This is my 1st Bottlehead project and see that many post build logs to show progress and also seek advice where needed during the build. This forum and community are great from all I have read and I am happy to become part of it! It was very helpful to follow various techniques people use, so I thought I would take the time to post my fabrication while the transformer bell coating cures!
I have been tinkering with electronics since I was a little one and learned early with my Dad's Heatkit "Look ma, it's a real stereo hi-fi!" that tubes are very hot but building your own stuff is fun and really satisfying. Anyway, here I am decades later still tube rolling and building stuff.
Prep & knowledge. Read lots in the forum here & other places, watched the videos of anyone building or talking about Bottlehead. Focused especially the YT ones where people have no idea what they are doing and have terrible wiring or soldering skills. That's how not to do it. Even with my sparky eng schooling and IT background I learned a few things to apply on the Bottlehead builds. Thanks!
Unpacking and inventory went well and all was accounted for as ordered. I wanted to keep my wood frame and top plate blemish free during the build so I jigged up a foam platform from old computer packing.
Wood. There was a daunting task ahead of me as I know little about wood finishing, staining and final coating. Thankfully my wife has done many wood projects and was there to provide advice & tools but I had to figure this out on my own since alder wood is new to us.
I invested the time between shipping & delivery by testing a few stains and my finishing skills on half-dozen alder switch plates purchased from Lowes. A much cheaper alternative then wasting a nice piece of wood to relegate to the scrap pile with botched staining! After applying the pre-stain conditioner, I tried SamaN water based black and it was much too dark and did not bring out the grain but rather buried it. I settled on Minwax semi-transparent black which gave me the look I was after. Awesome.
Finish coat is Minwax water based polyacrylic satin. This takes time to learn how to apply and takes a lot of patience. It settles the brush strokes very well however is very prone to surface bubbles from poor brush loading technique. Use a cup and not the can edge. Thanks YouTube lady for your help with this product!
After dozens of applications/sanding's on the test bed and a larger piece of low grade pine (unfinished over lit rough sample in pics), I think I have the staining technique down and looking forward to applying to the "production" build. In case someone is wondering why I chose water based finishes, well this time of year it's getting cooler in these parts and I can't do work outside or the garage. This stuff barely smells after application and is well under control with a USB exhaust fan in the window.
Metal. Now this I know about compared to wood! I decided early on that I wanted to stay aluminum industrial like with a black wood finish. My liquid cleaning chemical of choice for this job is rubbing alcohol since it reacts well with aluminum and not as harsh as say acetone to handle.
I polished the tube covers with some heavy cut metal polish and they turned out nicely and a lot shinier then I thought they would for Al.
The backplate was marked up from bubble marks and probably from the cutting mill. Anyway, no big deal, these marks and scuffs were easily removed with a pink scotch brite sponge combo pad and rubbing alcohol. I noticed a nice pattern developing by using a unidirectional rub with the pad. Hummm… That looks clean and even. I broke out some 320 sanding paper, stroked in long front to back over the whole thing. After cleaning off, I used the metal polish and hand rubbed in the same direction. For the top of the plate, very lightly used the pad with alcohol to clean some blemishes but nothing else then repeated the metal polish to remove oxidation. Rince, repeat…. More rubbing with alcohol & clean cloth to remove everything.
The transformer bell is steel. Only so much you can do with bare steel and you gotta do something with bare steel Doc B. says. I cleaned off with Dawn and rubbing alcohol using the scotch brite pad and then used the sandpaper to mimic the top plate vertical finish. Slow, steady and patience… I ended up using a Tremclad clear coating … for some reasons there is no clear satin lacquer within 50Kms around here.
So that's it for this inaugural edition.
