NEW PROJECT! Semi-Automated Record Cleaner!

We have been talking about buying a record cleaner that a few of us could share. Now, since we have "finished" the amp and have this time booked out each week we thought it would be best to just move straight onto a new project before we fill the time slot with anything else.

The basis of this project will based on Jimmy Neutrons design.

The plan is to source the parts (minus the VPI brush) from the local Thrift Stores and whatever parts that we have already.

List

Direct Drive Turntable with dust cover
Shop vac or small canister vac with hoses
Shelf or rolling cart with a door or drawer
Catch tank for fluid
Junction box for wiring
Switches and outlet for external control

The Finished Product!

We are still having some trouble with the excessive bass, but with the preamp it can be controlled a bit better.

The project took quite some time so, even though its not perfect, we decided to just put it into use.



Some of the final wiring.. It's not too clean, but its still something to be proud of.

I moved around some things and got this on top of the NAD pre and there is enough ventilation for it. I do like how it looks and I am sure over time we will tweak it a bit to get it to sound better, but as of now it is a great functioning amp.

So.. We Finished the Amp.. kinda : /

After all is said and done we tackled the rest of the components, checked and double checked everything and the moment of truth was upon us!!!

After shielding ourselves and putting in ear plugs, we went ahead and plugged it in!

To our shock, all of the tubes lit up as they should and the amp looked lovely... however, shortly after it began to make a strange noise and did not really function the way that we hoped.

So, off to AudioKarma.org for some advice! In the meanwhile.. look how pretty it is!

If you are curious... keep an eye on the thread at AudioKarma and DiyAudio

Changing up the solder and some real progress is made!

Discovered tonight that a lot of our soldering trouble was coming the type were using. Although we aren't sure of the current brand, it is certainly working a lot better. Melts at lower temp and seems to flow a lot better.

Close up of capacitors.

We feel like some major progress has been made, we counted up the parts that are remaining and found them all on schematic. We should be ready to test and power up within three weeks.

Slow and steady.... that's the pace

Wiring up the transformers

On/On switch?

A bit more progress...

Today we spent another couple of hours wiring.

We were able to get all of the speaker outputs wired up



..about half of the volume control

and the first handful of components in place.

Its actually starting to look like the complex mess that it should look like!