative feedback (through the tail of the PI) you get positive feedback and a scream/wail or motorboating. The sensibe thing is to leave these wires longer than they need to be so that if they are the wrong way round you can swap them over and then trim to length or if it works ok just trim to the correct length.
Yo need to keep all the wires in the amp the correct length - too short and they may fracture or pull out of the connection and too long they act as antennae for hum, interference and parasitic oscillation.

[hotshot9911]

Thank you Neil I understand now,I am going to post a pic of the chassis soon because it is ready for the board now but I was wondering if you think it would be a good idea to of course go over and check everything again to make sure all is in the right spot,but would it be a good idea for those couple of joints I think need to be redone to solder suck them up and redo the joints??The 2 I would like to redo are on the pots were the 18 gauge is grounded to the back and are really ugly lol but mostly those 2 and 2 joints were the buss is going through the 4 terminals on the speakers don't look very pretty either but other than that would it be a good idea to suck them back up and redo them?

And last I wanted to ask you guys im sorry I don't completely understand but for the 6v indicator I route one of the wires to the power switch and it is installed in the same terminal as the brown 120v pt wire and the other is routed to one of the tube sockets?? sorry guys lol I know most of this stuff is probably just common sense.

[neikeel]

And last I wanted to ask you guys im sorry I don't completely understand but for the 6v indicator I route one of the wires to the power switch and it is installed in the same terminal as the brown 120v pt wire and the other is routed to one of the tube sockets?? sorry guys lol I know most of this stuff is probably just common sense.

No the 6v lamp is wired with one wire to to the same lug as a red heater wire on V4 or V5 and the other to a black heater wire on the same socket. That way it is in parallel with all of your heaters and will get power directly from the heaters - no switch involved at all. You should go for the neatest run over to the chosen socket with the wires reasonably tightly (and evenly) twisted to give hum rejection.http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j2/ne ... mps013.jpg not perfect but one of mine from years ago.

What sort of board are you using (for bringing wire up through board to turrets)?

[hotshot9911]

Hey guys,I am done arranging the board and have a question,I am using the regular carbon film resistors and the 47k for nfb is to short so when I ordered the sozo's I ordered 3 more 100k resistors and 2 more 47k and they are all to short including the 100k for the v2b cathode resistor, should I connect the v2b and just bend it to the left?I will include a picture of that but should I just order 2 carbon comp resistors for these?it seems like the cc usually have longer leads.But thanks guys and please respond back-Jake