You guys will get a kick out of this: An old unbuilt Heathkit is discovered, and is then put together by "Evil Mad Scientist." EMS obviously loves electronics, but is clearly of the digital/IC generation: "The tubes are gorgeous! Their exteriors are glass with electrodes extending from the bottom!" Wow.
The Evil Mad Sci guy fears that the solder provided by Heath will have "gone bad over time" and says that he will use "more modern solder." Hold your horses Frankenstein! Don't you dare put that Heathkit together with lead-free solder! That could tear a hole in the fabric of space time! Also, I dunno about the idea of putting all the components on the lugs and rotary switch terminals first, with all the soldering coming later. The boys at Benton Harbor wouldn't have liked that. And you might want to gradually bring the voltage up on that big electrolytic cap up using a variac. Which brings to mind some needed advice: BE CAREFUL! You have moved out of the realm of 12 V DC. That old Heathkit could zap you good!
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/heathkit-part1
Thanks to Mike Butts for alerting us to this.
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