Finish

I took my time and was very patient. And it paid off in a finish that while not exceptional, is acceptable. I am talking about the top plate for the new amplifier, of course.

After some delay I have managed to finish all the metal work for the Marblewood Upgrade Amplifier. Hereafter referred to as the 6V6 Curly Maple Amplifier.

After getting some chores out of the way this weekend, I got an opportunity to do some chassis work. The project is proceeding well.

Today I got the shop cleaned up and applied the first coat of oil to the bubinga chassis for the Source Selector Unit. (Still looking for naming suggestions, by the way.) The oil really brings out the grain. I think it will look even better than I thought it would.

A while back in this post, “6L6 SE-UL Primed for Progress”, I mentioned that I would no longer be painting the exposed bottom plates of projects which won’t be seen. What that statement actually meant was that I would be leaving the aluminum in a bare “as delivered” finish. Or maybe with just a little steel wool polishing. But I’m now modifying that stance slightly.

While spray painting some metal this week a funny thing happened. During the painting session, the hair on my arms began to stand on end to the extent that it was readily apparent that something strange was happening. This led me to perform some investigations.

Yesterday I did the final metal fitting and drilled the mounting holes in the metal pieces. This allowed me to finish up all the marking and drilling on the wood chassis. This morning I applied the first coat of oil to the spalted alder. It looks very good.

For the last few days I’ve been applying oil to the SET chassis. It now has four coats of oil, cured and buffed out. There’s only one decision left for the chassis.

I’m working on two projects simultaneously right now; the 6AS7 SET and the Triode Test Jig. In the last couple of days I’ve made progress on both. However now I appear to be at an impasse.

As I mentioned back in June, I have been looking at different finishes for the copper portions of my 6AS7 SET amp. At that time I had mentioned that I was interested in a “patina” type finish for the copper. I learned that to many people copper patina means green tones, blue corrosion, and wild colors. I was looking for something more like a tarnished penny look. Something that would make the unit look more like an older piece of equipment. Unfortunately this was to be more involved than I first imagined.