LouderAndMore - progress updates

[VacuumVoodoo]

So here we are. It all started as a "just for fun project" and you guys forced us to develop it into a product.
20 amps are spoken for, 12 going to members of this forum, the rest to friends outside. Thanks go to all of you who encouraged this, wouldn't have happened without you.

This is where we stand today:

Power & speaker transformers ordered, delivery mid September.
Spent half day wednesday with our cabinet maker. Cabinets ordered. I'll have to cover all of them myself. 30 cabinets, I guess I'll have enough patience for 2 combos or 4 heads per day. I'm using water based glue so none of my 3 remaining brain cells should suffer any damage.
PCB layouts done, double checked, CAD files go to board house on Tuesday
Board assembly contracted
Already taken delivery of custom 100 knobs, tube sockets, custom handles in red leather.
Sheet metal chassis: a small hick-up here. My usual metal shop doesn't have a special punch for the power switch we'll be using. I have no intention of financing their tools so I'll be inspecting an alternative shop coming week. They do laser cut so any shape of holes go. Will have to coordinate this with powder coating and screen printing shop. We don't want misaligned legends on the front panel.

Located and bought 50pcs of NOS TELAM ECL82/6BM8 tubes Made in Poland - remember the chimney story?
These tubes were also made for Philips/Miniwatt & Mullard so you'll be getting the real McCoys.

Currently generating & checking bill of materials, damn, every little part must be listed, priced etc. Down to lengths and colors various wires.

I also need to poke a thumb or two into swedish Eminence distributors eyes and get him to quote a price I won't be able to refuse. Well. it's all in an amp builders day. Not to worry.

BTW. If anyone of you guys knows where I can get a wall clock showing 32hrs per day let me know. I need one really badly

Here's Ian Garret the cabinet maker at one of his projects. Ian is close to 2m tall naturalized import from Scotland, a great guy with a big heart. Besides collapsible pianos he builds sturdy PA loudspeaker cabs as well as cabinets for guitar amps.

[Donner]

Damn Alex you uncovered my secret life as a piano shrinker !!! thats what I look like before my semi annual sheering.

[VacuumVoodoo]

Damn Alex you uncovered my secret life as a piano shrinker !!! thats what I look like before my semi annual sheering.

That's because I know more about you than you think. BTW - sorry to be late with the wishes, so: Happy Birthday!

I'll be taking delivery of 15 head cabs tomorrow Friday, looks like a glue sniffing weekend for me. I'll probably hate british racing green imitation leather after I'm done covering all heads and combos.

Power transformers delivery confirmed for 22nd September.

[VacuumVoodoo]

Combo drawings checked, updated and delivered to Ian. Here are a few CAD renderings of the design. Don't mind the happazard choice of textures for various parts, it's just to make them easier to see. Front will be covered with grill cloth.
15mm birch plywood from renewable forrest.

[Donner]

heck with t he amps Aleks ..... get to work on that 32 hr a day clock !!!!!
Louder a nd More Hours is what Im about.....

is this a 10" or 12" cab ??

[VacuumVoodoo]

heck with t he amps Aleks ..... get to work on that 32 hr a day clock !!!!!
Louder a nd More Hours is what Im about.....

is this a 10" or 12" cab ??

Did you know that the French after the Revolution tried to introduce a 10 hr day, 100 minutes hour with 100 secs minutes? Didn't work out. Want to know why? Calculate how long would traditional 10 minutes of lovemaking last on that 10 hr clock. They would have had more success with 32 hr clock.

It's a 12" cab. Baffles are removable so anyone can make himself one for a 10" squeeker

[Donner]

heck with t he amps Aleks ..... get to work on that 32 hr a day clock !!!!!
Louder a nd More Hours is what Im about.....

is this a 10" or 12" cab ??

Did you know that the French after the Revolution tried to introduce a 10 hr day, 100 minutes hour with 100 secs minutes? Didn't work out. Want to know why? Calculate how long would traditional 10 minutes of lovemaking last on that 10 hr clock. They would have had more success with 32 hr clock.

It's a 12" cab. Baffles are removable so anyone can make himself one for a 10" squeeker

Ha, no love for Metric love, eh??

is this like the key on maps had to have been invented by a man ,,, because only a man could concieve of 1" eqauls 100 miles

[VacuumVoodoo]

5 heads covered so far - had to order vinyl glue from factory. I'm using non-toxic water based contact cement. It's normally sold in small tubes in shops but for all the heads and combos I need about 3 liters of the stuff, so had to go to factory to get it in a bucket.

1st combo cab is here, it was a cliff hanger of sorts. The concave front baffle was a tricky one, tolerance on its dimensions is 0.5mm to get correct curvature but it worked out. Lucky I still remember some of the trigonometry classes..
Mounting grill cloth requires a different method from mounting on standard 1/2" flat stiff baffle. Industrial strength double sided carpet fixing tape and a heat gun worked out perfectly.

Jack sockets, footswitches, custom potentiometers, mains transformers, pcbs and lots of other bits and pieces are here too.

Going to see the laser cutting guys on thursday to verify 1st chassis production sample.

stand by for more as it happens

[VacuumVoodoo]

Busy last few days. Thought you might like to see who else is involved in getting the amps produced, so here are some of the culprits.

Took a long trip in the countryside. Began with 65km north-east ride to Ians place to pick up all remaining combo cabinets.
He's watching this thread and asked me to correct a grave mistake I made when I wrote he's a Scotsman. He is an Englishman. A century or two ago I could have gotten a bullet or my head chopped off for such a thing.

15 combos loading up

After a nice chat, a cup of coffee and some bisquits a 50km ride south from Ians place to pick up test sample of the laser cut and powder coated chassis. So here's Mikael, the master laser operator.

1st chassis and Mikael

I grabbed the chassis and took a walk across the yard to see Stefan, the powder coating specialist during office hours, bike builder and a meaN guitar player after hours. He built this bike from ground up. Stefan showed some fancy stuff that can be done with powder coating, I'm getting a few wild ideas....

Stefans bike

It's Friday evening now, I just checked all mechanical aspect of the amps assembly. All chassis holes match up with pcbs, transformers, sockets etc . No corrections are needed. It's a go all the way for Mikael and Stefan to run the batch. I'll post some more pics Sunday.

[VacuumVoodoo]

Alright, I know you guys are eager to see some real hardware after all sketches and computer generated renderings.
Doing all these vinyl edge-to-edge corners made me realize I'm in the wrong line of work. I should have studied medicine (as my mother wanted me to) and be making loads of money off nose & tits jobs

The chassis is the first sample so no labels on this one and no logo on the box. Pics of head in a day or two.
The colors are what your monitor shows so may not be true to life. On my monitor the green has too much blue and the red panel is too bright, it's a shade darker than the red speaker.

Click on photos for higher resolution, vinyl and grill cloth textures will show.