best way to drill large holes in WAD cases?

[Richard Higgins]

Hi Kenny
Rather than running high voltages up and down the Phono II, an alternative is to put an on/off switch in the rear of the case next to the input voltage socket, thus minimum wiring changes.

Regards Richard Higgins

[Greg.]

Hi Kenny,

Richards suggestion has merit although you will be dealing with DC voltage, so there's little problem wiring from the Cliffcon at the rear to a switch on the front panel. No hum issues to worry about. Neville Roberts did an upgrade article in the supplement a while ago including this mod so that his Pre units had a symetrical appearance with a chrome knob and blue LED fitted to the front of the Phono II. I must admit, in standard application, I don't like the fact the Phono II with it's three valves is powered up even when it's not being used. There is no need for this.

Other options are, if you think Richard's suggestion is good, and you want symetry on the face plate presentation is to mount a rotary on/off switch at the rear of the chassis connected by an extention shaft to a knob at the front, or be a real cheat and fit a switch at the rear as Richard has suggested, but glue a dummy knob on the front plate to give visual symetry only

Our builds IMVHO need to look as good as they sound so I completely understand your attention to detail here.

Best wishes,

Greg

[Richard]

thanks for all the advice guys. I'm going to cop-out and see if I can get someone to do it for me. I'd rather that than make a mess of it.

Hi Kenny, Mark it up or send it with the exact measurements and hole size and I'll drill it for you. PM me for address etc. Rich.

[KennyK]

thanks for the responses. Richard, thanks very much for your kind offer, I will be in touch when I get word on the spares.

what I want to do is put the second switch on the PSU rather than the phono, for no other reason than I've cable-tied some large PIO caps to the inside of the phono front panel so there's no room to fit a switch.

I don't particularly want to keep reaching round the back to power up the phono either, despite that being a simpler thing to implement.

here's the pre/phono/psu at the moment




and using my limited photoshop skills,
here's a mockup of what I'd like to achieve.



of course it will depend on the availibility of the chrome knob / led as to whether I'll go ahead with the project... I'm not too worried about the black chassis panel as it won't be seen, so I'm happy to drill that, and know what to expect after doing the xlr sockets the other week...