UCD180 questions

[mx-5]

Originally posted by Daveis
Thomas,

very nice. I need to get around to building my UCD180.

Everyone, what's the standard way of putting the standoffs into blank aluminum chassis? Do you glue the standoffs to the bottom of the case? Or do you thread the standoff through the case from the bottom?

Also, what do you use to punch out RCA size holes? I've heard Greenlee punch mentioned a long time ago. Can you get a clean enough hole with a drill bit?

A drill bit will be fine to use, though you may want to deburr the holes with a round file... I like the stepped drill bits (available at Loews etc.) as they have a bevel finish at each step up in size. Just be careful not to drill through to the next size hole...

For the stand offs, if you're free handing it, just use your breadboard etc. as a template and mark the holes with a center punch... then drill!

[classd4sure]

By stand off you mean the T sink ?

I would not glue it!

While the 180's may not need an extra aluminum plate it can be a good idea to use one anyway. You can screw that to the Tsink with counter sunk holes. I just use a bigger sized bit both for the counter sinking and creating the bevel at the same time. If you can use something with more precision than that for the bevel, do it. The screw's taper will make better contact with it and that will help ensure it doesn't come loose.

Then you can use rivets or screws from either side, bolts etc... or threaded holes in your chassis if thick enough to fasten the plate to the chassis with.

I actually use some heatsink compound on it as well.

[Stipa]

thanks a lot to everybody for very fast and extensive answers!
Nice guys are livin' here!

[ewildgoose]

The base on your case is a covered steel sheeting and it things don't glue well to it (at least for long term!). So drill the holes out and then I found you get large burs on the reverse side of steel when drilled, so take a bit which is about two sizes large and do a very light drill from the reverse side to remove the burrs.

For cutting out the back plates you have alu on that Hifi 2000 case and so you can use an ordinary wood circular hole cutter to drill out the back plate. I put lots of paper masking tape over everything first because the alu granules tend to to get everywhere and scratch the surface. Clamp down the workpiece and peel off tape when finished for a perfect end result.

Also alu is soft enough you can use things like a wood jigsaw cutter if you need square holes, etc. Yes it doesn't do the blades any good of course.

[thomaseliot]

Originally posted by Daveis
Thomas,

very nice. I need to get around to building my UCD180.

Everyone, what's the standard way of putting the standoffs into blank aluminum chassis? Do you glue the standoffs to the bottom of the case? Or do you thread the standoff through the case from the bottom?

Also, what do you use to punch out RCA size holes? I've heard Greenlee punch mentioned a long time ago. Can you get a clean enough hole with a drill bit?

I'll post how I built it, how I'm getting my UCD boxed and the bill of materials used, with step by step explanation and pictures. The whole thing takes a saturday morning if you have all material in.

Ciao

Thomas

[thomaseliot]

Originally posted by GregD

Have you checked out the UCD hotrodding thread . . .
Hotrodding the UCD modules

I've already to do a mod recommended by Hypex (see attached file). SupplHG has an auxiliary +/-12V to supply the input buffer of the amp: how good is it?.

As I don't understand well what's an input buffer I'll enjoy the amps for a while, before I fry them .

Ciao

Thomas

[Stevenacnj]

I am in the process now of building 5 UCD 400AD's monoblock amps.

Have been collecting parts for a while now.

In the process now of doing a lot of drilling on the 5 aluminum cases. I took a piece of card board and made a template of the case front, back, & bottom. Then measured & marked the position for holes on the template.

Put masking tape on the actual piece(s) to be drilled (as recommended above) for protection. Then taped on my card board template. Lightly marked each place for a hole with a center punch. Do it lightly if aluminum chassis.

Then drill pilot holes with like a 3/16" drill bit. My WBT NextGen RCA's required a 1/2" hole.

To mount the T-sinks, just take a piece of paper and a straight pin. Tape the piece of paper to the back of the T-sink and mark the mounting holes with the pin. Run a small magic marker along the outer edge of the T-sink, remove paper and trim outline of T-sink. Now you have a T-sink mounting hole template.

I used aluminum plate for the heatsink mounted to the rear of the chassis. Drill out the T-sink mounting holes with template and countersink them from other side.

De-burr everything with a small file.

[thomaseliot]

Here is my amp....



To encourage beginners to try Ucd, here is the complete bill of materials, including chassis and screws



The materials are divided in three "shops": Chassis, Hypex and the electronic shop near home. All material is anyway avalaible to www.audiokit.it, including Hypex stuff.

Something to add?

Thomas

[classd4sure]

Yeah, do you have any ventilation at the bottom of your case?

[thomaseliot]

Originally posted by classd4sure
Yeah, do you have any ventilation at the bottom of your case?

Uh! Forgotten this:

Damper big foot - HiFi2000

They are high enough to ventilate the bottom

Thanks