sneak peek

[Marcel]

There are nil wooden chop sticks in my toolbox but I do have a couple of Teflon screw drivers and a few alligator leads with a built in 100k or 1M resistors to keep caps discharged, and bamboo skewers are great for holding tiny SMD components in place while you solder them in. Generally though I find wood can have too much moisture content for working in really high voltage or in certain RF environments.

Can't remember when I last got an actual 'boot' from electrickery. Did get one off a megger meter back in my teens when a classmate thought it would be funny to go and zap every unsuspecting class member, and in my 20's I got an RF burn once when working inside a large Antenna tuning unit.

Electric fences.... Should be nil DC, Pulses a few times a second of a few kV @ about 1mA ... lots of bite with little damage...

[dave.king1]

Did get one off a megger meter back in my teens when a classmate thought it would be funny to go and zap every unsuspecting class member...

Ah the good old days of college and wiring up the urinal to a magneto telephone magneto.

For you younguns on here the magneto is the thing connected to the crank handle on telephones you sometimes see in old black & white movies.

Megger was a barrel of laughs too

[wazkelly]

Electric fences.... Should be nil DC, Pulses a few times a second of a few kV @ about 1mA ... lots of bite with little damage...

Always best to test with the back of your hand if not sure or just so stupidly curious to find out how much it can give.

Now peeing on one takes things to a higher level of courage or stupidity, or perhaps a bit of both. The zap probably wouldn't do much damage but one's pecker would be feeling a bit sad and sorry for the experience.

[Hobastard]

Best way to test an electric fence is to touch it with a blade of green grass, you only get a little tingle if it's live.
Having said that, I usually just use the back of my hand.....

Have been nailed severely by a Big Cattle Fence, single strand, we used to step on it then over, this time the grass and my boots were wet, and it fired as I was stepping off, dropped me like a stone, face first next to a big Cow Pie..... Felt like a 4x2 across the back of my head.....
Never did that again.....

[DrNomis_44]

Ah the good old days of college and wiring up the urinal to a magneto telephone magneto.

For you younguns on here the magneto is the thing connected to the crank handle on telephones you sometimes see in old black & white movies.

Megger was a barrel of laughs too

One day in Science class at school, the teacher was demonstrating static electricity, he had set up a device called a Wimshurst Machine, he got some on my fellow students to form a chain by holding each others hands and then instructed the students at the ends of the chain to touch the two electrodes of the Wimshurst Machine while he cranked the handle, did my fellow students jump...of course they did, I've received a shock from a Wimshurst Machine and I can tell you that it is not a very pleasant experience, and not one that I would like to experience again, I've had the Megger prank done on me too, sure the prankster might have thought it funny, but I certainly did not for obvious reasons.

[evancprentice]

Just a thought - seeing that you provide guitar kits for DIY, any chance the amps will be available at some stage as a DIY too?

[Brendan]

Check out http://www.valveheaven.com/diy-amp-kits/. I think the risks of voltage, etc and not being a space that Adam understands well may preclude the offering of an amp kit.

[adam]

What Brendan said... getting a solder burn is one thing, but losing your life from a 230V shock is another.

[adam]

Took along one of our soon-to-be released 5 watt valve amps (pre-badges and certification for AS/NZ Standards) to the Red Dog* rehearsal last night.

I thought it sounded so good I stuck my iPhone in front of it to capture a minute of video.

Clearly this wasn't planned, as I most certainly wouldn't have worn my Uggies.

Check it out: https://youtu.be/V4feoCdfZvI


*Red Dog is our Fire Services band, we used to play FESA/DFES social functions and a couple of charity gigs. There's a reunion gig planned for November.

[Dedman]

wait.....that's not a tele-mcaster!

Does sound pretty good however.