Modding the Philips EL6425 - etching brass

Time to etch the brass I cut yesterday.
Started by transferring a print to the brass.



It's important to cover everything you don't want etched.



The etched brass after I put it into a mix of sodium persulfate (natriumpersulfat) and warm water.



Time to paint : )



After removing the excessive paint.
Polished with brass cleaner.



And here we go, I'm quite happy with the result.

Modding the Philips EL6425 - taking care of the power supply

Time to take care of the power supply board. By cutting the chassis, I leave the hazardous parts of the power supply wide open.
So I want to shield it by putting a brass panel with circuit board material underneath.


Please do not touch..



Cutting the circuit board and the brass with my dremel.
The circuit board will act as an insulate for the brass.



And then put them together.


And some testing to see if it all fits.





And finished! : )
The next step is to etch the brass.

Modding the Philips EL6425 - taking care of the ugly-as-f**k chassis

Right.. The chassis really is ugly.
I want to keep the 60's feel and bring the tubes out in the free..
I contacted Johan at Mattssons Smide http://www.mattssonsmide.se and asked him if he could cut the chassis. He pondered the idea for a moment and said, no problem.
He was really helpful and managed to do a really good job of cutting the chassis.
And at a most reasonable price.
Thank you, Johan!

Next step is to paint and lacquer the chassis.


The chassis before cutting:





And after:

Modding the Philips EL6425 - cleaning and painting

Time to clean the inside of the beast. Incredible amount of oily dust had to go.
Painted the backside black.

Modding the Philips EL6425

I recently bought a 1961 tube mixer Philips EL6425.
I thought it looked kind of soviet-industrial and that it could find a place in my studio setup.
Ultimately, my goal is to send audio from my soundcard through the mixer, get some analog colouring, and back into the soundcard again.
The mixer came equipped with some EL36, EF86 Telefunken, RCA and Philips tubes.
Taking off the awful chassis revealed a sturdy, almost bombproof mechanism, just begging to be modded. Or just altered a bit.
I've decided to go for a 1960's hot-rod-smooth-lines-and-heavy-lacquer feeling.

These are the "before" photos: