I just thought I'd post a thread about what you've learned throughout the years; a tips and tricks thread you could call it I guess. I'll start it off. I began at 14 (using gallons of solder on 24 awg wire in 1970s speakers my grandfather gave me), have been going strong ever since (turned 18 2 weeks ago). As alluded to above, the most important thing I've learned is to heat the connection, not the solder. How about y'all? 
I was buying $100-$150 cartridges by the age of 15...but I couldn't figure out whether I wanted to spend the money with the bootlegger, the dealer, or the guy with the big strips of blotter.
Sometimes the audio won out, and I had good tunes to listen to when I finally spent the money with the guy with the strips..and I had, like, four pupils in each eye. For the next 30 hours.
I had a three head cassete deck for those times..I couldn't negotiate the turntable very well. Colors and shapes were wwaaaaayy off. Lotsa Tangerine dream, Sabbath, and weird lighting, etc. And building my own speakers.
But not at the same time.
Sometimes the audio won out, and I had good tunes to listen to when I finally spent the money with the guy with the strips..and I had, like, four pupils in each eye. For the next 30 hours.
I had a three head cassete deck for those times..I couldn't negotiate the turntable very well. Colors and shapes were wwaaaaayy off. Lotsa Tangerine dream, Sabbath, and weird lighting, etc. And building my own speakers.
But not at the same time.
I blew my first fuse at around 4 or 5 by putting a penny between the prongs of a plug and plugging it in. Took a big chunk out of the penny.
Around 1961 when I was 7, I was fairly knowledgeable about batteries, pilot lights and switches. I wrote a little stapled textbook about basic electrical circuits in 3rd grade.
My dad was an engineer for DuMont Television and had a lot of cool parts laying around. I snuck in his closet a lot and played with his oscilloscope at around 8 or 9. Starting around that time, too, I used to go to the dump with my wagon, and remove all the tubes and smaller components from junker TV's, and amassed thousands of parts. One day I spent all morning at the local hardware store and tested over 250 tubes from the dump, most were good. In 1968, when I was 14, got my first ham license, WN2MXK, and built an 80/40 meter tube shortwave receiver from just a schematic, and it worked. (as you can see my dad never helped much, he was always "busy").
Around 1961 when I was 7, I was fairly knowledgeable about batteries, pilot lights and switches. I wrote a little stapled textbook about basic electrical circuits in 3rd grade.
My dad was an engineer for DuMont Television and had a lot of cool parts laying around. I snuck in his closet a lot and played with his oscilloscope at around 8 or 9. Starting around that time, too, I used to go to the dump with my wagon, and remove all the tubes and smaller components from junker TV's, and amassed thousands of parts. One day I spent all morning at the local hardware store and tested over 250 tubes from the dump, most were good. In 1968, when I was 14, got my first ham license, WN2MXK, and built an 80/40 meter tube shortwave receiver from just a schematic, and it worked. (as you can see my dad never helped much, he was always "busy").
Built my 1st speaker at about 12 -- i'm still surprised i didn't get a licking from my dad. I took apart the fold down TT/stereo unit, built separate speaker boxes for the little 4" drivers -- they were leaky sealed boxes built with a double layer of material recycled from a wooden mandarian orange crate with orange burlap grills. I repackaged the little 50EH5 amplifier and just left the TT in the fold down part (but removed from the rest of it).
The amp is still kicking after i completely rebuilt it some 5 years ago (it now resides somewhere in SE USA)
http://www.t-linespeakers.org/tubes/SEP_50EH5.html
dave
PS: there is no doubt that i was dissassembling stuff before that, but this was the 1st time i put it back together & it still worked.
The amp is still kicking after i completely rebuilt it some 5 years ago (it now resides somewhere in SE USA)
http://www.t-linespeakers.org/tubes/SEP_50EH5.html
dave
PS: there is no doubt that i was dissassembling stuff before that, but this was the 1st time i put it back together & it still worked.
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