Calibrate, calibrate, calibrate!!!

[phil]

I know this isn't anything new for the seasoned people, and I've read it stated in everything from the plans and all over the forums, and every manual for every tool I have, but I just burned through 1 1/2 5x5's and 6 hours for nothing!!!

Whatever tools you're using, if you even have an incline that somethings not aligned right, or as in my case I had a multi-month break, in which I let my father use the saw and my miter gauge a couple of times.

I just jumped on, and unfortunately started cutting panels out for the baffles. After cutting them all out and stacking them together, and seeing different angles going everywhere when they were stacked, right after a few choice words I took the 10 measly minutes to run through the calibration of my saw and miter setup, and now everything is cutting perfect...

After about $40 in wood totally wasted (cause unfortunately I didn't have them stacked together until AFTER I had cut the square holes), and a day and a half!

GRRRRRRRRR

Just ANOTHER reminder for the woodworking newbs like myself.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

After about $40 in wood totally wasted.

No, you've just got enough brace stock for a few dozen cabs.

[Tom Smit]

If it's only one (or two cabs), couldn't you use them anyway, since a 1/4" wouldn't affect it that much, would it?

[phil]

The baffle idea is a great one. I haven't looked intimately at the tuba 36 plans, but it would be nice if I could utilize them as braces in those!

I'm doing 8 dr280's, and I wasn't sure how much I wanted to just trust pl to fill gaps that big, or how much other wierd manipulation I would have to do to make it all come together nicely. I figured it would be less work to just redo them right, then try to mess with them later in the build. Even the off angles weren't consistent between panels, and I figured I would have to do something a little different to each one to make it work, and figured that would probably eat up more time than just redoing them.

It only took me a couple of hours to redo all the baffles today. I actually used a couple of the messed up ones to help align the horn/baffle assemblies on all of them.

Tomorrow on to the mounting rings and inserts!

[bgavin]

One great thing about Alzheimer's is, every time is the first time.
It seems every time I pick up a given gauge, I have to make sure it is properly calibrated.
Same for RTA measurements.