The guitar amplifier is a long-term project. I started it nearly four years ago. It has sort of stagnated for most of that time, while I occasionally get enthusiastic and suddenly make lots of progress. The big stumbling block has been that I am tight and don't want to shell out $600 for the transformers, so I have wound them myself. The first one I did on a metal lathe that was originally designed for machining engine parts for quite large trucks. It worked, but it broke the wire a few times and it was generally a pain to get the wire to wrap neatly on the core.
The second one is winding next to me as I write this on a home-built coil winder made from old printer parts. The sheet feeder has been turned into the spindle, and the print head is now a wire guide. The fan is there because the motor needs to be run a bit above its rated voltage to cope, and it gets hot. The whole thing is controlled USB, using a controller circuit produced by eLabtronics, a small Adelaide-based company who make some very cool educational electronics. Anyway.
This is quite a strange time. A week ago I was incredibly excited about going to the UK - so much that about three times a day, when I thought no-one was looking, I'd jump up and down several times and grin maniacally. In the car I'd occasionally give a yelp of... I dunno, excitement and worriedness all wrapped up, I think.
Now the excitement is wearing off a bit (lets face it, after about four weeks like that already I was going to be dead from adrenaline poisoning pretty soon, anyway). There are a lot of people now who I am having to say goodbye to, as in this-is-it-and-I-won't-see-you-again-before-I-go. Also it was snowing in Kent yesterday - spring has come to England with a vengeance, it seems.
1 comment:
I DID see you jumping at your desk, I thought you had given yourself a bad paper cut.
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