Quote: How long are these tubes supposed to last?  Or is there too much variability to answer that question meaningfully?

That was a Leigh jig.

Yep.  onlinemetal it was.  Don't know of a black anodized perforated sheet metal source.

Well, here is my hybrid eXStatA amp.  The idea for the case came from a post on the locked eXStatA thread (#2398) by macm75, who graciously offered me some construction tips along the way.  The help I got from everybody on the current eXStatA Build Thread II was also invaluable to me in getting...

Well, gents, it’s the end of the hybrid build road for me and the beginning of a journey into a phenomenal listening experience.  (I can already tell:  I  pulled some Miles and Keith Jarrett trio CDs off the shelf and they never sounded better!)   Thanks to all of you who responded to my...

Right.  As soon as I figure out how to wire the inputs.   (Working on it....)

Made the changes.  The tubes are working and all of the offsets are very close to 0 (0.25 to 0.65).  Now waiting for amp to stabilize.  Will take readings again in half hour.  Again, many thanks to you all!

Appreciate your EDIT, BoilermakerFan.  Right now I have a rubber grommet that I cut in half and placed on both sides of the base of the transformer.  Screw/washer  above the top grommet half and spacer below the bottom grommet half.  Should I leave them when I reconnect transformer with metal...

Simpler to me is always better.  I will stick with the four gang interconnect, rearrange the purple wires, fix the ground and get back to you all.  Thanks very much, gents!

The grounding error and how to fix that seems clear.  It also seems that BoilerMakerFan and TimJo are telling me essentially the same thing:  I should have two pairs of four gang interconnects with one of the secondary transformer wires connected to each interconnect and then three jumpers from...

RH1 and RH2 are on board.  AC measurements for the two output terminals are .10mA and .08mA.  Output terminals to ground are .12mA AC and .11mA AC. (Please excuse the sloppy wiring.  Things will be much neater after I'm up and running.)    .        

I got ahead of myself when I raised the subject of input wiring last time and need to put that on hold as I am having a problem bringing up my amp.  There is no smoke when I turn on the PS but the tubes don’t go on.  I left the power on for about five minutes and there was no glow at all. The...

I really appreciate that and would be happy to hang on as long as necessary.  BUT:  I've decided at this 11th hour to add the 4PDT switch and RCA connectors.  So, if that changes things (I assume it will), I can get back to you when I have these added parts installed on my case -- probably in a...

I used the one specified on the BOM   It has three pins in a triangular shape numbered 1, 2 and 3 and one smaller, unnumbered tab on top of them that has a small hole in it.  I have checked the wiring diagram and regret to say that I am not experienced enough to determine whether the answer to...

I am now wiring and need some help with the following:   (1)  I understand that the positive and negative signals connect to the input pins on the pot and then go from the output pins on the pot to the corresponding terminal blocks on the amp board.  What I’m not getting is how to connect...