Of what material are made the chassis at your amplifiers?

[bumblefoot]

I have some amplifiers of different manufacturers. At some of them steel, at others aluminium is used . I am interested in designing of amplifiers. What do you prefer, Peter? Than you are guided at a choice? Thanks!

 

[duesentrieb]

For DIY amps aluminum is "better" - much easier to drill. Alu also has better EMV properties - its disadvantage is that it can easily turned into the oxides, which looks ugly and weakens its strenghts.

Peter uses steel (2mm me thinks) and additionally thin alu front- and backplates. Those fat transformers forbid the use of aluminum, you know . . .

 

[bumblefoot]

I ordered usually steel the chassis, but one person who professionally is engaged in amplifiers, has told me:"I try to use only not magnetic materials" I would like to understand, why?

By the way, I had one chassis from steel 2 mm..... Devilishly heavy amplifier!))))

 

[Lexicon Devil]

I'm pretty sure that Diezel uses tinplate steel, though I may be mistaken. Stainless Steel also seems to be a good choice due to it's anti corrosive properties, and lower EMV properties than regular steel. That being said, Stainless also has a lower heat dissipation than regular steel, and may stretch and warp when worked with, as well as possibly warp due to constant exposure to heat from the tubes.

 

[number 2]

i dont know why heavy transformers necessitates steel as the chassis material. i have super huge mega heavy trannies on my two rock and the chassis is aluminum. Its probably 3 mils thick, but it holds them upside down and they have never come loose even at super loud volumes. i think it weighs somewhere around 10 pounds just for the output tranny.

i think it would be better to make em out of aluminum.