trinityamps.com

While it seems pretty natural to me, preparing co-ax cable can be a challenge. I hope this helps.

Plain Co-Ax cable




Strip about 3/4" outside insulator off on end and 1/2" off other end





Push metal braided sheath towards one end so it bulges out




Use a large needle or small jewller's screwdriver to poke a hole
through the bulging sheath and 'fish' enough so you can get pliers to grip the inside conductor




Use needle nose pliers to grip and pull the inside conductor through the hole you just made



Twist the braid into one strand and strip 1/4" off the inside conductor.




After you've prepared the oposite end, apply 1/2" of shrink tubing over the end of the cable.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Good one, coco! I had some fun trying to separate that braid until you told me this method!

Thanks!

JP

Now why didn't you do this before.
I would sit there and take apart every strand for about an hour.
Damn

sorry

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Greetings all.
Is there a need for more of these sorts of wiring/building "Tips" on this forum? I can see that many of you are seasoned builders, but I can also see many questions being asked by others who are first time builders and could probably use a bit of advice to get started on the right foot. I don't want to step on any toes (especially with the boss), but I would be more than willing to offer tips and maybe photo examples like Stephen had here on various soldering and wire servicing procedures. I'm a 25 year veteran of the defense industry with DOD, NASA and J-STD 001 certifications. I'm titled as a Master Technician/Engineering Assistant with a specialty in wiring and cabling for NG and formally with UTC. Please let me know if this sort of information would be helpful to anyone.
Joe G

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Some assembly required,
Brain sold separately...

Hi Joe,

I'm about to embark on my first build (Plexi/V6). I would be grateful for any information/tips you could provide on soldering, tinning and prepping wires.

Thanks,
Mark

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Mark

Joe,

Sorry I missed your post!!

Great Offer!!! Absolutely, anything you want to do would be very much appreciated & we can help if you need some for posting/hosting your pictures..

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Thank you for the great reception and I'm more than happy to help if I can!

Stephen/everyone... What do you think would be the most useful format for something like this? There is a lot of information, and it would be great if it were all in one, easily accessible place that didn't get lost in the archives of the forum over time. Should it broken down into separate tutorials that correspond with the typical build, such as "Tool Selection", "Solder Types/Selection and Why", "Basic Mechanical Assembly", "Standards for Specific Solder Terminals", "How Getting Killed While Building a Guitar Amp Can Ruin Your Whole Day!!!", etc.?? Pictures seem to tell the story best, if not video. I would definitely need suggestions for posting pictures and so forth. Of course, I could always ask my 14 year old daughter for that info!!!
Thank you all in advance for your input!

Joe G

_________________
Some assembly required,
Brain sold separately...

We can make them "Stickies" so they're always up front or Add a new Resources forum.

Any thoughts?

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Actually, I was inspired to create a resources forum. It is only visible to forum members and will need an active moderator or two, or 3.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

I think a new "How To" Forum, might be the trick, with individual "How to's" for those challenging tasks as individual Topics.

JP

As a future project... How about a "How To" DVD, either enclosed with or offered for your kits? I'm on the edge of starting a build. Should I film it??? I love making a major production with everything I do... Just ask my wife!

Joe G

_________________
Some assembly required,
Brain sold separately...

Sounds very ambitious. It would have to be quite general in nature though because the design changes, there are variants and different amps , but a general good idea. Could stream it from the web site.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Hi all,

I think at this point a "How to" forum is the way to go.
Place it right at the beginning so all "newbies" (and me too!) will automatically see the info.

Joe:
Glad to have you onboard.

If I didn't say it before, glad to be back all.

Trinity amps are the worlds easiest to build and best sounding.

As usual, my 2 cents.
Later.

I think Stephen is right about the video idea as far as taping an entire amp building project. Perhaps just quickie videos of the common steps, such as stripping and tinning wires, lead forming, soldering to a turret terminal, that sort of thing to supplement some still pics and text. It would be just enough to give people the tools they need, but not push the limits of their attention span. I just sat through a 5 day certification for J-STD soldering, including 2 days of pathetic soldering videos from the 80's. We should make the terrorists sit through this stuff!

I've already started outlining some "Getting Started" information on proper tools, choosing the correct solder, that sort of stuff. Any suggestions on a format would be appreciated. I can submit perhaps Word™ docs to Stephen for editing an/or commentary, whatever works. I'm a decent musician, but not a big computer guy. Let me know.

Thank you again for the welcome reception. I hope my info will help out!
Joe G

_________________
Some assembly required,
Brain sold separately...

Word is fine, including pics. I can move into the forum as/if required. The format of the forum does not allow for great formatting but let's try! If necessary, we can create web pages for each subject but having it as part of the forum is a little more convenient. So, only advice I can offer is to keep it simple!

I like the idea of little "movie" snippets as you suggested.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

How is this procedure working for people?

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

I haven't tried it yet, but then again, I just read it. Thanks for the tip!

My asumption was that the operation in all the original pics was to create a shield "wire" for the purpose of soldering it. This is what I assumed was in the first picture above. If that's the case, is the second picture supposed to be of the opposite side of the coax cable, showing how the braid is protected by the heat shrink? Or, is it the intent to show how you can REALLY move the heat shrink back if you follow all of the original operation pics and then snip off the braid before covering it with heat shrink?

I suppose it comes down to what you mean by "prepared" for the other end.

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Go Buckeyes!

The shield should only be connected to ground at one end of the cable.....typically at the jack or pot. The shrink tubing covers the exposed shield wires at the opposite end to prevent anything from contacting them & shorting to ground.

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