In the first in our series of videos about Bottlehead audio kit construction Doc B. takes you through some simple techniques for the glue-up, sanding, staining and application of the finish coat to the wood base that comes with your kit.
Great to see you on RU-vid, Doc. Nice to see you arrive on two wheels too. I usually edge with a 1/8" rounding cutter and paint my wood bases black (and anodise my chassis plates gold - a nod in the direction of the colour scheme of my old Triumph Bonneville). When I built my son's Paramounts we went for a black wood stain and several layers of high bees wax content polish which also worked well. The most outlandish colour scheme was on my son's Mainline. We did the base in white & gold crackle finish and anodised the chassis plate bright blue. Not to my taste but very striking and he seems pleased with it. Back to my bench now. A Reduction / Integration kit pairing awaits my attention...
I know nothing about amplifiers but a little about woodworking. If you glue two sheets of regular sized sandpaper sheets next to each on a flat surface (piece of kitchen worktop) you can rub the work over the sheets. This will ensure the edges are sanded uniformly. You can sand the whole box with this method. I use my sandpaper board all the time for odd jobs. I will build one of your kits one day....one day!
Great tutorial, thanks! I did my first kit without the tape and it turned out fine, but took some wrestling, way better way to do it here. Your gear is the best sounding stuff in my living room. Keep up the great work guys.
This is a great tutorial, which I'm certain will be helpful new and old kit builders alike; it does an excellent job demystifying the assembly and finishing process! In my kit builds, I've had good luck using gel stain, allowing me to gradually build color before finishing with several coats of gel varnish. The gel stain is a gel varnish with tint, while the gel varnish is clear. Both are super easy to apply and work with. The downside is that each coat is thin, so a few coats of each is needed. In most cases, I've applied two coats of the stain followed by three to four coats of the varnish, hitting the bases with 000 steel wool in between and finishing off with 0000.
Agreed. That's why I like the water base analine dyes and use long straight strokes to apply it. Analine dye is pretty easy to work with. Just be sure to wear gloves!
You guys are amazing . I loved Crack 1.1 so much and cant get enough of it that i want to get Mainline or Crackatwa but i cant decide . Any suggestions ? Thanks .
a. Great video... I know nothing b. I am thinking about covering mine with fabric, so this method will save me HOURS of grief! c. TELL ME EVERYTHING ABOUT BIG BETTY!
The Big Bettys are a pair of prototype 50wpc PSE monoblocks we built a few years ago. They use four 6550s per amp. Turned out to be too expensive to offer as a kit. Righteous power for efficient speakers!
