Joe, I think it would work fine using an LM317 without any further tweaking. (Yep, the Fairchild LM7824 data sheet says I(Q) is 5 mA typ, 8 mA max.)
Since there are so many ways to skin this particular cat, I don't think I'd bother using a triode for this job. I was thinking along the lines of a TL431 with a cascode NPN driving an N-channel series-pass MOSFET. Guess what? Somebody else
beat me to it .
Happy soldering,
John
