DR 200 build, yep even the shameful pictures

[Dave Non-Zero]

Yeah mine never seem to be quite the right curve to fit and need some work to fit the curve. :/

[hilo4noff]

Made a stupid boo boo a couple of days ago. I had been routing the sides to clear the 1/8" birch wrap-around and got excited and installed them with pl and screws on one of my melded array speakers. The next day I went back out to the shop to set up a mass production kind of jig to do the rest of them. After finishing routing all of them, I came back in for lunch and rechecked the directions while chewing and realized that I hadn't drilled the 2" ports on that speaker yet... Damn damn damn.

After cursing in tongues upon realizing this... I'm not sure how I'm going to drill those ports to match the others without a 30 dollar angle adapter for the drill or approximating a mandrel shaft hole in the side of the cabinet for a really long extension or something.?! Then install the hole saw on it once through the wall of the speaker. What a bozo mistake...

On the upside, my dummy proof little saw sled version 2 or 3.0 is now dry and the cat's ass for perfectly clamping and trimming my 23.5" wide t48 pieces.

I was all hopped up on the PL fumes...

Oh, and thanks everyone for the info on final prep before the duratex.

[hilo4noff]

After a good day worrying about this and researching all manner of drill chuck extenders, extra long arbors or mandrels, and angle drills. I got sick of worrying about it and beating my self up over the boo boo, and take the bastard saw to the sides of the speaker hacking a hole, just bigger than the body of my corded drill. I mean, we have the technology... I'm going to do something very similar to this operation in the very near future when closing in the rear of the speakers with the full length sides and all.

My thoughts were first, just to cut in from the front of the speaker back far enough to get the hole saw to it's location. Then I decided that the messiest cutting wood blade combined with the damage being completely contained within the side would probably be about the best because it would result in the pL expanding against itself on either side of the plug. (filling all those jagged wood blade cuts in both pieces. (the hole and the plug reinstalled).

Looking around the shop I spied the cut outs from the last internal big brace on the t48's... Perfect! I'll use the small one on the inside and the larger one for the outside to miss the screws countersunk for the inner piece.

Install one inside (insulated with wax paper) and pulled tight from screwing into it from the outside of the speaker.

PL up plug and install. add more PL. Cover with wax paper. Mark existing screw heads onto exterior clamping wood scrap. Mark for it's screw placement. Tighten down!

That was a lot easier than all the worrying about it! Maybe 20 minutes total!

[hilo4noff]

I'm also finding that I've been using my brad nailer, mainly to locate or hold the pieces steady while I install the wood screws for their amazing clamping ability. I love seeing the pL squeezing out from the compression... begging for mercy. Both methods have their place! Inside the t48, I don't think I could get a screw into any of those bracing pieces.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Inside the t48, I don't think I could get a screw into any of those bracing pieces.

You can from the outside of the panel, not from the inside, but you don't need to secure the braces from both the outside and inside. Basically it's a friction fit, with just a couple of brads to keep the brace from slipping out of position before the adhesive sets.

[hilo4noff]

The results of the repair are in... Since I inserted the patch from the outside of the speaker, it appears that the pl didn't expand quite as much as I had hoped. Because the outside of the speaker where the pl got caught going in, the surface of the cabinet, PL and the repair is almost already perfectly flush. Then on the inside you can see where, I should have added a bead completely around the wax paper before I put in the patch piece so it would have filled in just as perfectly as the outside.

What's another day of pl curing? But yes, If I had to do it again, I'd make sure the inner surface came out perfect the first time, as finishing steps inside the cabinet are limited by the space to move around in there.

All in all, I'm pretty impressed with the outcome.

[Gregory East]

Bondo might speed things up for you, rather than messy PL. When it's half cured it shaves off like grating parmesan cheese.

[hilo4noff]

Yeah, it really hasn't sunk in yet that I'm about at the finishing stage, so I haven't even bought any bondo yet... Yesterday I routed the handles in the ends of the full length sides and painted the visible part of the back of the horns with 2 coats of sandable-primer-sealer and then a shot of gloss black over that. Also routed the fronts where I had a little slop on the 1/4" coming out past the array mounting surface. That was easy with 2 pieces of 3/4" laying on the front face to make a channel to keep the router steady, the I just adjusted the flat bottom bit down to the 1/4" recess line on the top and bottom inner surface. Each cabinet maybe took a couple of minutes to do.

On that topic... It seems to me that the front surface of the flat array is going to be about flush with the front of the cabinet. Since they are probably going to be transported sitting on their faces, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that lack of any setback. I may add a strip of 1/4" wood around the perimeter of the face. Or I might take the router back to the mounting surface and take off another 1/8", I just haven't committed to what I'm going to do about that yet. Maybe the protective corners will elevate the front surface enough to keep the arrays from getting dinged up. I'll look at that possibility today I suppose.

On the hand holds... I made a jig with two guide holes in it for the center of the 1.5" spade bit so I wouldn't bozo any of the handle's locations and I left 3/4" space between the edge of the grab hole and the back of the speaker end. So here I'll be able to use 3/4" quarter round inside the handle. The t48's ended up getting half inch quarter round, but those aren't really lifting handles anyway, at least not like the dr's which will always be lifted around to their location on a pole or in a stack.

[DanielNY]

Bondo might speed things up for you, rather than messy PL. When it's half cured it shaves off like grating parmesan cheese.

A right angle drill adapter would have saved time and the mess...! unless I've missed something the OP mentioned why he decided on this method.

[el_ingeniero]

Bondo might speed things up for you, rather than messy PL. When it's half cured it shaves off like grating parmesan cheese.

A right angle drill adapter would have saved time and the mess...! unless I've missed something the OP mentioned why he decided on this method.

As indicated above, OP was not inclined to buy one for one-time use. He's shown an admirable and instructive ability to make do with what he has, and makes a virtue of cheapness.

[DanielNY]

Bondo might speed things up for you, rather than messy PL. When it's half cured it shaves off like grating parmesan cheese.

A right angle drill adapter would have saved time and the mess...! unless I've missed something the OP mentioned why he decided on this method.

OP was too cheap to buy one.

lol, almost as if you enjoyed saying that....

[el_ingeniero]

Deleted.

[Gregory East]

You're assuming the guy has spare cash for a tool he knows will gather dust. I say hats off to the workaround.

[el_ingeniero]

Deleted.

[Gregory East]

a friendly goes a long way to not giving the impression the dude is under fire and better off not bothering to post the good, the bad ,and the ugly adventures of DR200 building, which we all enjoy.