18Watt.com

Build #1 was the Denim Deluxe 1x12 combo, it used a prototyping board;

I'm midway through build #2, the Blues Briefcase 1x10 combo, it uses the TubeDepot 5E3+ PCB;

I just designed my Turretboard for Build #3, the Hellhound 1x12 combo.

This is a DIYLC file I submitted to Doug Hoffman for drilling on his CNC machine, it's about $18 with turrets installed. It's a 9.5" x 3.125" board with 35 turrets; you could also make it with eyelets instead with this same template.

If anyone uses DIYLC and would like a copy of my board file, just DM me and I'll be happy to share it freely.

Why don't you make the board yourself? Drilling/installing turrets isn't that hard. Especially if you made a template for drilling.

JMPGuitars wrote: ↑

Thu 06/27/19 6:49 am

Why don't you make the board yourself? Drilling/installing turrets isn't that hard. Especially if you made a template for drilling.

I think I will next; but Hoffman makes it so easy and cheap to just send him the file, I sent him the custom layout last night at 1:30am and he shipped the completed board to me at 8:30am! It was seventeen dollars and change, seemed very reasonable.

crgfrench wrote: ↑

Thu 06/27/19 9:13 am

I think I will next; but Hoffman makes it so easy and cheap to just send him the file, I sent him the custom layout last night at 1:30am and he shipped the completed board to me at 8:30am! It was seventeen dollars and change, seemed very reasonable.

It's definitely reasonable. Post some photos after you get it.

Sure will Josh, thanks. I was originally planning to buy the board and turrets and then do all the drilling and swaging on my drill press, but then I saw how incredibly cheap it was to just have Hoffman fab it for me; here is the cost breakout:

Board material: $7.13
35 turret lugs: $5.35
Labor - Drill 35 holes: $2.80
Labor -Install 35 turrets: $2.45
Shipping First Class USPS: $5.22

The total labor is about the cost of a Starbucks cold brew. I think I would have been stupid not to have him do it (other than, I'm sure it's enjoyable and satisfying to do it myself).

Will post some pic when it arrives and when I install the passives on it.

The Hoffman board arrived, here it is next to my current Fullerwell build for the blues briefcase. Solid 1/8" thick board.

Very nice turretboard!

The good folks at Wattkins kindly added the Fullerwell (Denim Deluxe version) to their menu for the Universal PCB (available at Tubeface); it's the 12th schematic in https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ApurBu ... p=drivesdk I'd say that is quite an improvement over my hand-drawn original!

JMPGuitars wrote: ↑

Thu 06/27/19 11:56 am

It's definitely reasonable. Post some photos after you get it.

Trinity 18 bare turretboard: $55 what???

crgfrench wrote: ↑

Thu 07/04/19 3:55 pm

JMPGuitars wrote: ↑

Thu 06/27/19 11:56 am

It's definitely reasonable. Post some photos after you get it.

Trinity 18 bare turretboard: $55 what???

I don't shop there, but the page is confusing; it's hard to tell if that includes components or not. It might?

That's just for the board with turrets installed. Could get 3 custom turret boards from Hoffman for that price.
Loaded with components, the Trinity 18 board is $120.

Weber Turretboard: $19 https://www.tedweber.com/6m18fb

Over at Wattkins, jamesrr has kindly worked up the layout for the Fullerwell (Denim Deluxe version), it's the 7th page in https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PuCY0M ... j87Ld/view .

So, along with his schematic, that would be a good way to build one on the Universal PCB.
I'm going to give that a try for build #4. The PCB is available at Tubeface.

I'm very grateful to jamesrr for his great work.

Here is my detailed view of how to build the Fullerwell circuit on the Wattkins Universal PCB; this version has an off-board chassis mounted EZ81 (not shown here).

Looks like you could do a SS rectifier on there too.

Yes that board is very flexible! It also accommodates cathodyne (as here), paraphase or LTP PIs and cathode bias (as here) or fixed bias. 1 channel or 2 channels, octal or noval tubes, etc...

crgfrench wrote: ↑

Wed 02/06/19 6:03 pm

...You can build the Fullerwell circuit on [Tube Depot’s 5E3 board] with a few tweaks.

I changed the spec for R20 from 125 Ohms to 150 Ohms. I recommend an 8W minimum Brown Devil here.

Finally broke out the old Hakko and populated the Turretboard today. It's amazing what you can get done when 2 of your jobs shut down and the third one has you working from home. Still need to order a few resistors I didn't have on my bench but other than that it's pretty much complete.

That looks like you've made a great start!

Fullerwell 18 Watt Amplifier #1 on a 2"x6" prototyping board (2018) [white board] Fullerwell 18 Watt Amplifier #2 on a 3"x7" commercial PCB (2019) [green board] Fullerwell 18 Watt Amplifier #3 on a 3"x9"
custom turretboard (2020) [black board] Planned #4 on a Wattkins Universal PCB
Planned #5 on an eyelet board
Planned #6 PTP using tag strips

More turretboard progress.

1) completed the tube-side wiring, installed in the style of Danny Russell, i.e. all wiring comes up from underneath the board on the inside of the turrets. I love this construction method -- more work but gives the board a beautiful clean appearance.

2) swapped the positions of the American and British cathode bypass caps & resistors for the first Mullard CV4004 preamp tube (at the far right end of the board). This allows for perfect alignment with the cathode pins on the V1 socket (pins 3 and 8 ).

3) reinstalled all 6 film/foil coupling caps so that their outer foil ends are on the low-impenance side of the circuit. When I first soldered these I must have had a brain cramp; I originally installed them [pointing up] with the outer foil ends were pointed towards the preamp ground bus, mistakenly thinking "that's the low side" ...but of course coupling caps don't connect to the ground bus! They connect to the plate of the prior stage, which in this case is [pointing down] towards the tube sockets. The circuit will work fine either way, it just has slightly better shielding now, to reduce excess noise.

4) modified filter caps ground bus connection. Hard to see in these images because I used black cloth push-back solid wire, but originally I had only the first filter cap connected to the power amp ground bus and the second two connected to the preamp ground bus, like in the 1957 Fender Tweed Deluxe layout. I changed that so only the third filter cap is on the preamp ground bus; to reduce hum.