DIY Audio Projects Forum

Do you all think that 1/4 inch mirror plated aluminum for an amp plate. I have a line on a sheet or two 4 ft by 10 foot possibly.
i think it would look real good with gloss black transformers or royal blue transformers on it with a maple wood box.

0.25 inch is very thick and should be much more than adequate unless the transformers are monsters. For reference, the chassis I used for my S-5 Electronics K-12M Tube Amplifier Kit is 0.051 inch thick.

Cheers

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[ DIY Mains AC Power Cable Cord ] - [ Gobo LM1875 Amp Kit ] - [ Tang Band D4-1 Horn Speaker Kit ] - [ Monoblock Push-Pull KT88 Tube Amp Kit ]

Well if I were to pay for it I would get thinner but this is free so I will use it.

Heck yeah and you could surely make a few bucks on the side by getting it cut to popular sizes and selling.

I bet it will look stunning.

Hi Endspec -

One nice thing about using a thick frame plate is you can tap the holes in the plate and screw direct to the plate so you can eliminate nuts on the other side. Wow - that'll make life easier! Make sure you use lock washers, use coarse threads, although in #6 and #8's I don't remember if there are coarse or fine. Also your tolerance in layout will have to be closer as you will lose the "slop" for misalignment that you get with an oversized thru hole (actually two holes - the hole in the plate and the hole in the component). A trick I use for all my layout work is to draft the plate hole layout in CAD (I use AutoCAD, but TurboCAD is free), then just superimpose a full size print on the frame plate and center punch thru the drawing. It increased my layout accuracy by at least an order of magnitude. Using the mirror plate I might also suggest doing your layout on the underside (reverse the print), drill each hole with a pilot hole from the underside, then finish drill from the mirror side. The idea is to protect that finish as much as possible. But you have plenty to practice with. Keep your tap holes smaller than the book spec rather than larger/oversize and let the tap bring it to size. That way you will have the full strength of the thread(s). Good luck with your build, show us pictures!!

Mike
If there's no sound in a vacuum, where'd the music come from..?

It will be a week or two before we have time to get it out of the shop and cut it on the water jet as we are going to rebuild the water jet pump this next week, it is leaking oil real bad.

How'd that chassis plate come out??? Got any photos???

Could not get it, the company layed everybody off and closed it's doors before i could get it.

damn... that would have been the thickest plate of aluminum I have ever seen, did you not all ready have it sheathed away into your work bench? I would have snatched something like that the moment I got a chance! That is just so monstrously thick!!

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My Mini 12AU7 Tube Preamp, Pioneer SX-D7000, JVC XL-V221BK, JBL L80T, DCM TF700

• Project Page - Mini 12AU7 Tube Preamplifier
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It was 4 feet by 8 foot sheets, a little big to hide under my bench lol