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NeilR, do you have a picture of your millet from directly top, because I'm also building one. I am using the locking neutrik jacks, but I think they'll interfere with the board being four slots from the bottom in the hammond case. Thanks.
NeilR, do you have a picture of your millet from directly top, because I'm also building one. I am using the locking neutrik jacks, but I think they'll interfere with the board being four slots from the bottom in the hammond case. Thanks.
Taken from Neil's Millett gallery linked to in his post:
You may have a problem if you go four slots up. I used the 2nd slot because that is where the RK27 centers (vertically) on the panel.
Because I put the jack plate behind the panel, I had to cut out a small slice of the front board to make room for the bottom of the jack plate. If I had put the plate in front, I would not have had to do that.
If you try to go four slots up, the top of the jack plate may interfere with the cover slot. This is an issue of a millimeter or so; you will have to size it out with your parts. Or, you will have to move the jack closer to the center (and presumably the pot knob). You will also want to pay attention to whatever you are doing on the back panel because it is surprisingly cramped, simply because the board runs right to the panel. I had to do a lot of thinking to get everything where I wanted it and to make it fit with the board parts (using the lower 2nd slot).
P.S. if you go four slots up, your jack will be well above the panel centerline. Just FYI in case you have not considered that. If you use the 2nd slot, and position the jack as close to the board as possible, it will be centered (with the RK27 if you use it).
I am using the blue velvet, (THank god!) and all the questions I'm asking are because I haven't recieved my pcb yet. I was planning to get all the casework done before I actually got my pcb, but I decided to wait. The only thing I have in right now is the locking 1/4 neutrik jack which is on the left side of the front plate, halfway up. I think I should be able to work around it. Hopefully.
I don't think you want to start drilling your case until you get the board fully assembled. For one thing, the pot hole has to be PERFECT since you have no wiggle room once you select a slot.
The Millet was my first real case job (other than mint tins) where I had a board mounted panel part and I was very nervous about mis-placing the pot hole. I laid out the panel in Front Panel Express, printed it out, carefully cut out the panel outline and the holes and taped it on the case with the board in place. Then I could place the Neutrik jack in it's hole and see exactly how it fit relative to the board parts. That jack can be very tricky to place because it is a huge 15/16" cylinder sitting inside the case on top of the board. It may not be obvious from my picture but the solder tabs on the jack can encroach on the cap immediately behind it, especially if you use a Cerafine or other large cap that fully fills the board outline. The neutrik is a nice jack (I like the locking feature myself) but it is tough to place on a panel. I am about to case up an M3 and I am going thorugh the same exercise because I can't put it exactly where I want it and I will have to work through a paper panel exercise to get it right.
Another thing you cannot see on my images is that the Neutrik jack sits within 1/8" or so of the board if it is vertically aligned with the pot. If you are off even a little bit, you will have a problem. If you line them up exactly on a horizontal axis, it should fit.
If you want the pot knob centered vertically on the panel, as I did and most people do, you have to use the 2nd slot. The pot is soldered to the board so it's elevation is a fixed distance above the board.
You probably want your tubes to stick out further than mine, for example. You cannot do that without either placing the pot and HP jack well above center OR you need to somehow raise the tube sockets. I thought about that myself, because I think it would be neat to have most of the tubes exposed, especially since the internal tube parts block most of the light from the LEDs that we put under the sockets. I gave up because I wanted the get the thing built, and built right without some weird hack to raise the tubes.
If I were going to raise the tubes, I think I would get some very stiff insulated solid core wire- the thickest wire that will fit in the tube sockets, which have very large pad holes. I would make 1 - 1.5" lengths (however it measures out) and solder one end to the tube socket and one end to the corresponding board pad. I don't know if there are any adverse consequences to doing this, but I think I would try it if I ever make another one (and I have a couple spare boards). I don't recall anyone else doing that with a Hammond case.
Even on the back panel, where the panel parts are floating, you have to work around the caps and other parts on the board. I had to do a lot of planning (after the board was stuffed) to be sure nothing interfered. I had a particularly difficult time placing the three probe sockets (which is at least somewhat unique to my own build) because the layout dictated the placement, which was not where I really wanted them.
One other suggestion.... I sucked it in and bought a 15/16" Greenlee socket punch. It cost me about $40 from Mouser, I think. That punch fits the standard Neutrik "fat jack" holes and if you ever decide to use their RCA jacks or Powercons, you have the punch. I also used the Greenlee to punch the tube holes in the top panel. I think it was recommended in the build instructions to make a 1" hole and if I had a 1" punch I would have done that. I measured very carefully, setting up a template in Front Panel Express software (which I use for every case panel I have drilled) and I was right on the money. It is a very tight fit. I could have tried to enlarge the holes a bit but that would have hacked the perfectly smooth holes that the Greenlee made. It is expensive but it is a very nice tool. If you mount the Neutrik like I did, with the plate inside the panel, you will want a very smooth 15/16" hole. That is tough to do with a hand drill.
I also used the Greenlee punch to cut a vent hole over the regulator heat sink on my Steps case. I punched two holes, such that the edges of the holes just touched. I then ground down the "points" where the circles met. By doing that, I only had to make flat edges and I was able to leave the rounded edges of the oval as punched. It is much easier to file down a flat edge than to try to make a nice smooth oval. It would have worked great if I had not slipped and marred the surface with the spindle of my Dremel, which I used to flatten the edges. I did get a decent oval and I think the concept is sound. Eventually I hope to source some acrylic and replace the top, and include holes over top of the bias pots. It is a PITA to have to remove the cover every time I roll tubes and rebias. If you want to expend gray matter doing something fancy with the case, spend your time thinking about how to best roll the tubes and rebias.
I kept my FPE diagrams for the top, back and rear panels. I would be happy to email them to you if you think it might help. As far as I can tell, I drilled my case exactly per those diagrams and I was happy with the results and everything fits.
I've only put in the neutrik jack, but the plate part is on the outside so my somewhat rough hole is covered up. That's the only casework I've done so far, and I have also taken the resolution to wait another week or so for my MH board. Hopefully my jack placement will work out, otherwise, I'll use it for the back plate, because I'm also using 1/4 jack for the input. I'm not using RCA because all my sources are computer based so they're 1/8 anyway. I've made a 1/8 to 1/4 cable, and I figured that even though its pretty unorthodox, it fits my needs the best.
All you have to go to get fully exposed tubes is buy panel mount tube sockets, and run jumper wires from teh socket to the board. Beware: it can get messy as seen in this picture of my Morgan Jones:
pberboy: If you drilled it dead center (on the vertical axis), you are probably ok. According to my FPE layout, I drilled it about one millimeter below dead center.
bloudg20: that would require very long wires in a Hammond case since the top has to slide back at least 6.5 inches to remove it. You would end up with even more wire It would be much cleaner to create "risers" with some stiff wire and essentially air wire the sockets. The wire would have to be stiff enough, though, to stand up to the pressure of inserting the tubes after the cover is replaced. A variation on this would combine the two methods, where a panel mounted socket was air wired with fairly stiff wire, stiff enough to stay in place until the cover was slid into position. Then the sockets could be screwed into the top. That would require tapped socket holes though, and that could be tough to work out. One solution would be to epoxy nuts onto the underside of the socket holes. I only mention these ideas because I am still trying to figure this out. If I found a solution I thought would work, it might tempt me to build another one.
Since everyone builds these to play with tube rolling, whatever solution is attempted either has to allow easy removal of the cover, or something has to be done to allow the bias to be set without removing the cover. I personally don't like the idea of blindly fishing around with a screwdriver, trying to find the bias pot screw, which is why my next cover will probably be acrylic.
P.S. am I the only person who has slavishly set my bias, removed the tubes, replaced the cover, and then mixed up the tubes???? That is why I added the test probe ports. At least I can retest with the cover in place to make sure I really didn't get confused again
Well, this technically isn't a build but is close enough that I'm posting it here. My 3950 decided to force my hand the other night and die. So with some guidance from a fellow modder I went about taking apart the unit last night. I discovered that the primary PS cap had blown so tonight I decided I'd do all of the PS mods to the player and see if she'd come back to life.
Stock 3950 PS
Modds Complete
And I decided to do one mod just slightly different. I'd seen others try to cram the big Panny filter caps on top of the board with the stock caps, which just didn't make any sense to me. So, I decided to remove the stock caps and move them to the bottom of the board. Much easier install IMHO than others that I've seen.
Note the yucky fluid on the bottom of the PCB from the previous cap going boom (most of which has now been cleaned off).
Anyway, the 3950 is a pure transport for me as I've got it coupled to the subject of my post 2-25-06 and it sounds great. I'll be diving back into the chassis at some point to do some strategic dampening but otherwise my rig is finally taking shape!
I was planning to get all the casework done before I actually got my pcb, but I decided to wait. The only thing I have in right now is the locking 1/4 neutrik jack which is on the left side of the front plate, halfway up. I think I should be able to work around it. Hopefully.
It would be much cleaner to create "risers" with some stiff wire and essentially air wire the sockets. The wire would have to be stiff enough, though, to stand up to the pressure of inserting the tubes after the cover is replaced. A variation on this would combine the two methods, where a panel mounted socket was air wired with fairly stiff wire, stiff enough to stay in place until the cover was slid into position. Then the sockets could be screwed into the top. That would require tapped socket holes though, and that could be tough to work out. One solution would be to epoxy nuts onto the underside of the socket holes. I only mention these ideas because I am still trying to figure this out. If I found a solution I thought would work, it might tempt me to build another one.
Linear Mode
