Footswitch and relays

Got the 5v relay circuit up and running.  Also added two micro switches (for overdrive and pre-amp boost) on the far left of panel as manual relay controls for use if the footswitch is not plugged in. Tested and all seems to work as designed. 

Indicators: I'll need to have a visual indication of what switches are engaged at any given time, and of course, many amps put lights on both the footswitch and the front panel to aid players. It turns out that rigging up the indicator LEDs to work on the footswitch itself is more involved than one might first guess, so I'm opting for just having them on the front panel. I did some testing with salvaged LEDs and I think it should work fine to utilize the same holes used for this purpose by the old amp - just need to find the right size LEDs (the leads on the salvaged ones are too short for me to work with - see pic), and with some glue and attachment gymnastics, they should be both functional and also maintainable down the road. 

One reason I picked the Frontman 212 as the salvage model, was that its front panel nicely accommodates the needs of my design in terms of holes for jacks and pots. You can see I won't really have to do anything to the front panel to get all my stuff in there, and a lot of the labels even match mine. 

I haven't decided on front panel treatment yet:

• Whether to try to find a way to update just some of the labels as needed... or all of them with a strip of something across the whole bottom. Hard to imagine that looking very good. 
• Replace the whole thing - it will peel off in one piece and I can use it as a template - but getting something decent made isn't cheap, and I'm not sure I want to do another DIY one like I did for the 5F6A/JTM. 
• Just leave as is - most likely outcome, and I like that no one will see it and think it worth stealing (the FM212 is a cheap amp, not well reviewed).

Also, got the footswitch and cable put together and tested. The 5v system works as it should up to this point - just need to receive the indicator LEDs, install and test. 

Power supply and OTs

Some progress: I installed the tube sockets, and got the power supply and main filtering part of the circuit up and running.  I sorted out the exact location of the output transformers and installed those. It's coming together. 

When I checked tube clearances I discovered that the plastic bases of the power tubes were just touching the adjacent aluminum angle brace, so had to pull things apart and make a few bends in spots to be sure the tubes will have enough space around them and certainly not be in contact with the chassis. I think I will add some tiny metal straps to hold the tube rail and the angle brace together - with that big long hole cut out of the back of the chassis, there's  more flex now in the floor, and with the added weight of the two output transformers, things are moving around a bit. 

I brought the wall power up to a full 119 volts (AC) and measured an unloaded B+ of 348 volts DC entering the filter section from the rectifier. I think that's right in line with my test circuits. I also measured 6.7 volts AC on the taps feeding the filament circuit and relays, so all seems to in order. 

(fully wired PT and filter circuit)

 

(tube sockets and OTs installed)

(reinforcing bracket, aluminum tape, impedance switch and speaker jacks added)