newbie needs help, familiar post hm?

[lys]

Hey everybody, I just built my first circuit for the tweako from small bear. I was pretty psyched at how easy everything went once I bought a new soldering gun with a smaller and less junked up tip. I was pretty sure I ordered a drilled version, but I had to buy a bit to drill the one I got in the mail out. And I didn't get any bare wire sent to me with the kit, I took scraps from the ones I clipped and stripped some wire I had from a crappy rat shack pseudo breadboard type kit a guy I'll never trust again sold me! There were however a bunch of things left not pointed out as well and I think I reduced the quality of my eyesight immensely trying to figure out which way the diodes went!

Have you ever walked into your living room to see a guy with the television on and a g4 laptop 2 inches from his face with an assortment of bare electronics laid out on the coffee table? Well, this was what my girlfriend discovered one evening coming home from the gym, ha.

But I don't really have many gripes about that stuff, because the pictures provided were pretty much holding my hand the whole time, and even if I did have to go back and switch one of those diodes around it would be a good learning process. I'm only delaying the inevitable by trying to do everything correct and easy!

Well I have two questions. The first one is, if any of you guys use anything other than epoxy to glue those bolts down to hold the board on your pedals? Does anything work better? Does anything work without sanding the inside of the box down?
And my next question might be just as simple or a little more complicated I'm not sure.
I want to finish this build so bad! But each night I get a little discouraged. I got a bundle of coated wire from small bear and I'm basically at the point where I need to stick the circuit in and wire everything properly.

Do I just cut up the wires they sent me and shave them down at the ends and solder them to the points they mention in the grid on the site? It's a little unclear and like I said, I'm the type that's too hesitant to do anything the wrong way.

Should I try to match the sizes and colors of the wires to the ones that are pictured for me on the site? Do the different colors of the wires mean anything? In my rat shack kit the different color wires just correspond to the length of the wire, these are all the same length.

Any other wiring tips would be awesome, thanks! And thanks to small bear too.

[humboy]

Hi,
don't know the circuit yoi've got there, but maybe i can help anyway. sooo, epoxy's always worked well for me, it never hurts to sand a bit
though, what's most important is that the metal is free of fat and so forth.
then- if i'm getting this right, the build is well documented- you should therefore have an easy time following the colorcoding on the pictures.
if that doesn't work for you, you'd probably like to use one color for ground, one for hot, one for V+ etc (looks professional and can save you some bother; the more wretched individuals use just one color )
the wires should be long enough to reach the jacks and the switch without tearing and not much longer than necessary. So i guess you got
it all quite right anyway and should just box that thing up.
good luck and have good time. hope that helped.

[RLBJR65]

Welcome to the forum!
Many here have built the Tweak-O but it always helps if you post a link
http://www.smallbearelec.com/Projects/TweakO/TweakO.htm
Also try doing a search there are several posts on that project.

I usually use velcro to mount my boards. Seems to work well for me but most of my pedals never or rarely get giged so I'm not sure how well or how long the velcro would hold up.

As for the wiring if what you have already done is sound I would not be to concerned with the colors you used. Sometimes I use the same color for all the wiring and sometimes  use what ever bits I have laying about. Except for the battery snap or power jack those should be red for + and black for - or ground.
If you think what you have done already may cause problems I would un-solder them from the board and use new. Thats much easier to remove them if you get a de soldering tool something like these.
http://www.wassco.com/quicremofsol.html
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=50B-410
Or a solder wick http://www.surplustronics.co.nz/shop/product-SA0040.html

Hope this helps out.
Richard

[8mileshigh]

lys,

I built this one as my first build earlier this year and I, like you, was scared to death about %^&*ing the whole thing up.  I didn't even know the difference between a resistor and a capacitor but I followed the instructions word for word and got through it first shot.  As Dr.Scotty from Spooktone (Ebay) once told me, "if you get confused or it doesn't work, eat a bowl of soup".  Point being, walk away from it, reread the instructions and  reapproach it with a clear head.  You shouldn't have a problem placing the diodes correctly, it's right there in black & white.  Cut the length of wire that you think you need after installing off the components into the box, just go with the flow.  I used regular silicon for the mounting hardware which seems to do the job.    I didn't like the way the fuzz control felt so I changed it to a linear pot, it cleans up bettter this way.

Do I like the way it sounds ?  Not really, it needs tweaking    It's a fantastic tutorial and an invaluable learning experience for $35.00 so stick with it and good luck soldering the wire to the 1/4 jacks   I use a bit of flux for those.

Chris