amp building/ repair stories

[Stevem]

Many years ago I was working on a SS amp with all metric hardware and when taking it apart I dropped a screw,a VERY nessary screw to getting the whole thing back together, and back together it had to be due to the owner needing it at 8 pm that night,
I did not fret over the dropped screw as my floor has a carpet on it just for the issue.
Anyway, so now its after 4 pm I`am slappin the amp back togethere and I can not find the darn screw after 25 minutes of looking, and now of course the well stocked hardware store in my area is closed.
I then spent 1 hour lokking for my small tap and die set that I haven`t used in 8 years to hopefully tap the hole out to 10/32", then low and behold my phone rings and I find the darn screw stuck to the magnet area of my cell phone holder, I never chuckled so hard in my life, plus thanking God to no end!

[John_P_WI]

Many years ago I was cutting garolite material on a large shear for tag boards. After hearing an unusual "ting" hit the floor I noticed that I cut the end off my precision 18" Starrett rule. Damn, of course it had to be the 0" end rendering the scale useless.

Another time about 20 years ago I let a customer watch as I cut traces on his brand new Carvin X100B to install bias resistors and new Sovtek tubes. We fired it up and it would play great for 30 seconds, then one of the tubes would red plate. Swapped tube positions and the red plate would follow. The kid of course was freaking out thinking I blew up his new amp. Turned out to be the bias pin on that tube was not soldered and when the tube would heat up, the wire in the pin would move and lose contact. resulting in the red plate. Lesson learned, don't let anyone watch you work....

[Jana]

Do I need to mention the screwdriver through the speaker cone "trick"?

[boots]

Or poking yourself in the eye while putting on your safety glasses.

[mike7]

Or the time my dog knocked my soldering iron off of the coffee table as I was in the kitchen getting coffee. When I returned to continue working I stripped on it with my bare foot.
I either need a proper work bench or to lock juju up when I work.
My last great Dane I owned could literally launch items, cups( full or empty), parts etc. Off a surface for 4-5 feet he wagged his tail so hard. I never learn

[Structo]

We had a Dalmatian that could clear a coffee table with two or three swipes of her tail.

Only dog we ever had that could smile.

Not our dog but the smile was similar.

[img:336:604]http://www.bringfido.com/site_media/pho ... _sized.jpg[/img]

[johnnyreece]

Not an amp, but close enough...so I just finished building a phaser (the pedal, not the Star Trek toy) for my brother. Plug it in and play; bypass is good, but no sound when switched "on". LED works, so I know the battery's in...Look at it for a couple minutes before realizing I never put in the roaches (the chip, not the joint remenants or bugs). Pop 'em in and, voila!

Same day, was building a trem/boost pedal (for the same brother) and needed to move the LED lead just ONE MORE TIME when it snapped...off to Rat Shack for a new LED...

[mike7]

Haha. Awesome!!! That is unbelievable you had a dog that could smile. I'm glad I'm not the only one that has had to scramble to secure things on a coffee table


Those pedal parts are smaller than most amp parts. Have you ever soldered and unsoldered a PCB so many times the traces lift? That sucks. But usually by that time you have tried everything you wanted to do anyway. Oh well onward and upward

[briane]

Do I need to mention the screwdriver through the speaker cone "trick"?

or the 'screwdriver as a cap discharge tool' trick.

made a proper cap discharge wand next day.

spark burned a hole in the screwdriver - was working on a 500 volt rail that day. thank god for rubber handles

[xtian]

spark burned a hole in the screwdriver

Yup. Also vaporized a hole into wire clippers by snipping thru a 120v mains wire that I was sure was unplugged. POP!

[eniam rognab]

i was doing general electrical contracting work last year at a new old folks home

so many different contractors, so little communication

we would shut off a whole floor to work on the outlets and switches and some asshole painter or whatever would try to plug in his compressor

"huh why is the juice off? wheres that breaker"

ruined two pairs of linemans pliers and danced the 60 cycle jig a couple times

not an amp story, but i felt like a big resistor

[boots]

That's scary eniam! LOTO! Lock Out Tag Out saves lives on industrial work sites. Gotta put a padlock on those things so no stupid people can flip the power on while your fingers are in there!

[Cantplay]

That's why you use a lockout device on any breaker you're working on.


John

[EtherealWidow]

This happened just a couple days ago.

I was going to do the headphone trick to find OT/PT placement. Had the PT plugged into the wall with a switch, flipped the switch, saw a spark and tripped the breaker for half the house.

Revisited it a bit later to think about what happened and realized I had the SPST in parallel with the PT. As soon as I flipped the switch, I shorted out the mains.

At least the PT is ok!

[NickC]

i was doing general electrical contracting work last year at a new old folks home

so many different contractors, so little communication

we would shut off a whole floor to work on the outlets and switches and some asshole painter or whatever would try to plug in his compressor

"huh why is the juice off? wheres that breaker"

ruined two pairs of linemans pliers and danced the 60 cycle jig a couple times

not an amp story, but i felt like a big resistor

I was working on a 440 VAC line, that was supposed to be shut off, in a factory once. Turns out there was an illegal connection and the line was live. Vaporized end of the screwdriver and threw me four feet back into a cinder block wall (fortunately). Lesson learned: Never believe anyone, always test.