Scavenging jacks

[waltk]

A couple years ago, I bought a whole rack of gear for a ridiculously low price.  Included in the rack were 3 Behringer patch bays, 2 PX1000's and a PX2000.
The PX1000 has 24 connection points with 4 jacks each (that's a total of 96 jacks for the math-challenged).  Each connection point is on a separate circuit board.  If you open up the PX1000, they just fall out - no glue/screws/bolts/nuts etc. to keep them in place.
The arrangement/circuit of jacks on the PCB is pretty clever.  Each jack has 4 or 6 terminals that allow for different switching configurations - depending on how plugs are inserted.

I'm always running out of jacks.  The good-quality switchcraft jacks are pricey, and the cheap chinese jacks are worth what you pay for them (if that).

So I thought I might be able able to scavenge these jacks out of a PX1000.  The only problem was they had no threads for securing to an enclosure (just a smooth plastic hole).  Turns out that you can get a standard 3/8-32 die and put your own threads on these - not to mention re-threading that big bag of cheap chinese jacks you bought before you knew better.

So if you happen to have an old patchbay you're not using (or can buy one cheap on Ebay), you can get a whole pile of decent jacks out of it.  I just cut up the 4-jack circuit boards with a bandsaw.

[tubegeek]

Strong upthumb on account of the die-threading cleverness!

[screamersusa]

YUP!  I buy old broken gear just for parts like that.
Sometimes you get lucky and find real steel/silver jacks in old mixers.

[Thecomedian]

how difficult is cutting down and rethreading a potentiometer's bushing? I bought one that was too big for my instrument and I'd rather try that than drill the control hole bigger. Want to keep it close to original condition.

[waltk]

how difficult is cutting down and rethreading a potentiometer's bushing? I bought one that was too big for my instrument and I'd rather try that than drill the control hole bigger. Want to keep it close to original condition.

I haven't actually tried that, but it seems like there might not be enough metal in the bushing to remove the existing threads and rethread it from scratch.  Maybe it would work if you used the same thread pitch , but with a slightly smaller diameter.

I'm with you on not drilling the hole bigger - hate to do permanent mods that change the original design.

If you already have a tap and die set, and don't mind potentially sacrificing the pot, you could give it a shot.  If it doesn't work, you can always just get a pot with the right-sized bushing.

As far as being easy; threading anything metal by hand usually gives me trouble - but that's probably because I'm not very good at it, and don't do it that often.  These jacks were easy because they are plastic, and just the right size to take the threads nicely.

[deadastronaut]

Strong upthumb on account of the die-threading cleverness!

+1..  cool recycling.

[Thecomedian]

*snip*

thanks. I'll definitely try it out, I too, would rather destroy a pot than change an already built expensive instrument.

[ashcat_lt]

I have an old patchbay that I've been scavenging also.  This one has threaded jacks, but only one nut for every four.  Luckily, Mouser sells the plastic nuts that go with them.  But I have actually found that these anyway are not any better than the cheap jacks from mouser, and it's almost not worth the trouble desoldering them from the board...

I use the whole modules all the time though.  Mine are half-normalled so make very convenient splitters, or they can be used as couplers between 1/4" cables to extend their runs.  My bass player keeps one in his gig bag in case he needs to get to the FOH board without a direct box.  I keep several in my cable bag just in case. 

[waltk]

I have an old patchbay that I've been scavenging also.  This one has threaded jacks, but only one nut for every four.  Luckily, Mouser sells the plastic nuts that go with them.  But I have actually found that these anyway are not any better than the cheap jacks from mouser, and it's almost not worth the trouble desoldering them from the board...

I use the whole modules all the time though.  Mine are half-normalled so make very convenient splitters, or they can be used as couplers between 1/4" cables to extend their runs.  My bass player keeps one in his gig bag in case he needs to get to the FOH board without a direct box.  I keep several in my cable bag just in case.

Nice!  I hadn't thought of just using the whole module as a convenient splitter.

I tried desoldering the first one, and it WAS a pain.  Also, it turned out that the pins soldered to the board where holding the contacts in place.  Cutting them apart on the bandsaw and just leaving the board on worked fine.