Amp Camp Amp - ACA

[Eric]

Originally Posted by ellisr63

What did you use for a chassis before you made the wood faceplate, or did you fab the entire chassis?

Here is an exploded view of the chassis - it is completely DIY. The sinks were cut down from a larger sink I found at the flea market some time ago. I drilled out and tapped all of the holes, prepped the mosfet mounting locations, etc. The top, front, and back of the chassis are wood. I cut, shaped, and finished the wood so it was all ready to go for her. After we populated the PCBs, they were mounted to the sinks and just a few screws hold everything together.

I spent the past few weeks streamlining the process as much as possible with prep-work like planning, cutting, drilling, and wood finishing. I think we spent about five hours building the amp and another hour or so on the speakers. This kept the pace up so she wouldn't lose interest and allowed her to help with each step.

Many thanks (again!) to Nelson for sharing this awesome design as well as everyone here for making these projects easily accessible. This is really a GREAT first project for the kids due to the simplicity of the build and the short timeline to make something actually function! After five years, our older daughter still uses her amp every day. I suspect the same will be true with this project, too.

[Skylar88]

Originally Posted by rnjorge

Way to go! Have the kids interested in whatever nice hobby there is (hifi, r/c planes, electric trains, electronics etc) and they'll never have money for drugs!

Astronomy is another good one (DIY telescopes)

[RafaPolit]

Incredible story and lovely build Eric.

My dad was like that with us, and now we are doing that by ourselves! I kept the audio vane and a bit of the RC Planes vane as well. My brother was deeper into RC Planes and now has built his own car simulator seat for him and his son to race on the Xbox while they run Karts during the weekend.

So you are doing the right thing and your kids will treasure this forever!

Now, on a personal note, every person on the house with their own AMP and speakers scares me deeply! Perhaps because we live in a small apartment? Maybe you should change the approach and build headphone amps? LOL!

Thanks for sharing a lovely story and pictures! Best regards,
Rafa.

[Eric]

Ha- I figure she'll do less damage to her hearing with an amp and speakers than with headphones because it's easier for us to tell if the volume level is too high with speakers

When my son got into electric guitar, I tried to talk him into building a tube amp with me, but he didn't have the interest... oh well.

And, yes, she has a telescope, though not a DIY one. I think we'll soon be spending cold nights looking through the telescope together again now that it gets dark earlier in the northern hemisphere.

[Stanislav]

Incredible story Eric.
Absolutely fantastic.

[MEPER]

Are there any active women in this forum building amps and large speakers and listen to music in same enthusiastic way as "we" do?
I can see Eric may have some coming soon (starting with small amps and small speakers)?

[jwjarch]

Truly inspiring, Eric. Can't wait for my kids to grow up a bit for projects like this. Although I hope they don't grow up too fast...

[rnjorge]

Astronomy is another good one (DIY telescopes)

Absolutely! I have forgoten about the "optical" side of hobbies.

[aljordan]

Originally Posted by rnjorge

Absolutely! I have forgoten about the "optical" side of hobbies.

Astronomy - astrophotography in particular - is a big one for me, although lately it's been taking a back seat to building amps due to the terrible weather. My astro pictures are here if anyone is interested.

[chrisb]

Eric - late to see this, and your earlier project from 2013 - that’s as warm and fuzzy a pair stories as I think have ever been posted here. Hope the later teen years are as wonderful.