DIY Western Electric 417A Kit.

 A four+ year ebay hunt finally payed off when I bagged this little gem.  I first saw one down in DC at mikes place and from that moment I needed one.    According to mike, they made these at the factory and used the vacuum pump to get all of the air out.  The pics below are from some different angles so you can see all the parts.

proud papa....

in the realm of DIY, "proud papa" usually refers to pride in a work that you have created... in this corner of DIY, usually an amp or speaker... but in this case, I am actually a proud papa...

my oldest called me one day and told me that he found some gear... and this is the photo from his dorm room:

for scale, that is his laptop.. and yes, a full size laptop... I am so proud!

[and Happy New Year!  one of my resolutions is to start blogging twice a week.. I realized that I had been extraordinarily slack in posting when twice in the same week someone asked why I linked them to "dave's blog"... sheesh!]

peace,
me

Choke me in the shallow water....

...before I get too deep.

What is pictured above is 14 pounds of copper and amorphous in the form of some 12hy 200ma PS chokes.  The interesting little additional fact is they can handle 1000Vac @ 120hz without buzzing and will be used as L1 after some 872's in a GM70 amp.

Bjorn must be one unlucky guy....

with 13 as his lucky number it finally paid off.

contact me by email with your delivery info.

dave

Black Free-Day

Up for grabs is a pair of the autoformer modules.

add a comment with your name and random.org will pick the winner on cyber moanday.  (worldwide shipping is on us)

Back in the Trenches

Been away for a bit but now I'm back and moving full speed ahead with all of those projects on the "to do" list.

I'll start at the beginning...

can't forget the pins....

can't forget the last two...

stay tuned.

dave

late last night. installing some Slagle nickel....

.

and thinking that I cannot wait for him to get back to winding.. and he will.. he will be back home very soon.. we had a great technical conversation last weekend at the hospital... he still has a lot of rehab to go, but I have a hunch he will be winding bifilars and autoformers really, really soon...

can I get an "Amen!"?

burn.

watched it with iain

More MIA

JC opened this can of wiggly things.

They are playing at the old club exit on 9 spetember...   anyone wanna go?

dave

CAF 2014

 Racks, snacks, cable lifters, footers and tube displays by Ikea USA

  

Fribees by Ikea Germany

  

This year we were helping Gary Gill the show promoter out.

a vinyl only room of course!

and the wonderful 49 cent tube displays. 

 I'll link some show coverage in the next few days so you can play where's waldo for the cable lifters and other shocking revelations.

Lois

ABC 123

reviving some old friends....

.

an old friend is now making music upstairs at the Catskill Mill...

 and an old friend made this plinth that is also making music here at the Mill...

peace,
me

Quad Progress

replaced the original panels in the other speaker with PK refurbed panels.

 Family member and fellow Junkie Steve Berger came to help.

and apparently snapped this when he finished.

 and finally the results of what was cooking the other night hooked to the PK panels.

Old tyme cooking,

Here is my latest attempt at "dinner and drinks".

Drinks

Dinner

For some reason everyone opted for cheap beer and pizza which amazed me considering the purity of the ingredients of my concoctions.

Hopefully there will be some more discerning geeks at walterfest.