Yet Another Express...

[dorrisant]

I know... you've seen Express builds before. Here's my take on a traditional style build. The only real deviation is the added master volume. I came up with this solution for the stack o' caps thing. It worked out just fine.

I've had this PT, chassis and headshell here since '12 or so... got it from rj. Rooster posted the OT in the FS section and I knew what I was going to build, (thanks Rooster!!). Years ago, someone had taken the headshell to apply a dark stain. Needless to say, he botched the job and left a few dings in it when he dropped it. The stain would likely look better if I had applied it using my feet! So I used a sock full of wood screws to beat the crap out of it then sanded it back down. I think it turned out great.

The locomotive on the front took a lot of time to tweak through CAM to get it to come out right... totally worth it though. On the back, I used a font that looked pretty close to Dymo labels to give it the correct look... I'm not sold on that part, but it is what it is.

It is biased up and breathing fire. Sylvania 6CA7s and Mullard 12AX7s for good tone. Still gotta make a bottom plate and install the weather stripping etc..

I can make boards if anyone needs them.

[dorrisant]

A few more pics...

[joeboo88]

Wow that’s really purdy I love the cabinet. The stack o caps looks really…. Like a sandwich o caps. Nice innovation
Great job.

[johnnyreece]

Beautiful work! Do you mind sharing what program you use to design your turret boards?

[bepone]

nice, keeping the style on

[dorrisant]

Thanks guys!

Do you mind sharing what program you use to design your turret boards?

I use Corel 2019 at the moment... I import a layout and resize it if needed. Then I use guidelines to cross all of the centers and then create circles of the appropriate sizes and place them on the centers. Once done, I can export as a dxf file to be pulled into SheetCam.

Sometimes I use DIYLC to generate the drawing and export it as a pdf for import into Corel.

Ask me anything about it and I'll give you as much detail or help as possible.

[dblgun]

Very nice, the variations you implemented are clever. How do you like the 6550's in this circuit?

[dorrisant]

Very nice, the variations you implemented are clever. How do you like the 6550's in this circuit?

They aren't 6550. They are Sylvania 6CA7s. I haven't had the time to crank it up yet. Waiting until the better half is away working.

[dblgun]

Yep, the plate structure of the big bottle 6CA7's threw me a curve. Looking forward to your report as you ring it out.

[Reeltarded]

Everytime I start to reply my phone rings and the conversations confuse my response.

I LOVE IT! It looks great and I bet it sounds weird!

Hey, take it out of the shell. You aren't finished. Get a can of barn red and a can of off white. Cut a Volition stencil and do this.

Tanic, ammonia.. a little damp #0000 later..

IMG_7853.jpeg

[romberg]

Very nice build. How do you create the faceplate labels? I've been looking for alternatives to laser etching and your builds always have good looking labels.

Mike

[dorrisant]

Very nice build. How do you create the faceplate labels? I've been looking for alternatives to laser etching and your builds always have good looking labels.

Mike

They are CNC engraved then filled with enamel.

[ChopSauce]

That's really nice!

Yet another inspiring build on this forum ... (-;

[dorrisant]

Thanks again fellas!

As a final thought... I used Dynamat in place of the weather stripping. It works very, very well.

[stringtuner]

Fantastic build, sir. Very clever on the cabinet finish. Looks great!

Thanks for sharing.