Dantriege's DR 200 Build

[Dantreige]

I have finally started on a my 200's! I lucked into a good paying gig with a great band and now I will have the funds to do some DR's and Titans. My plan is four DR 200's. Two melded, two flat arrays. (Eventually 6-8.) I will start by building all four boxes. I plan to only load two at first, but making all four seams like a reasonable thing to do to save setup and build time. After the first two are up and running, I'll turn my attention to some Titan 39's. Again, I'll build four boxes and only load the first two. I have plenty of gigs lined up, so I expect to have all eight ready before fall. I just need to pay for parts as I go.

I started July 4th while the family was at the local parade. First I cut some guidboards. All were made of 3/4 scrap material I had in the shop. Two peices cut a 1 1/2 inches and screwed together. I did not bother with glue for these. I made several with different angle cuts. Also, I clipped a 45 degree 3/8 x 3/8 inch chunk out of the inside angle to prevent glue squeeze-out form getting on the boards. It worked great and I did not have to fuss with wax paper between the piece and the guideboard.

I then used the cutsheet in the plans to rough cut my full 4x8 foot Arauco ply (1/2 inch). First I used a circulat saw to cut the sheets down to 54 inches. This allowed me to handle the sheets easier. Ripping them to their rough size on my table saw was a breeze.

The picture below shows two of four sled type jigs I made.

Sorry I have not been good at documenting each piece as I cut it. (I tend to get real focused when I work on these type of projects.) The jig on the saw is the 7 degree thoat horn jig. The other, standing against the fence is a peizo cutting jig.

The pic above shows a better end view of the sleds. I used 3/4 scrap that I had. One 3/8 strip was cut to go underneath in the track. I used a 1 1/2 inch piece screwed to the outer edge as a secondary guide.

More to come in a bit.........

[Dantreige]

OK. So here are some more pics.

Baffle/Throat Horn Jig

This side view will give a better understanding of what this jig is for. This simplified getting the throat horn and the baffle lined up. Just a couple lines on the lower ply to line up the throat horn and a center line to help line up the baffle. I clamped the lower piece in place, screwed the piece together, flipped it end to end to check for square. Once I was satisfied everthing was lined up, I unscrewed the baffle, added glue and re applied it. Pre drilling the screws made it very easy to line the baffle up when the glue was applied.

A quick pic of some of my clamps. I have ten Vice Grip C-clamps that I have owned for years. I used these when I was a metal fabricator years back. The large "Bessy" clamps are 12 inches longs. Great quick clamps for holding pieces down while you cut/grind/sand/whatever. I have four of those as well. They are expensive. I beleive I payed $100 or more each, ten years ago. Worth their weight in gold though. I'm sure you can get some cheaper knock-offs now days that would work just as well.

A pile of pieces. Tops and bottoms. I used the "plunge" method on the table saw to cut the access holes. Finished cutting witha jig saw. I used the same method on the baffle for the center cut and the vents.

One more for this post.....

MOAR parts


More to come.............

[Dantreige]

And yet some more.

This jig might interest a few people. I was nervouse about cutting the PVC pipe so I made a safe rig to get that done.

It's a simple box with the inside dimension to allow an eighteen inch piece of PVC. Notice the thee screws on both sides of the box. Just insert your PVC screw it down so it does not move while cutting. Then slide the box though the saw. Your saw blade only needs to be high enough to cut though the PVC.

Flip the box over and do the other cut. Remove the screws and you had two perfect halves. No binding! The holes will get trimmed off when you cut the reflectors to size.

Ahh! Another useful tool!

This 1 1/2 inch putty knife will save you a metric !@# ton of work. Two to four hours after PL'ing use this to scrape off your sqeeze-out. PL comes off in a nice rubbery chunk after a couple hours cure time. Very easy. Just don't remove your fasteners until the PL has cured completely!

I finished off today cutting some peizos.

I am going to glue the blanks in a staight array, then cut them to 45 degrees for the melded. I seams like a better way to do things. Others on the forums have had good luck doing it this way.

I did have to alter the lug pattern. Not a big deal. I'll just have to be careful when wiring them.

The final shot for the week.

I'll be busy at work and gigging for a while so progress will be slow the next week or two. I'll try to be better about documenting my steps.

Later

Dantreige


p.s. Thanks to Leland for getting my parts out fast! I see they will be here for the wekend. (Maybe I'll find some time to do some more work.)

[Dantreige]

Erp! Final shot was the wrong one.

[J_Dunavin]

You started on the 4th?! Man i'm slow

[WB]

Nice clamp stack. Visegrip and Bessey are my friends.

[Ken Lustgarten]

Looks good so far

A few comments. I too was concerned about cutting PVC the tablesaw. Since I have a bandsaw I used it instead. A fence clamped to the table made it easy and very safe to cut the pipe in half.

I do not like alternating the lugs. The reason is that I like the extra strength that is gained from having the lugs glued together. My approach is a little different. Before cutting the piezos I removed the screw instead of cutting through the screw head. After glue up I used 1 screw + washer for adjacent tweeters. With the washer the single screw holds down both housings.

I made 8 DR's in about 6 weeks. It is definitely a huge time saver to make all the cuts at the same time. 2 of the 8 were DR250's and 6 were DR200's so I got to compare the time savings for parallel builds. Also this insures that all the speakers will be an exact match, in most cases set up time is greater then cut time.

One last comment. Of the 8 I built 6 DR200's were for me. I went with 4 melded and 2 flat. After getting a little bit of use on them I would recommend building the 4 melded first and then start on a pair or 2 of flat arrays in the next build. The melded are more flexible, 2 systems can be set up simultaneously if needed. In a pinch they can be used as a monitor with the front propped up (I need to get started on some wedgehorns soon). The wide dispersion of the melded has worked out really well for me and that is why I suggested holding off on the flats until later.

[Dantreige]

@ J-Dunavin Your not slow, I just didn't go to work those days.

@ WB Clamps are a good thing. Can never have enough.

@ CraigsAudio You make a good point about the melded. Luckily it's not to late to switch them. I think I will take your advice. Thanks!

[LelandCrooks]

Got to post this. I don't usually post all my secrets. After seeing your pipe jig take a look at the one my Dad designed for me. I rip lots of pipe, it makes it very fast and accurate. You don't flip it you rotate the pipe in the jig. It has since had added some inserts that fit in the first cut and force you to cut at 180deg from the first.

[Dantreige]

My progress for the last couple days. I figure that I am at about 60 hours in at this point.

Baffle flanges, throat fillers, vents cut in baffle and horn supports and spacer rings installed.

A quick jig I made to help align the top and bottoms with the throat horn/baffle assemble.

The jig is made from scrap 3/4" ply. It has three guides. The first is a 90 degree straight edge to align the top and bottom at their sides. The other two pieces are 3 degree angle cuts to match the cab angle. They are spaced 17 inches apart. I also made a spacer to fit under the baffle when I removed the sides for gluing.

I spent a good deal of time making each assemble. Checking and rechecking everything for square. After glue up of the top and bottom, I added temporary braces to help keep the mouth area square.

I added the half moon back braces while the assemble was in the jig.

Progress shot form Saturday morning.

I have since added the tweeter baffles and backers, horn sheath flanges and access opening flanges on two of the four cabs. I'll update with pics as soon as I have all four complete.

Time for a Sunday nap..........

[Dantreige]

All four ready for horn sheaths tomorrow. Sorry, no pics. My wife has the cammera. I'll try to get one before I install the horn sheaths.

I spent some extra time "caulking" ever joint I could get at. I'm confident that I had sufficient sqeeze-out on all my joints but this will be the last time I can access the inside (easily). It never hurts to be safe IMHO. I don't want to hunt for any leaks and it only took a few minutes per cab.

One tip I found that works well for getting PL off your fingers, (not sure if anyone has mention this), use some of the sawdust to rub onto your fingers and hands. The dust will absorb most of the glue and it will roll of your skin easily. Be quick about it. Rub it on like a weight lifter would chalk his hands. Before and after getting the glue on your skin. PL will dry to your fingers and skin pretty fast. You should have plenty of free sawdust on hand if you are like me and don't sweep as much as you should.

When I get my camera back, I may post a pic of my clean finger. (Maybe that would be too much?)

[Dantreige]

Progress seams to be slowing, but I see the end in sight. Hopefully get to do some finishing this weekend. Still a lot to do with the crossovers and tweeter arrays. Good fill in jobs for when I am waiting for paint to dry.

Progress so far.........

Side braces, horn sheaths, and pvc reflectors added since the last update.

Yes....my floor is messy. I'm not cleaning it until I get ready for finishing. :p

[Dantreige]

This weekends work.....

My camera fogged on me when I went to take these. Sorry for the blurry pics.

I finished the buttcheaks and sides. The backs are a placeholders. I want to use 1/8" birch for them. The birch feels stong enough. I'll add a 1/2" backer for the jacks.

I also routed the top and bottoms covers. I took off 1/8" to help the covers stay a little more level after the gasket is added. I don't want them to stick out.

I'm sure everyone in the U.S has had the same problem this weekend. It was too hot to work in the shop for very long. We had a 106 degree heat index today. I could not stay in the garage for more then 15-20 minutes at a time. Then I had to go in and drink a glass of water, towel off, and sit in front of the fan for a while. This northern boy can't take that kind of heat. I'm very thankful for central A/C.

I managed to get the sides and backs routed and sanded smooth before noon. I moved my operation indoors after that.

I was able to get all eight of the straight arrays tested, sealed, and glued together. I still need to make my 45 degree jig and cut and glue the halves together.

Again, it was too hot to go to the shop, so I started working on the crossovers.

I bought the boards from Leland. I think it really makes it easy to get the parts in the right place. Well worth the money IMHO.


I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Feels good to get this far.

[cheapbasslovin]

Yes....my floor is messy. I'm not cleaning it until I get ready for finishing. :p

I thought it was a picture of my floor until I saw the DRs in the center instead of a Jack.

Egad I am slow. I hope I am faster on my 110's because threads like these make me feel bad about myself.

Also, thanks for the sawdust tip. It helps keep my mess justified.

Lookin' good.