Well, here it is, the thing is finished and thank goodness for that!
In this final part I do terrible things to the wood work and finally fettle the RF coils so the set works fairly well.
I'm not convinced by the looks of the set cabinet but then again every thing I make never looks right or could be done better.
At least I know a bit more about TRF's and making wood look pretty by slopping modern polyurethane over cheap plywood!
The Silicon Chip Micromite (MM) unit is also a great asset when playing with coils and sweeping the AM band and I have it sitting on the test shelf now as my prime RF sweeper unit. Definitely worth putting together and using in conjunction with a CRO hooked up after the detector section in a set. Somehow I cant warm up to the original display option using its own readout, the curves produced just look strange to me.
So, i'll do my normal PDF of part 6 and send that to Brad to be attached to this.
Cheers, Fred.

TRF HiFi Radio Part 6

Document uploaded.

G day Fred,
What a huge job you have taken on with this project!
Its turned out pretty good mate!
You must of done some Aluminum rolling in the past? You used a roller to bend the Timber. I have not seen a Roller for donkeys years .
I had to bend some timber last year to replace a Arm on a lounge that was missing.
I used a 5 gallon drum filled with water and on one side of the drum a cut a hole and put in a guttering down pipe in a Horizontal position.
I then heated the drum of water and I put the Timber inside the down pipe, I stuffed the open end with a rag to stop the steam coming out.
So it puffed away and after about 20 minutes I pulled the timber out and it was very flexible.
So the lounge Arm turned out well, just a lot of mucking around getting the junk to make the steamer.
Great project you built fred!
All the best pete

Hi Pete, yes I've done lots of things in the past making things, a lot with engines and some times with wheels and all to a time schedule and most very complicated things to a specification. That's why I like this free form hobby of making wireless things to my imagination and just going ahead and doing it whether I know what i'm doing or not! I did a bit of car panel work and watched old guys making alloy and steel parts by hand for vintage restos' with wheeling and bag bashing hence me not afraid to hit things with a hammer to shape things.
Next time I have to bend wood i'll try a bit of heat, that's works a treat with metal to loosen the valence bonds between the atoms or something and I note the application of steam would be good move instead of just bending the fibres cold. I have a few more wood things to make, I have to make up a cabinet for the 3" TV set and this time I promise I will use sealer on the wood before I do anything else! I'm also going to make a Guitar, i'll put one of the "swamp" kits together to give me a Bass to play with if I can remember how. (the band is reforming!!!). Naturally i'll have to make a matching practice amp and with valves of course. I'll make some impractical thing with a couple of 15" drivers and about 100w output with a folder horn box in as small a package as possible and stain and gloss that as well. I can see it all in my head now just got to sketch it out and cut metal and wood. I can dream and while i'm still well enough to toddle about in the workshop i'll do as well as dream.
Fred.

Hi Fred,

I can't wait to see the bass guitar.

Years ago I began to make a neck out of a beautiful straight acacia tree branch. I planed one side flat with the intention of adding a slight camber afterwards, and removed the bark on the under side.

The colour of the timber was spectacular, red, yellow and cream blending longitudinally. This was going to be the best looking bass ever.

I wrapped the timber in paper and stored it while I searched for a acacia stump large enough to cut out a body. I sliced up stumps with the grain, against the grain and even diagonally, but could not prevent them from splitting as they dried.

I gave up on an acacia body. Other timbers were more forgiving, but colour/grain matching produced problems-----I wanted a natural wood finish. One day I unwrapped the neck to try and get an idea of colour matching, and to my horror discovered several hundred thousand tiny holes throughout the timber, complete with a nice fine yellow powder.


Clearly I knew nothing about timber, (still don't). Oh, by the way, what's a "swamp" kit??

Good luck with the band, how I wish there were players nearby available for a jam now and then. That's the price one pays for living in the bush.

Hi BBTV I was a bit vague there about Swamp. Swamp are a source for all the bits a muso wants like leads and FX boxes and strings and just about everything bar the instrument and music. Pitbull are a source for guitars "100 + unique DIY guitars" and are the Pitbull featured in the November SC build your guitar project. Just google Swamp industrys and Pitbull guitars.
I bought a JB-4 kit which gives you a big box full of stuff just like you see in the SC article. That saves you carving the body out of a block of wood and gives you the fret handle thing already made up so all the hard work is done. All I have to do is bolt it together temporary to make sure things fit and then stain it and then final assembly and wrangle the strings and frets so it works smoothly and the jobs done. I'll finish the amp cabinet so it matches the stain on the guitar. As usual being a complete newbie I don't see any problems! What could possibly go wrong?
Fred.

I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures when completed.

Regarding "---wrangle the strings and frets---" this sounds like quite a task, back in the 70's the big buzz for kids and guitars was to "shave the frets."

Budding guitar modifiers would go mad with "file and sanding paper".

The idea was to make cheap Jap and Korean copies with sluggish action perform like Strats. I think back now and laugh, but in those days we fooled ourselves into believing our own BS. I cannot ever remember a single success.

There were plenty of failures however, the most memorable from a guy with a "real" Strat. He got sucked into having the frets shaved.
Perfect shame, it was a beautiful yellow body/blond neck 70's Standard. How I would love that guitar today.

Any chance of some bass amp photos when you get the project under way?

Cheers.

Yes, i'll take pix and write copy as I go so you can all see me muddle along.
Fred.