Foreplay III redux Fi edition

[Paul Birkeland]

I used to work for FPE, and we had loads of customers put grooves in our panels and bend them.  The anodizing may crack a little bit on the outside radius of the bend, but that hardly matters for what you're doing.  The 5005 alloy is super soft, so it bends pretty well.  It also scratches pretty easily...

[Deke609]

You could consider bending them the opposite way - with uncut surface facing out. Couldn't use the 60 deg cut to guide how far to bend, but I bet you could rig up a guide out of wood or something.  Just a thought. Not a suggestion. And then again, a perfect thin groove in the "corners"might look like a pretty cool intentional design feature.

cheers, Derek

[Thermioniclife]

Thank's PB,
I thought that they told me that they used 2000 series aluminum but i will accept your statement that they use 5000 series.
I am not so concerned regarding the cracking on the outside of the radius which will be on the inside but rather they do not offer a V groove as opposed to a V groove with a 1 mm/ .03937 flat on the bottom of the groove. This can put variables on the fold point. As i stated before i think all will be well, although we shall see. Stay tuned for another exiting episode of this build.
Regards to all.

[Thermioniclife]

Panels arrived yesterday. progress so far. Kinda tired now, i was up at 4:30 am and it's 7 pm now. Enjoy the Pics and i will expound ad 
nauseam in the next exciting episode of this build. Stay tuned.

[Thermioniclife]

Forgot a couple.

[Paul Birkeland]

I wish Doc B. would let me put labels like that on certain things...

[Deke609]

But that would have scared me off from diy audio!  Then again, being an FW, I probably wouldn't have heeded the warning 

[Paul Birkeland]

But that would have scared me off from diy audio! 

Such a label wouldn't be applied to a kit

[Doc B.]

The fundamental issue is that a fuckwit will open it anyway, warning or not. That's why they are a fuckwit. Come to think of it, I guess that makes me a fuckwit.

[Thermioniclife]

We all are fuckwits at times. I still remember when i was about 5 years old and i stuck a wire in a wall outlet.
That was the seminal moment that shaped my misguided life!
Making progress today, will post pic's later. It's been 2 and a half weeks with temps in the upper 80's to low 90's and high humidity.
I'm melting.

[Thermioniclife]

Ok, today's progress.
The first pic is the back of the power panel complete. the second pic is the front panel as i progressed today. The tube side is complete except for the grid and plate cap wiring because that will happen after the panel is bent. On the left side i am in the process of wiring the input selector, balance and volume control in which i will then remove once completed and transfer to the input panel for final wiring,
At that point when final assembly occurs all i need to do is secure those 3 control's to the front panel. Hopefully. Hey Bottle head crew, i'm gonna try a 10k balance pot, any thoughts? Peace out all, stay cool and safe.

[Paul Birkeland]

i'm gonna try a 10k balance pot, any thoughts? Peace out all, stay cool and safe.

Since the FP-III didn't come with one, you'd need to draw out what you plan to wire up and we could comment.

[caffeinator]

Outstanding work - this thread is just the thing for the monotony of quarantine (quaranotony?).

Will you enclose the edges to exclude the probing fuckwit fingers, or will this preamp do double duty as something of a fuckwit porchlight/bugzapper?

[Doc B.]

IIRC Don used perforated metal to make grills over the gaps between the panels.

[Thermioniclife]

Roger that big daddy, i have a couple of in wall spk brackets with perf metal wings that i can use. Gotta find them but i know i have them. i used to be in that business.