The Newton 300B

[Thermionic Idler]

The panels have been manufactured and shipped from Schaeffer,

Is this a USA based company? Was it very expensive to get the panels made and shipped here?
Are there any firms in the UK or Europe who do the same work?

Thanks

Well, there are two arms of the same company, one based in the US and called Front Panel Express, and the other called Schaeffer AG and based in Berlin, Germany. Both have more or less the same capabilities and use the same design software. So shipping from Germany isn't too bad, although who knows what tariffs will be applied after we leave the single market.

They certainly aren't the cheapest, but I know of no other company with the same capability, and the quality of workmanship is spot on. The software will itemise the cost as you lay out your design.

[Nick]

but I know of no other company with the same capability

I think the point is that they will do one off's and are set up for that. Getting the same work done in the uk is possible, but the MOQ and setup cost is higher,

[Ray P]

Panels arrived from Schaeffer, all looking good:

Very nice Mr. Idler

Schaeffer always do an excellent job don't they - they're my go-to vendor for this type of work now and they've never let me down and will always try to help if you want something a little different.

I have looked at getting similar work done in the UK but it was more expensive and not as well done (some scuffs on the panel where they hadn't taken care handling it).

[Thermionic Idler]

Panels arrived from Schaeffer, all looking good:

Very nice Mr. Idler

Schaeffer always do an excellent job don't they - they're my go-to vendor for this type of work now and they've never let me down and will always try to help if you want something a little different.

I have looked at getting similar work done in the UK but it was more expensive and not as well done (some scuffs on the panel where they hadn't taken care handling it).

Agreed, they were very helpful a couple of years ago when I needed a special bend doing on the Beast chassis top plate. The roundover on the front and rear panels had to match, and they supplied me with all the figures I needed to get that right. Also on that build, they hadn't cut the bend notch on the base panel correctly (maybe the tool had broken or something) and they supplied new panels very quickly, no quibbles.

I really am no good at metalwork or woodwork - also, living in a 2 bed flat just outside London I have no access to any kind of shed or workshop, so I have no choice but to plan out every detail in advance and then farm out the chassis side of things. At least I can solder!

[Thermionic Idler]

The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them.

There are two standards for countersunk screws - ISO and DIN. For size M3 which I used for my last build, there is only 0.1mm difference in head diameter between the two, and in fact the ISO one is slightly smaller. The 0.3mm tolerance means in reality the difference is negligible.

However, this build additionally called for countersunk M4 screws - where the ISO head diameter can be a full 1mm wider than the DIN diameter. And Schaeffer drill their standard countersink to DIN standards.

I, however, ordered ISO standard screws because of course I did, entirely failing to cross-reference to the FPE/Schaeffer files. I found this out last night when trying to attach the wood inserts to the panels ready for Ant on Saturday, and wondering why all my countersunk screws weren't fitting flush.

Hopefully I'll get my corrected order of DIN countersunks from Accu tomorrow.

[Thermionic Idler]

Panels are now with Ant to make the wood frames and transformer covers. In the mean time there are things I can be doing...

[Thermionic Idler]

... for example, today I have been mostly drilling out turret boards and hammering turrets into place. I had some help from Blossom Dearie....



And the finished products:

[pre65]

Nice to see a fellow enthusiast using turret tags.

[Thermionic Idler]

Turret tags populated with power supply components.

One board has the 12V remote switch-on relay and terminal block to distribute mains to the power transformers. These are the relays I was originally going to use in the Beasts, but I later decided to incorporate a double-relay soft-start there. In this build, with lower rated EI transformers and valve rectification, soft-start switch-on just isn't needed.

The other board is double-sided, the upper side has fuse-holders so that each leg of the HT secondaries can be fused. The lower side has the first 5uF capacitor and R20 - R27 resistor chains.

[RhythMick]

... for example, today I have been mostly drilling out turret boards and hammering turrets into place. I had some help from Blossom Dearie....



And the finished products:

I've been meaning to ask what tooling is needed to properly mount turret tags to boards, including proper flanging (is that the right word) of the underside.

[Thermionic Idler]

I've been meaning to ask what tooling is needed to properly mount turret tags to boards, including proper flanging (is that the right word) of the underside.

I got the boards, turrets and turret staking tool from Ampmaker. The staking tool works with the large turrets.

Edit, you can see the staking tool in the picture with the cat.

[Ray P]

https://www.hificollective.co.uk/tag_bo ... oards.html

[RhythMick]

https://www.hificollective.co.uk/tag_bo ... oards.html

Thanks yes I've bought tag boards from HFC. Quite often I want a turret where there isn't one. I have spare turrets, but didn't know how to find the tooling. Thanks.

[Thermionic Idler]

Progress has been made! Today, having got the chassis back from Ant, I fitted the heatsinks (that he also kindly drilled out for me) with the 300B cathode bias resistor, followed by the valve sockets. I reorganised the layers in my CAD drawing to plan the build steps as you can see in this picture:



Ant has done an absolutely cracking job with the casework and transformer covers, you'd think they'd come out of the same CNC machine as the panels. Here is what the finished product will look like with the valves fitted (right click view image to get a big picture):



Now all I have to do is put the rest of the innards in. Nothing more will happen today as I want to give the thermal compound on the cathode bias resistor a chance to dry off and let the valves sit in the sockets for a bit as they were VERY tight plugging in. Probably will start doing more next Thursday as from that day I'm off work until the end of the year.

They are... large. There I was at the outset thinking they'd be more compact than the Beasts... Ha! Not with dual power supplies and motor run capacitors they won't.

[Nick]

as I want to give the thermal compound on the cathode bias resistor a chance to dry off

Why? Just asking if you have a reference to that being required.