Thanks PB. All wise words.
I wouldn't recommend the separate chassis approach. Things can get very complicated very quickly.
No doubt. I haven't even sketched a layout diagram yet. I'll at least play around on paper with some ideas and then weigh the costs/benefits against those of one big chassis.
Copper looks cool, but it's very soft and heavy, and a 19" x 14" x 1/8" chassis plate will be $300 before you get any machining done to it.
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A 12 x 18 piece of 1/8th goes for about $150 USD - but, yeah, a custom size could add another 100 onto that. So maybe a standard would be the way to go. And I know that it is very challenging to work with -- but from what I've gathered, it's doable with a drill press, coolant/lubricant spray (apparently milk works well!), and either specially blunted bits or a step bit to keep the bit from biting into the copper. I would cut the right angle holes with a gigantic jeweler's frame saw. It would take forever, but I've been wanting to do it for a while.
If you absolutely have to have motor run caps, consider making the chassis taller and laying them on their sides.
That's a good idea. Simpler still, as another forum member recently suggested to me, might be to replace only the last cap in the ps and swap in a choke for one of the resistors.
However I end up building it, I intend to first build it largely stock, with the exception of the parafeed and interstage coupling caps, and my usual additional copper shielding (although, having studied the very well-spaced layout of the Kaiju, I am less enthused than usual about the additional shielding). My goal is to settle on a chassis size/layout that will enable me to play around with things relatively easily down the road. I think the PS experiments would best be done after full burn in of the amp with new tubes and caps. Once the sound is stable, I could then listen for differences.
