Yet another Dave Slagle AVC build

StevenZ

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Well, everyone showed up, except for the birthday boy. Dave is going to ship by the end of this week. I opted for the new-ish 47-step Elma stereo version.

1- Bud Industries 563-CUR-3285 enclosure (5x8x3)
4- Cardas GFRA L RCA panel mount jacks
5ft(way too much)- Vampire Wire 25AWG enameled 7/9 purity wire.
1- Antique Electronic Supply P-K312 aluminum knob (Also ordered P-K313 / Black aluminum)

solder will be Cardas Quad Eutectic

So, hoping to have the AVC up and running by late next week, depending upon delivery.

I already have 1 question. How exactly am I supposed to strip the enamel off this wire? It's super soft and I'm not sure a razor will be exactly easy to use here. I've heard you can just burn it off with a lighter or maybe a soldering iron, or even just throw some solder on there however never having dealt with enameled wire I'm curious to see what you guys say.


Cheers,
Steven

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Don’t burn it! I tried that one and everything melted. A soldering iron touched to the wire and pulled slightly down and away worked for me. The coating came away with the iron. Just my two cents and consider that I am a total novice on this issue. Just worked on my Thorens a good bit and ran into some of these issues on Litz wire.
 
Don’t burn it! I tried that one and everything melted. A soldering iron touched to the wire and pulled slightly down and away worked for me. The coating came away with the iron. Just my two cents and consider that I am a total novice on this issue. Just worked on my Thorens a good bit and ran into some of these issues on Litz wire.
That's my concern too. The wire is thin enough to just melt away if I'm not careful. Maybe for a few bucks @opa1 can solder it up for me. Eh?
 
I've got some solid core PTFE jacket CAT5 as well just in case this stuff burns up the moment heat touches it
 
I've got some solid core PTFE jacket CAT5 as well just in case this stuff burns up the moment heat touches it

@StevenZ , if you have enough wire, do some trials removing the insulation, touching the wire quickly to see if there is any insulation melt. Increase the time in increments and there will be a point when the insulation melts and begins to pull away with the iron tip. In hindsight, a solder pot is about $30 bucks online.
 
Having used lots of small gauge wire (made lots of cables for iems, headphones rewired tonearms etc) ive found that putting the end in the flame of a lighter will mean that you have about 5 seconds to pinch off a few mm, although this didnt work with enameled wire like cardas tonearm wire.

Your project looks very cool!
 
Alright, well good news on the wire. The enamel burns right off as soon as a flame hits it. So I'm sure i'll be able to burn it off with a soldering iron quite easily.

But now.... the below raises a question of how exactly do I solder the ground to this? Should I just randomly place it anywhere on the flange looking thing?


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Welp, more good news. The AVCs will be here Saturday and my soldering station will be here tomorrow. So, if all goes well I'll be up and running Monday morning since I'm having everything delivered and building this here at(& for) the office. Woohoo!
 
You can. I have a hard time soldering those big fat ground lugs. I usually end up getting out the torch.
Oh good so you've used these before. I think the Hakko can get pretty hot. Would probably be a good idea to warm them up and then quickly solder to them, eh?
 
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