[Grover]

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallery;area=browse;album=261

The above is the link to my image gallery, but I'll try to post some photos in this thread as well.  The Cornet took me three months to complete, and it seemed about half that time was spent waiting for the Hammerite paint to dry thoroughly.  I see that my photo posts are coming out very small.  Not sure what happened, but the Image Gallery has nicer photos.  If someone (smarter than me obviously) wants to repost my photos here, please have at it.  Sorry for the quality of these.



I put a bit of money into the kit with Angela tin and foil caps, Sonicaps, Cardas RCA jacks and internal wiring, Nichicon Muse electrolytics, Riken Ohm and Kiwame resistors.  I also have a custom wound ElectraPrint transformer which was a pretty tight fit on the Hammond chassis.



I took my time and tried to fit everything together so it was symetrical and in order.  It hasn't been powered on yet and no testing has been done other than to doublecheck all parts values and placement.

Bathing the finished circuit board in the Isopropyl Alcohol for 30 minutes, then scrubbing, had the effect of washing off the print on some of the capacitors.  Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Although the transformer and interior parts were a bit expensive, I did get a deal on the outsides.  The Hammond chassis was on sale at Welborne Labs for $7.  The wood corner moulding was a piece found in the scrap bin at the hardware store for $3.50 and the feet were rubber bottle stoppers picked up at the hardware store for about 40 cents each.  Everything was stuck on with Super Glue.

I had the wood corner panels finished in a gloss black, which looked terrible.  I was going to sand it off and start over, when in the middle of sanding everything down, I realized it looked pretty good in this half sanded "distressed" pattern.  So I sanded a bit more to take the sheen off and glued them on. Done!



It was a great project and such a learning experience.  I wonder when Jim is coming out with his monoblocks?

[GRD]

Thanks for posting.  Really nice work.

[JoshK]

Grover, nice work!  Noticed your in SLO town.  I love SLO.  I am a Cal Poly Alumn.  SLO has got to be one of the greatest towns in the US and perfect weather year round!

[Grover]

Hey Josh:

Nice to hear you have a San Luis Obispo connection.  You're right, the place is darn near perfect.  Maui is about the only other spot i've been to that I like about as well (OK, maybe a bit more).  I came to SLO in '77 out of high school to attend Cal Poly.  Graduated in '81 with a business degree.  Been here ever since with the exception of about nine months in San Mateo immediately after graduation.

[dado5]

I Love SLO!

Cool to see other folks love that town too.  I have worked around the world and SLO remains my favorite burg. Been there about a dozen times or so working on undersea fiber optic systems.  The undersea cable station is that funny little shack in the field just past the intersection of Los Osos Valley road and Foothill road. It is actually a 3 story underground facility. My big brag is that I lit up the world's longest fiber optic link in that station-13,000 km from SLO to Shantou, China.

Great town, great times.

Rob

[eweitzman]

I noticed that your transformer is oriented differently than shown on the cover page of Cornet instruction manual. Why did you do it this way?

- Eric

[Grover]

About the time I ordered the kit, people were having a lot of trouble with the Hammond 270BX transformer.  So I ordered a transformer from ElectraPrint instead.  It was custom wound to the Hammond specs, but the physical size is bigger.  The ElectraPrint tranny didn't fit on the chassis in the normal orientation, so I rotated it 90 degrees.  Perfect fit!