ENCLOSURES: Cutting Holes for a Battery Draw

I know I could probably pay Tayda to do this, but they don't always have the enclosures that I want, and part of me likes going down the hillbilly route with a hand drill and a file.

Here's my process for cutting out holes for battery draws.  It's actually pretty easy to do.  

STEP ONE:  MARK OUT

So first things first - make sure that you know where you plan on putting the foot switch and other parts, to make sure there's room for the battery draw.  

Use the battery draw as a guide to trace out the length / width etc, using a square.   

STEP TWO: DRILL THE OUTLINE

I use a small drill bit to get as close to the inside edge of the line as I can, trying to keep the holes quite close together.  I don't have a fancy pedestal drill, so this is all done with a regular battery powered hand drill.

STEP THREE: REPEAT, BUT BIGGER

Then I use a larger bit to drill around the smaller holes, and in some cases this breaks through the edges of the smaller holes, creating a bigger gap.

Once this is done, metal shears finish the job - it's usually doesn't take much effort at all.

STEP FOUR: GET BUSY WITH THE FILE

As the title suggests, time to get busy with the file.  Check progress as you file, because aluminium is quite soft and the file will do its work quickly.  Check the hole with the battery case occasionally, just to make sure you are on track.  Watch the corners too - most of the hole can be the right size, but if the corners aren't, it will not fit, leading you to remove more material than required.

STEP FIVE: DRILL MOUNTING HOLES

I like to drill the holes for the battery holder at this stage, using the case itself as a guide.

NEARLY THERE

After drilling out small pilot holes for pots and jacks etc, it's time for the stepped bit.  Keep an eye on the stepped drill bit, as they tend to clog and this can cause issues.  I find slow and steady drill speed with a little pressure works for me.

I also like to double check the size while drilling, using the components that will go on the enclosure, to make sure that I don't accidentally overshoot it.  

Hopefully it looks something like this when you're done.  I've given it a light sand and a wash in warm soapy water by this stage.

DALLAS: Rangemaster, 8 lug tag strip version

Here’s a simple Rangemaster treble booster.  I’m jotting down some notes from my recent builds because I really dig this layout.  I used a 1590BBS enclosure and an 8-way tag strip. It’s pretty similar to the Pigdog Eel Pie layout, which inspired my design.

Inside, you’ll find a Mullard OC71 transistor. But honestly, the specific transistor isn’t a huge deal—pretty much any PNP germanium transistor will sound great in a Rangemaster. You definitely don’t need an OC44 to get that sweet sound.

What really makes this pedal shine is a couple of key factors:

1. Hitting Your Valve Amp Hard: The Rangemaster works best when you crank it into the front of a valve amp.
2. Adding Harmonic Distortion: That germanium transistor adds some nice harmonic distortion, which enriches the overall tone.

For the best results, pair it with a valve amp that’s just on the edge of breakup or slightly dirty - there's always a bit of a balancing act between the amp and the boost level.  Once you find your happy place, set and forget.  Keep in mind that once the amp is clipping, it doesn't really get louder, it gets more saturated, and some bass is trimmed off the signal - for many people, this is the sound that they're looking for.

If you run it into a super clean amp—especially a solid-state one with lots of headroom—you won’t get great results, as it just sounds thin.

Which looks like this in practice.

There's just enough room in there for a battery, but I decided to skip it for this one.

OFFBOARD: Vero Spacer hack

I was boxing up a circuit recently and the heights of my spacers weren’t working out - then I had a minor brainwave.  Well I thought it was anyway, you may disagree.

You can thread the little hexagonal metal spacers on top of the nylon ones.   It’s a very tight fit and feels secure.  

Results on the right - MKII.  The board was sitting a little lower than what I wanted to see, this fixed it. 

WHARFEDALE: W12 / EG - Vintage English Guitar Speaker

This speaker had been sitting on Gumtree for months, so I thought I may as well give it a try.  I know that Wharfedale doesn't have the best reputation among some speaker aficionados, but a lot of people seem to do just fine with them, and it did tick a few boxes for me: It was cheap, made in England in the sixties and it was pulled from a Vase Split Sound, which is a very rare amplifier from my hometown (so rare that I've never seen one).

The Split Sound would have been pretty fancy back in the day, so I'm guessing that this must have been considered a better than average speaker - at least by the folks at Vase, or the person that bought it.

Anways, I'll find out soon enough myself, once I load up into an amp and give it a run.

12" speaker

Ceramic magnet

15 watt RMS, 30 peak

10 - 15 ohms

Maybe from 1966

40hz to 17khz which is very hi-fi for a guitar speaker

I think it is inscribed   I/W12 EG  and what looks like  5/66  with chinagraph pencil.

It has a strange green felt surround that is starting to deteriorate a little, but it's holding on OK.  As you can see, there were a few cracks / tears / small punctures in the cone.  The damage is small and localised, so not a concern.  The rest looks and feels very solid.

Yes it has a 'whizzer' cone, which is something a few speakers used to have to try and extend the upper frequency range.

I really like the big speaker wire connections, although I do prefer good solder joins myself for reliability.

The speaker cab instructions are interesting - who has speaker cabs rocking sand filled walls these days?  That's some serious deadening / mass going on there.

AMPRO: Vintage Projector Extension Speaker Cabinet

This is an extension speaker from a vintage projection system.  Thought I'd jot down a few notes, as I couldn't find much available on this version.  

I've seen a lot online in the brown case located in the USA (Ampro is from Chicago).  From what I can tell, these are usually loaded with Jensen or an Ampro house-branded speaker. Some of the US models even have a valve amplifier built in.  

The speaker in this enclosure is Goodmans Audiom 60, 12" 15 watt, 15 ohm, alnico magnet, made in England.  These were used in a number of guitar amps in the fifties and very early sixties, including the Vox AC30.

I can't find a date code on the speaker, so hard to say exactly when this one is from.

I plugged my alnico blue loaded AC15 into the cab, and it sounds amazing, so I'll leave it at that. 

Dimensions: 45cm wide, 50cm high, 27cm deep

Cast aluminium speaker grill cover, looks to have a light coat of hammered paint.

The colour pallette of the tolex on the box reminds me of an old typewriter that my mother used to have.  It's quite well put together, the handle is metal, not plastic and it's spring loaded, so it folds down when not in use.

Nice touch using a film spool to hold the speaker cable

The spool also looks to have a light coat of hammered paint.  The jack is closer to the older telephone style than the modern 1/4" jack.

Apart from the jack on the spool, there's a parallel speaker in / out

There's also some insulation inside, which I hope is a natural fibre.