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Ok, so I'm doing an sIII build and I thought I would post my progress pics so if anybody spots me doing something stupid, they can stop me before I get too far!

Ground bar:


Turret board 33% done!



I've been using the audio probe on my multimeter to check continuity with the component lead and the back of each turret. So far, everything sounds good!

Thanks for any help!

AG

Here's the center section...




Thanks for looking and for any suggestions!

AG

Think it looks good so far.

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

Here's the last third of the board:



And a quick shot of the whole board:



Thanks for looking!

AG

Components look like they're in the right places but on another review, I think you've forgotten a jumper underneath. Check please!

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

Hey, thanks, Stephen!

That jumper has a lead coming off the bottom of the board, so I thought I would run that with all the other leads, which I will probably get to today!

Thanks for the checkup!

AG

Ok, got my transformers in the mail yesterday and mounted them up on the chasis. Here's a picture of the turret board with the leads on the bottom and the added jumper. I did notice a mistake that I had made with the other jumper and moved it to the proper place.



Here's the transformers on the chasis:




One quick question, do you have to cut the heater wires at each tube or is there a neat way to strip a little of the insulation away and wrap them at each one. It's a little hard to tell what people are doing from the photos!

Thanks!

AG

edit: edited for typo

Kids didn't cooperate with nap schedules, so not too much work today. Here's the rectifier socket and the mains ground:



And the heater tag board:



I'm still curious about the heater wire, do you cut it at each socket or is there a cool way to strip and twist it without cutting it that I don't know about? Thanks for the help everyone!

AG

You have to terminate it at each socket. No silver bullet, sorry!

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

Oh well, I can dare to dream

Here's the power ground and cap:




And here's the tag board in the chassis:



Continuing to make progress...

Thanks for looking !

AG

All looks good so far.

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

Ok, quick question: How do I tell directionality on the plug socket? Looking at it this way:



Which one is the hot lug and which one is neutral? There don't seem to be any markings on the socket itself that identify it...

Anyway, I hope the more experienced builders will pardon me for saying that I am not a big fan of heater wires... Here's my attempt:









So there... Oh, Stephen, it appears in your color enlargement of the power wiring scheme, you have the heater wire colors reversed going to the preamp tubes. The smaller color layout picture of the whole chassis seems to have it correct, at least, that is the one I followed as it was consistant with the pictures that others had posted.

As always, thanks for the feedback!

AG

With the center pin (ground) pointing up, Line is on the right.
With the center pin (ground) pointing down (as in layout drawings), Line is on the left.

BTW, the ground wire typically goes to the hole on the top of the chassis above the socket, not on the rear panel.

I fixed the polarity on the 6.3VAC heaters some time ago so I will post them.

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

Thank you sir!

I noticed after the fact that other people had used that top hole, I picked the one in the back because it looked good there Is there something else that typically takes up that hole that will mess me up later on?

Thanks again!

AG

With the Trinity OT, you can switch from 8K to 5K if you want. That's where that toggle switch goes. Not so much on the 18 watt tho.
I guess my layout needs to be clearer?

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

No, I probably just wasn't paying attention enough

I got a lot done today (I think), here is the whole power side:



I flipped the power socket around and the chassis ground to increase my Kosherness...

I also finished V3, V4, and V5 (again...I think!)





Now, here's where I ran into a problem. I wired up the impedence switch by rotating the switch all the way counter clockwise, taking of the washer and adjusting it to the three way position. I then soldered the yellow wire to the 1 pin, the green wire to the 2 pin and the orange wire to the 3 pin. The center pin was wired to the back side of the jacks and the black neutral wire was wired to the front of the jacks. The problem is that regardless of which position the switch is in, I get continuity from all three switch lugs to the hot lugs on the jacks. That's not right, is it? Shouldn't I have continuity only on the one lug that is selected by the switch with the other two closed? I am using an audio probe to check this. Here's some pictures to help:







Nothing appears to be touching anything else...

Thanks for looking and (in advance) for the help!

AG

IT looks right. Once it is wired up, there will be continuity between all because they are tapped from the same winding.

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

Ahh, thanks. I was wracking my brain on it, because when I tested the switch before wiring it up, it would close like I expected it, but now that you put it that way, of course it makes sense!

AG

On an unrelated note, is the boost switch just a SPST mini? I think I may have fried it when soldering. It seems to work now, but the top lug came out and I'm not too sure how long it will last. I just touched the soldering iron to it for a minute but it seemed to be too much for it. I still get open/close continuity on the middle/bottom lug, but I will still pick up another one at Fry's just to have a spare.

Thanks!

AG

The switch is a mini and seems pretty sensitive to heat.

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

Well, I finished yesterday! The fact that you are reading this means I did not kill myself, which is a definite plus!

Here is the chasis before I wired the jacks:




Here is me wiring the jacks on the outside of the chassis:




Here is that bitchy coax cable ready to go! (When I tried to strip the inner clear insulation, the whole wire would slide back and forth within the black outer insulation!)




Here's the whol thing complete before the tubes:



And here we are, done at last!


I checked all the voltages as instructed:
Mains: 125
B+ Before/After: 441/365
V1 1/3/6/8: 155/1/154/1
V2 1/3/6/8: 181/1.5/268/181
V3 1/2/3/6/7/8: 214/55/78/206/53/78
V4 3/7/9: 11/352/340
V5 3/7/9: 11/351/340
V6 1/3/7 310/365/311

Powered her up:


This thing is LOUD! I haven't been able to get it to 2 yet! It sounds great though! Very quiet, all the inputs work as advertised and, even though I was concerned about the switch, the boost worked great!

I've put it through the paces for about an hour so far and everything seems to be running great! I will get some sound clips done a little later on.

I would like to say thank you to Stephen for his great guide and outstanding service, especially with followups on the forum. I would also like to thank Dom, Revv23, Axe 34 and Jimmy James for posting great pictures that were informative and reassuring.

I only had four accidents on this project; I (slightly) burned myself on the soldering iron once, poked my finger with wire twice, and brushed against the live mains line as I was trying to push the power cord in (ouch! keep your hands outside the chassis when doing this!)

For anybody else considering this, I would say go for it! I was slightly amazed that it started right up without any problems, but the guide and help on the forums is excellent!

Here's a couple of tips that I learned:

Be generous with all your wire except the coax, you have plenty of hook up wire in your kit.

Be careful lifting the chassis once you put the transformers in, they knock the whole thing waaaay out of balance and if you are not paying attention you could end up dropping the whole thing! I would also add that I would recommend doing as much work as possible before installing the transformers, as it can be tricky to stabilize the chassis after that. But do put the transformers in before mounting the tag board or you will NEVER get those inpedence jack wires through that little grommet!

Wire your jacks up on the outside of the chassis BEFORE you put the plexi panel on. I didn't solder jacks in place because I was afraid the heat would melt or scar the faceplate and it was much harder because of that.

Make sure to put the fuse in before you start it up, I was worried the whole time that I would forget it.

The preamp and phase inverter tubes are a tight fit, wiggle them in gently. I had one that bent a couple of pins and they would have broken off if I had forced it!

Plug in your speakers before powering up, I STILL almost forgot this in my excitement!

Double check everything as you go and ESPECIALLY before you power up. I noticed early on that I had wired a jumper in the wrong hole on the tag board and right before I powered up I noticed that I had a solder joint that had broken loose and I had wired one of the 290V lines from the power transformer to pin 9 of the rectifier instead of pin 1!


Later today I am going to record some quick sound clips and next week I will be working on the cab with my bass player who has a nice woodshop setup in his garage. We are also going to do a couple of 1x12 speaker cabs at the same time. (did I mention this thing is LOUD!)

Thanks for everything!

AG