Stereomour II mods

[Paul Birkeland]

I'm definitely surprised that they took that on and I'd be interested in seeing how it looks when you get it!

If the socket are feeling a little squishy, you could draw up a filler plate to mount underneath that, then just paint that a contrasting color to add some stiffness to the top plate.

[hmbscott]

I received my custom chassis plate today. SendCutSend did their usual amazing work! I did a couple of strength tests, and far as I can tell my custom plate has approximately the same stiffness as the standard plate. There was no issue with inserting a 2A3 (I realize I installed the socket backwards). Note the degree of deflection in each plate while supporting a 10-lb barbell weight and after it was removed.

[Paul Birkeland]

That came out well!

[2wo]

I like it!

[hmbscott]

Thanks! I’m happy with how it turned out.

[Karl5150]

Well done, it will truly be a functional piece of art. Thanks for the photos and inspiration.
Karl

[pboser]

Looks cool!  Would you mind sharing the cost of the custom chassis plate? 
Thanks, and good luck with the build,
Pete

[hmbscott]

Thank you!

Yeah, so it's not cheap. There's a lot of cutting on this one, so a lot of machine time. For comparison, SendCutSend quoted me for the standard chassis plate, $68.85 in qty of one in 5052 aluminum 0.100 thick. They have a cool instant quote feature just with uploading a design file. So that gives you an idea of what you could expect for something simple like holes resized or moved around. But, suppose you wanted the standard layout, but in C110 copper 0.125 thick. That quotes at $352.31.

My custom chassis plate is 5052 aluminum 0.100 thick. The cost was $356.74 (less tax and shipping). If I had ordered my design in 1/8" copper it would have set me back $679.57. I thought about it, but that's both more than I wanted to spend, and because its thicker it would have required an increase in the minimum feature size, which would've changed the look of the art.

[Mucker]

A unique plate in every sense of the word. Nice expression of creativity!

I'm still trying to figure out how Doc got his head inside that bottle ......

[Thermioniclife]

Sweet.

[2wo]

I'm still trying to figure out how Doc got his head inside that bottle ......

He had to hold his breath.

Have you considered, once it's done, experimenting with a little under hood light. Maybe a gentle "filament orange" glow or something...John

[Mucker]

That could look pretty slick. Shortly after I built my Moreplay, I was messing around with under-lighting, before I just settled for an illuminated switch. I temporarily placed a red bicycle tail light under the chassis to see what it would look like. Gave it an interesting look for sure. Strategically placed, subtle lighting could really make it pop IMO.

[denti alligator]

Cool, looks nice! how did you wire that?

[Mucker]

Cool, looks nice! how did you wire that?

I didn't end up going that direction, it was just a simple test with a red light I had laying around. Of course the unit was off when I placed it in there and well away from the IEC socket.

I never got to the point of wiring it up but it could be done in a way when you turned the unit on the lighting would come on with it. I would definitely get some advice on the best (and safest) way to integrate the power needed for the illumination in a way to obviously not affect audio performance or worse ... electrocution.

[hmbscott]

2wo, ... light under the hood ... Yes, Have been kicking that idea around. On a related note I have been thinking about the paint job that might go well with lighting, perhaps an orange to purple to black gradient "evening sky" like this (w/o stars), which I think I would have to get professionally done because I'm not that talented. If done well it could be awesome.

I'm torn because my other Bottledhead gear is Rust-Oleum Forged Hammered Antique Pewter, and I like the fact that they all match, but I doubt Antique Pewter would be complemented by under lighting, so ... I'm procrastinating on painting for now.

Mucker, that under lighting looks very cool!