Whilst on the subject I have thought about making bases and top hats out of clay, easy enough to do and easyish to fire, I used to make chillum's and fire them in my wood burner. The problem is the metal work and attaching said metal work to the base, not easy at all, though possible with a jig or small press. Thing is when you look into things like DIY valve bases & top hats the work it takes to make one far outways the cost of a real one, but still......
I'd have a go for jumbo 4 pin and other expensive bases & in the spirit of experimentation, being really skint but having the time, for the craic (pronounced crak) as they say in Ireland. After all Le Forest and them lads that invented the capacitor and early electronics etc were gentleman experimenters with no internet or a Digikey to buy their components. All they had was a few handtools, some basic materials but a zest for mucking about with things and hoping they go bang or do something interesting.
Lastly, I make most of the chassis's, brackets and other odds and sods for my amps by hand, it being good fun and satisfying, the co-ordination of hand and eye, the fusion of knowledge and years of fettling stuff to make something that pleases the eye, ear and soul.
Nuff said, Andy.
I'd have a go for jumbo 4 pin and other expensive bases & in the spirit of experimentation, being really skint but having the time, for the craic (pronounced crak) as they say in Ireland. After all Le Forest and them lads that invented the capacitor and early electronics etc were gentleman experimenters with no internet or a Digikey to buy their components. All they had was a few handtools, some basic materials but a zest for mucking about with things and hoping they go bang or do something interesting.
Lastly, I make most of the chassis's, brackets and other odds and sods for my amps by hand, it being good fun and satisfying, the co-ordination of hand and eye, the fusion of knowledge and years of fettling stuff to make something that pleases the eye, ear and soul.
Nuff said, Andy.
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The OP wondered originally if 3d printing works, probably not because of the heat. But one could easily machine a Novar socket body on a CNC, even a small machine, dozens at a time. The material to do that could often be obtained for free from kitchen remodeling shops. The shop by me will give me all the small Corian scraps they have, cutoffs, sink opening cutouts etc. Corian is .5 inch thick, withstands enormous heat and it machines up beautifully using regular woodworking router bits. So no cost yet if you get free Corian scrap. As for the pins... Those you'd epoxy into the body holes with a dab of JB weld, the pins will also pressure fit themselves before the epoxy dab. As for the cost of the pins... There is a round tube spring pin used in automotive on many Hyundais, it is designed for a 1mm pin, and has a longish back-end for crimping and grabbing a wire, or in this case thats your solder tab. Novar pins are 1.02 or 1.2 mm as I remember, so they'll snug up in the automotive females. I checked prices on those 1mm female pins on aliexpress, you can get 1,000 for under $20. So if you had a scrap of Corian, maybe a sink cutout that was 30 inches by 24 inches, you could easily tool path 150-180 Novar socket bodies out of one job. And the pins would be recessed like a professional socket, and have no inside solder you have to worry about re-melting if you were making them out of PCB. For the CNC tool paths, I'd use two tools with 3 different paths. First path would be with drill bit, I"d drill all the pin holes on the stock for all 180 sockets. Then I'd install a 5/32 flat bottom end mill. This tool will run two paths. The first path would be a pocketing path to turret up the round circle of each socket around the pin holes circle already cut, it would also pocket away 1/4 inch deep material around the turret out to a rectangle. Lastly I'd run the outer profiling path, same bit, to cut each socket out down to the spoil board. The outer profile would be your typical 2 hole saddle shape. I have a CNC this is how I'd do it on the cheap.
It takes a lot of part hunting and thought to home-brew solve interesting questions like this. The automotive industry uses maybe 50 different kinds of female crimp pin outlets, all stamped tin just like a 1960's socket pins. The pins are the hard part, Keystone or MillMax pins are way too expensive, finding the pins here was key. It seems a 1mm automotive wiring pins may likely work.
It takes a lot of part hunting and thought to home-brew solve interesting questions like this. The automotive industry uses maybe 50 different kinds of female crimp pin outlets, all stamped tin just like a 1960's socket pins. The pins are the hard part, Keystone or MillMax pins are way too expensive, finding the pins here was key. It seems a 1mm automotive wiring pins may likely work.
Thanks Mr Windcrest, some good tips there.
Those pins you mention may be a possibility as turret tag substitutes for those of us who either can't get parts easily or are building amps on a budget. I know we have a few members in out of the way places like Brazil etc who have to find creative solutions to sourcing parts. I've used M2.5 bolts as turret tags for some of my circuit boards not having the cash at the time to finish an amp build or just not wanting to pay £1.15 each or whatever it was for turret tags. Those of us in the UK are finding prices for components have rocketed due to the mad idea of leaving the EU, Covid & mad lads staring wars, necessity is the mother of invention and all that.
Hopefully this isn't too off topic, don't wish to hijack the OP's thread, Andy.
Those pins you mention may be a possibility as turret tag substitutes for those of us who either can't get parts easily or are building amps on a budget. I know we have a few members in out of the way places like Brazil etc who have to find creative solutions to sourcing parts. I've used M2.5 bolts as turret tags for some of my circuit boards not having the cash at the time to finish an amp build or just not wanting to pay £1.15 each or whatever it was for turret tags. Those of us in the UK are finding prices for components have rocketed due to the mad idea of leaving the EU, Covid & mad lads staring wars, necessity is the mother of invention and all that.
Hopefully this isn't too off topic, don't wish to hijack the OP's thread, Andy.