Thanks Bill Epstein for your input on this board over the past few months. Here's a pic of the DIY Dac with African Mahogany. Finish is resin lacquer made of dammar crystals dissolved in pure gum turpentine. Ebony wood knob with aluminum inlay made by Thingamaknob. My first audio chassis with help from a friend with tools
When mounting your RCA jacks, did you have any trouble with the wood getting too thin as far as being able to really tighten them down and not break the wood?
and this made the job much easier. I found you need to get down to about 3/16" thickness for most connectors, including RCA and BNC jacks. My friend who is a wood hobbyist was amazed at how hard this African Mahogany is, and ultimately I think this helped us get tight connections. Of course they make connectors that allow for thicker chassis. We forgot to drill the countersink hole on the front fascia for the on/off rotary switch prior to assembling the chassis and hence could not use the drill press. This was the most difficult, and the bit skipped on us creating an eliptical impression in the wood; hence the oversized ebony knob (1.5" diam) to hide the mistake. After this experience, I would never attempt to countersink without the drill press. Of course one could hollow out the rear panel for portion/most of its area, and install a 1/8" metal to the inside and use this to mount connectors.
Bill Epstein Messages: 1088 Registered: May 2009 Location: Smoky Mts. USA
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
I always use metal for the terminals.
I've learned and had so much help from Wayne, Speakerman, Bill Martinelli, Steve Brown and lot's of others. It's a thrill to pass along my own small contribution. Thanks so much for the acknowledgement.
That's what I used the last time and it worked pretty slick (by hand by the way--I really need to get a small press). I was using a softer wood and had to back the nuts with decent washers on the inside panel. I figured the mahogany was plenty hard in your case.
MQ had a prototype where they used thin wood panels (1/4"), drilled jack holes a little oversized to sink them, then attached a piece of 1/8" teflon or poly sheet to the inside to mount the jacks too. The small bit of white that showed when looking from the outside looked pretty decnt against the med brown wood they were using. Here's a pic.
Posting Rules
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Get a T-Shirt!
