The amp arrives

It's here at last! My vintage Dynaco integrated amp arrived the other day. It's much smaller than a full-sized deck. The front face is beautiful, brushed aluminum with neat knobs and switches. Here's my new baby:



Beautiful, isn't she? :) I've decided to first restore her and then mod her. I popped the cover off and sprayed the dust bunnies out with a can of compressed air. The inside could use some more work, namely cleaning off the actual electronics and giving the whole chassis a good polishing. There were some scratches on the cover, which were remedied by a black Sharpie marker ;)

I did have some trouble getting the knobs off. I've only managed to get two off, using a small Allen wrench. The rest were stuck in there or had their heads stripped. My solution? Use a left-handed drill to get them out and buy new ones. I ordered the drill bit from McMaster and I'm going to let some Liquid Wrench sit in the holes overnight to facilitate removal. It's a stupid design to use screws that small because they'll have a tough time coming out later in their life. It's even worse on new components - everything is designed (and priced) to be thrown away now. My Sherwood 5.1 receiver cost $77 new and I don't think I could fix a single part on it if it broke. Oh well, that's why I have a vintage amp :)

As for mods, I'm going to replace the old speaker wire connectors (screws) with new banana jacks. This will make it easy to move (quick disconnects) and such. I may or may not replace the RCA jacks. I do have a cleaning kit coming which has deoxidizer, conditioner, etc., (Parts Express [PE] Part Number 341-246) so I'll see how good of a job that does before making a decision. The first thing I'm doing when I get the kit is cleaning the potentiometers (pots), since just about all the knobs are scratchy when moved. I may also replace all the wiring inside with new stuff later in it's life, and possibly some resistors and caps. I'm not too familiar with actual electronics at the moment, so I got a book called Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz that runs through electronics theory and parts and such.

I also got a 30-watt soldering iron from Radio Shack a few weeks ago to practice soldering. It was about $8, much cheaper than I expected. I also got a blank component board, a 100-pack of resistors, and some silver solder with resin core to practice with. Here are a few links if you'd like to learn yourself:

Basic Soldering Guide:
http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/solderfaq.htm

Basic Soldering Guide Photo Gallery:
http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/solderpix.htm

How to Solder:
http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/solder.htm

Soldering Guide:
http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/solder.htm