Output Transformers Arrived!

Finally, the output transformers arrived. Edcor makes them to order and says it takes five to six weeks; it took seven. But that's ok. I've been busy with a lot of other things lately.

I had already taken a risk and drilled my holes based on the dimensions listed, and fortunately it all lined up ok. The wire gauge was a bit thicker than I expected but I was still able to squeeze the three primary wires and two secondaries through my rubber grommets and mount them fairly easily.

I bought relatively small transformers, to save money. They were $27 each, plus $17 shipping. For anyone who wants model info, they are Edcor GXSE10-8-5K. They are 10 watts each, and rated for a frequency range of 40Hz - 18kHz. I'm not expecting to get thundering bass out of them or very loud power overall, but still should be decent.

I'll share my test info on my next post, so this is slighly out of order, but I wanted to try the amp without the power choke first, which meant I first used a resister soldered onto the board. I did this and all was ok, so I had to remove the board, clip off the resister, and re-mount it with the choke wired in. While I had it off, I took the opportunity to drill a few extra holes on the top panel for a heat vent. I don't know if this makes much difference or not, but I really had no place for heat to go--all my other holes, including the tube socket holes, were pretty tight, so I was concerned things might get overheated inside. I drilled nine holes relatively close to the edge of the PCB near a few capacitors (if you read my previous post, you'll know that I accidently bought two caps rated for a lower temperature than I should have).

 

Next...the maiden voyage!