DR 200 build, yep even the shameful pictures

[hilo4noff]

If there was one tool that I have to say has saved this build it would be the less than 20 dollar Irwin universal friction nut replacement for chop saws. it turned my 100 dollar hitachi chop saw into and indispensable tool of accuracy. Here's a link to it- http://www.google.com/search?q=irwin+ch ... 24&bih=848 that thing spins with the blade and shines exactly down the side of the blade where it's going to hit the wood. I've never owned a tool for soo cheap that has done this much to make life easier.

With that laser installed it made the degree gauge on the miter saw invaluable, as my garage sale purchased table saw came with an adjustable miter strip (yee haw), but not the indicator that's supposed to progress down it as one tilts the blade. A scrap of plywood worked for that, though. I put all the degree-d cuts in it on the miter saw and then used it as a gauge on the top of the table saw when I needed to change the angle.

My last secret is the bucket of sawdust. Scrubbing my fingers in that seems to be the best pl removal chemical known to man. You just have to do it right after you use the pl before you pick up any other power tools or people.

The miter saw really is the thing that made the initial compound angle cuts perfect and the pvc tube angle cuts a cinch.

[The Big M]

keep going, you're doing it! I love the ingenuity.

[hilo4noff]

OK, I'm back in building mode, I received my order from speakerhardware of 50 piezos and two eminence deltapro 8a's, the box was beat to death, both of the sealing gaskets on the driver faces were rubbed partially off and the box had been re-taped with clear tape to reseal it. I know this wasn't caused by speakerhardware. This was the result of the shipping company's rough handling of the box. This is the 3rd thing this year out of 5 total that received, that looked like it had been routed through fedex Fallujah.

Any way, I built a modified version of the tweeter cutting jig with the 2 5/16ths with on one end and the 2" width on the other. I'm glad that I went with the 50+ bulk order because I exploded the first two tweeter casings when the blade hit one of the three bolts holding the piezo assembly together... Now my jig, I thought was pretty close to being exactly the measurements Bill sets forth in the jig plans but let me tell you that as exact as I was in measuring with a machinists rule, I was still off a sandpaper sheets width and this caused the first cut to leave too much material on the first side forcing the second cut too be too deep into the screw and mount on the tweeter.

So, how do I know I was a sandpapers width off, by just putting a worn out piece of sandpaper between the side of the tweeter and the stop, I was then producing equal 2" wide cut down tweeters and just shearing off a bit of the screw hole plastic. Will post pictures when I get the camera back in the house.

From dry fitting the cut tweeters together on a piece of board it looks like the finished array will be just under 17 inches total.

Since I didn't want to receive anymore tweeter screws impacts to my chest, I lowered the blade to just miss the screw heads. This though has forced me to alternate the tweeter lug position to every other one points out instead of in. I know that this is not what the directions say to do but with the series parallel wiring I'll just run one circuit up and down the outer facing lugs and then series with the inner facing ones.

Also have began the T-48s as I'm trying to hustle while we still have VERY few pl curing days left. Found the kappalite 3015lfs on ebay for $205 delivered. Yay, I feel like the guy miss-priced them or something, that's like a hundred bucks a speaker savings.

Something else that's nice about the Eminence speakers, they are made down in Kentucky! With a 7 year warranty! Wow, go USA.

[LelandCrooks]

Since I didn't want to receive anymore tweeter screws impacts to my chest, I lowered the blade to just miss the screw heads. This though has forced me to alternate the tweeter lug position to every other one points out instead of in. I know that this is not what the directions say to do but with the series parallel wiring I'll just run one circuit up and down the outer facing lugs and then series with the inner facing ones.

Grind the screw sides with a bench grinder flat.

[UROK]

...the box was beat to death... and the box had been re-taped with clear tape to reseal it. I know this wasn't caused by speakerhardware. This was the result of the shipping company's rough handling of the box. This is the 3rd thing this year out of 5 total that received, that looked like it had been routed through fedex Fallujah.

Man, when I see the clean, crisp Eminence boxes in some of the photos members post, I am so jealous! Mine are just as you describe.

It's a kind of double edged sword that Chinese delivery companies don't know what they are shipping: one the one hand, it means they are less likely to steal my drivers/tools but, on the other, they chuck the boxes around like they contain stuffed toys!

Something else that's nice about the Eminence speakers, they are made down in Kentucky! With a 7 year warranty! Wow, go USA.

+1 Before doing this, as a Brit, I wanted to use PD drivers. But I couldn't even get a reply out of them. Now I am a confirmed Eminence aficionado!

REALLY enjoying this thread BTW despite all the ups and downs and near death experiences!

[hilo4noff]

16 Tweeter array... yeah I thought about grinding the heads down so they'd fit side by side, but I think I've tortured the poor tweeters enough, twice through the table saw and then once through the chops saw for the 45 degree cut. Alternating the lugs seems to be their happy place, at least I'm liking the idea of having all the screw heads intact.

Now, a note on the order of assembly. Write this down! BEFORE gluing two tweeters together, in any configuration.... seal around the three sides of those three screw receptacles on the piezo horn. I had one 45 degree array completely put together before realizing what a bitch it was going to be, to do this after the fact. Donny Collins posted somewhere to just slather them up a couple of coats of abs glue. I considered this and decided to check the hardware stores for what was available. Returned home with a 3.75 ounce tooth paste tube apparatus of clear silicone with a 3 inch long nozzle to cut off at the desired bead width, and a double barrel into one injector sort of syringe with epoxy glue in it. That day I also discovered that Testor's model glue (the stuff we put together models with growing up) is now banned from retail sale. Something about the potential miss use of the stuff as a drug deemed it worthy of narcotic status.

So that little tooth paste tube after a few bends developed leaks and then the ass blew out of it because I squeezed it too hard, the epoxy will work but gets a little thin and messy, and I even tried white silicone bathroom sealer in the "little bit better" plastic tooth paste tube configuration. That was about the best and easiest on sealing up the dime width slots next to the screws.

At this point I decided to take a break and rethink this thing. There had to be something else that was liquid and cold that was just thick enough to do the job. So after an hour of de-siliconing my self, the garage, my clothes and the dog. I ran down to the the local ace hardware. Told the guy what I needed and he was all "why don't you just use model glue?" I told him that I didn't have time to order it, I needed it right now. So we walk back to the general isle and sure enough they have 4 dusty tubes of the old stuff. Two of them were rock hard, so I bought the other two and he tossed the bad stuff. I never go to Ace, but fortunately for me this ace is one of those old screw, bolt ,chainsaw repair stores, bought by ace and not yet upgraded to yuppie lawn care outlet.

So, if considering the piezo route for the dr's, order the generation Y heroin before hand, because there just is no other substance that will fill the bigger holes next to the screws and flow with a perfect tiny bead to seal all the way around the driver cap (that toothpick width space where the driver is mounted inside the plastic horn part)

And do all this BEFORE assembling into array.

My assembly was pretty simple, like welding do 3 or 4 tacks of super glue or plastic cement on the piece to be added. Position and square with the piece adding to. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat. Then if using Donny's slather procedure, it will mostly close up the air holes around the screws, (underneath for sure) So if you've already sealed the top... a couple more coats of pvc glue has really turned out a lot stronger than I had expected, and sealed.

On the 8 piezo flat array you don't get the 3rd dimension to sturdy everything up, they are all glued on the same plane (bendy if you pick them up) I may glue some of the cutoffs from trimming the tweeters, onto the back side to stiffen the whole assembly up. That would add another dimension of stability to the structure so it doesn't come apart from being moved around the shop before it's safely installed on the cabinet.

Even after 3 passes on the saws, none of my tweeter cones were detached inside the piezos!

[hilo4noff]

My finished 16 array measures 16, 11/16" and my flat 8 array 16, 5/8" inches total length. Must have been pushing harder on the flat ones... who knows!

[hilo4noff]

As you can see in the pictures, the silicone will do the job, but what a mess! and on the flat arrays I went ahead and installed those cut offs on the back side away from any mounting surface to sturdy it all up a bit. The other one only has one coat of the pvc glue at this point.

Thank God no one but us will ever see the back side of these arrays.

[LelandCrooks]

Rubber Cement.

[hilo4noff]

Rubber cement what? Would be messier than silicone sealer or would work better?

[DJPhatman]

Rubber cement what? Would be messier than silicone sealer or would work better?

Since this is for a DR, the array has to be air-tight. Paint the rubber cement all around the piezo element to horn seam to seal it. You can use silicone sealant, but the rubber cement just works without all the fumes, is easier to remove if needed, and will not do any harm to other components.

[hilo4noff]

Much appreciated! Yeah, you forget how potent that silicone curing is, until you get a lungful and run out of the garage coughing. Thanks dj Phatman, and Leland for the help. I really appreciate everyone's support and experience.

[hilo4noff]

Found some gnarly t-nuts 1/4" by 20, and they are a full half an inch deep. I say gnarly because the damn things drew enough blood from my finger tips, I found my self wondering when my last 10 year tetanus shot was. So I got all of those drilled, positioned and epoxied in. The other t-nuts that I found in the stores locally, were about half this depth.

My local Ace who so graciously had the plastic glue, unfortunately only had 12 of the 1.5 inch cap screws when I was there. So, I bought what they had and just figured I'd have to hustle to take out the 4 screws in the first cab to pull the 4th cabs t-nuts into place with before the instant set 2 part epoxy set up in the cool spiral mixing nozzle.

No such luck... by the time I got those first four out and then finger assembled into the 4th speaker, the epoxy nozzle was solid. I guess that's why they include two nozzles in the package. At this point I'm hustling to vice grip off the nozzle before it fuses permanently to the injector. By only putting the stuff under where those teeth dig into the wood, and with the longer barrel t-nuts, I didn't get any epoxy on the threads.

Keep in mind that before I started, I had all my holes drilled (as per marked directly from a delta pro driver) and all the tnuts and screws finger tight before I even opened the epoxy stuff.

An allen head bit for the screw gun (with the right amount of torque setting) would have got me through them all quicker. Or had i bought the 5, 10 or 15 minute setup time epoxy would have been a wiser choice too. When it says "instant" they almost mean it.

And once these tnuts are pulled into place, they ain't going anywhere! So, there was no need to leave the screws in place, except to not lose them.

Well finally I can get back to installing the piezo supports in the front of the cabinets. I had put them off just so they wouldn't be in the way of the drilling and all for the main driver.

[hilo4noff]

Been super busy with the pl lately, got the peizo arrays sitting on the shelf ready for down the road. The last two days I've been cutting and installing the 14" horn sides. When I did the very first one I laid the speaker directly on the quarter inch plywood and traced the inside dimensions and then added a half and inch more material past the marks I made on the inside tops and bottoms where that piece should end at the pvc piece, and that seems to work out just about perfect. It'll still need some appearance trim or fiddling but it covered the whole area I needed with just a touch of extra out front.

After I got the first speaker done, I realized that by rotating the plywood 90 degrees, It might be easier to bend if 2 of the 3 plies in the wood were in agreement on bending instead of only 1 ply liking that direction. Needless to say, the first speakers amount of work to bend really had me scratching my head on Bill's plans at this point. I think two contact adhesived 1/8" baltic birch layers would have accomplished the horn without all the relief cuts to the interior ply of the 1/4 inch stuff. Has anyone done this?

Anyway, my girly saw, that came bundled in a panasonic cordless combo kit I bought a couple of years ago, has really been the life saver at this part of the build, along with making the sled suggested in the plans, to put that little 6.5" blade exactly where I need it to get the precision for these cuts.

[hilo4noff]

The pictures of the post above are showing the wrong direction wood grain already applied to the flat tweeter array speakers and the easier direction on the one on it's side.

A note on my little saw sled... I had to remake that sucker twice, the first time I measured and ripped the wood on the table saw, and then when it was screwed together in the l shape I realized the next day that I had positioned the pieces precisely wrong as to which butts up against which piece, so that one was a bust. half inch too short on one side and half inch to long on the other. 2nd attempt... Built the L shape correctly this time, pieces in right place, but then figured out that I had no way to clamp it down to anything without the clamps being in the way of the saw path. ARRRRGGGG!

Next time, build junky L from scraps and screwed it to back of miracle sled apparatus, and commenced cutting. Sheesh, you know how I feel, sometimes the simplest things cause the most headache.

So for anyone else who considers building that damn little sled, DO THIS: Glue straight stick to center of 9 inch wide board. Wait one day. Come back, cut down one side of the stick with the shoe of the saw you wish to use against, and on top of 9" wide board. Leave stick board in place, put saw in other hand, set saw on other side of stick, make cut number two down the other side of stick. Done! Don't calculate anything and only measure for the 9" width. I promise this will work. Getting any other measurement tends to constipate the thoughts and simplicity of this task. (As was my experience)