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Heathkit UA-1 Ground up rebuild

Perkri · 2026-01-25T15:23:52+00:00

I picked up a pair of these little gems a while ago, and have been meaning to do a rebuild of them. Made some new chassis in preparation for the rebuilds, but have since decided to use the original chassis. Now the question is, do I leave the original chassis as they are, with all the marks and scratches, do I strip them down and repaint, or send them out to be plated in some way? If repainting, that gives me the option of filling the holes for the damping switch/octal plug. I don’t mind the patina on the original chassis. They are old, after all :) Going to remove the damping switch circuit, as well as the octal plug at the back. Also picked up a pair of 156R chokes for the power supply. Grounding the chassis is high on my list of concerns as I’m wondering how to deal with the earth ground in relation to the circuit ground. Prepped for IEC plug when making the new chassis, but no room for that in these. Have not tested the caps in the cans yet, they are CE Manufacturing 40-40-20-20. Already have individual caps to replace them with, but space will be tight inside if I use them along with the choke. Using a top mounted multi can will certainly help with space. Still deciding on re tooling the rear panel to make room for binding posts in place of the original screw terminals. Have posts that I got for the new chassis, but again, space is at a premium - especially with these bigger posts. Lots of decisions… Would greatly appreciate any thoughts and experiences you might have doing this work. Thanks, P

Thread starter Perkri
Start date Jan 25, 2026

Perkri

Active Member

Oct 19, 2026

Thanks! Yeah, I’m super pleased! Thank you for sharing all your thoughts and helping me find my way through this.

Now I just need to order some resistors to drop the heater voltage, swap out the caps and drop some fresh tubes in them. Tube and caps should arrive in two weeks?

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