Amp, Coil, Turrets, Board

 Had a little shop time. (rainy day) 

Took the lid off an ice cream carton and made a coil form.

I squared the material, Wrapped it around a suitable round mandrel. When heated the material melts and is sticky. (Think hot glue) I used a heat gun (hair dryer) to fuse one end. Pushed the form off the mandrel so it didn't stick to it. Fused the other end in like manner. Then fused the seem length wise.

I wound the coil with the wire on the bench. Then finished the coil with a dope made from ping pong balls and finger nail polish remover. 

 

 

The plan was to make a turret board for the amp build. This material is readily available and perfect for the job.

Look familiar? You will see it in the kitchen and bath. (If you do not have stone counters tops.) Formica was invented to be used as an insulator. It also makes some fine counter tops.

The plan is to use a turret board, These are ok but a little pricey. The formica is left over from a kitchen rebuild. The turret pins are 1 - 2 cents each.

Here are some examples of the turrets.

Here is the drawing for my amp. I used the scrap which was about 1" wide. I made 3 rows of pins. In the future I will spread the circuit out more. But I just used the piece which was already cut.

The pins were double ended so I put parts on both sides of the board. The little amp sings. It drives my earbud with the output of my AF generator all the way down and the 20db attenuator on.

I added a V cap and diode with test leads and it picked up a station which IDed itself as being 600 miles away. The prototype performs well. I will likely make another on a bigger board.

It may be worth looking into the formica. Last I bought was about $50 for a 4' by 8' sheet. Less than $2 a square foot is not bad?