DR 200 build, yep even the shameful pictures

[hilo4noff]

You know, I just received the nicest help from el-ingenero in a private message on the forum and really appreciate all the fantastic help and great ideas. El-ingenero is el-geniuso to me! Thanks man you rock!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Lighten up and learn how to take a joke. The first step is not having to have someone say 'This is a joke' to realize that's all it is.

[subharmonic]

Thanks for the tips on making the side braces. Just ran into the same issues on mu DR250s.

[Gregory East]

I took the initial slight as a full on insult when reading it also, but 2nd on the lighten up dude!

We appreciate your effort in making the build diary.

[Dave Non-Zero]

I was really shocked reading the OPs response. I feel that on this forum we have an enviable record of good behaviour and tolerance and understanding between members.
I urge members to try and see the light side of posts if possible. Ive been on here for years and have only witnessed a handful of fairly minor 'flame wars'
Im proud of that.
personally i didnt think twice about the 'cheap' comment, but that may of course be because i am Scottish and we dont take insult to be called cheap. its more of a compliment to be considered frugal and not wasteful.

[88h88]

I don't give a crap about your methods of arriving at the finished product as long as it performs as it should. I probably would've sat about scratching my head for a while than think of simply making shit easier for myself and busting through the outside panel to get to the inner. It's an inelegant solution but it works and for that reason deserves praise.

I love build threads so please continue.

[wounded horse]

Come on guys, PM each other and shake hands. Have a virtual pint.

[hilo4noff]

Where was I... Ok, here's a couple of pics of my checking the final clearance between the deepest tweeter array and the driver for the first time and it looks like there's plenty of room, and that's without the speaker gasket compressed at all. It looks in the pictures a lot closer than it really is, I just couldn't get the focus right or was too close to the thing.

[hilo4noff]

After fooling around trying to get one of those cutoffs to fit in there right, you know the back filler pieces, and taking about 2 hours and I still wasn't happy with the way that one was sitting in there, I decided to reconsider this part of the process. I was still going to get these pieces to fit, just not all at once.

I'm glad I slowed down here because once again, cuts and decisions REALLY matter now. That's also why I went ahead and painted the insides of the handles so I wouldn't get the top confused with the bottoms when maneuvering the cabinets around for the various processes in the shop.

On this day, I had to bring out another power strip, because I was using just about every hand tool I had for trimming and installing these pieces. Those t48 braces cutouts have now been the most used scrap pieces of wood in the pile. (just the right size for my repair, and to pull these corner inserts flush with the outer surface of the cabinet)

Then just when you think you have it right, check with a strait edge to see if those longer sides have bowed out at all. Two of mine required being pulled in to true with the 24" clamps.

[hilo4noff]

The overlap beyond the eventual final rear surface is desired and easily trimmed with the little saw guide. This photo is just a reference of how i decided how far to trim all these pieces to the center recess... so they'd all be the same. Even though I'm going with the full length sides we'll still show some of the BFM cleavage.

The elevators, it turns out that 1" dowel rod slides perfectly into a hole drilled with a 1" spade bit! I really hadn't expected such a good fit. Who knew? Somethings just work out for you on some days. Originally I had thought that I would want to add felt or something around the inside of the hole to firm it up, with as good as these fit and slide, with zero slop... it's not even needed. My thoughts on the elevators are really simple, by routing a bolt action style slot in the side of the rear over hang, I can have different settings and elevations to the rear of the speaker with locking stops branching off the one main groove.

From what I've quickly estimated, it seems that any single speaker sitting on a level surface needs to raised up about and inch and an 8th to get the front surface at 90 degrees. Then for the next speaker on top of that, because the speaker below isn't a level surface...about 2 5/8" extension is needed to get number 2's front surface square with the floor.

The bottom melded arrays cabinets only need two notches, one for stored position and one for extended. Will look something like this [. The other speakers who will sit on top of the first one's will need a capitol E shaped groove with the center horizontal line on the E going the other way like -[ sort of. The top notch is stored, the center of the E is on a scaffold or level surface and full extension in the last slot for sitting atop another dr. I'm going to have to do some research about the best way to screw into that dowel... Do I want the bolt adjuster sticking out to have a knob to tighten into the dowel once in the slot or design the slots to keep themselves in place...

[Tom Smit]

.

The elevators, it turns out that 1" dowel rod slides perfectly into a hole drilled with a 1" spade bit! .....
>snip<
... Do I want the bolt adjuster sticking out to have a knob to tighten into the dowel once in the slot or design the slots to keep themselves in place...

I would love to see the pics of what you're saying because it sounds intriguing.

[Mark Coward]

Concerning the styrofoam throat fillers, I have used the same material and was concerned about it holding up since it's pretty fragile. For OT's, I was painting them black and found out too much spray paint can melt them lol.

On a whim I tried rolling Duratex on them, 2 or 3 coats work great and also forms a protective layer. I'd suggest doing this if you haven't loaded the drivers yet, you should be able to reach inside with a foam brush.

I could just see clouds of styrofoam "bb's" flying out of the cabs

[hilo4noff]

Yeah, here's the basis for the idea. I had to run out to the garage to quickly put something together to explain it, as I haven't began this process yet and really won't have time in the next week to get to it. But this is what I'm thinking...

Oh, and the 1" spade bit has really earned it's keep the last couple of days, I used it to drill the speakon mounting locations. When I was just going to mount them in the back surface of the cabinet I was going to have to route a recess and all to make everything smooth. This way with them protected in the crease of the speaker, they can surface mount. And the cable will hang strait down not always putting the bend in the cable as it leaves the plug. So, was it more work to structure the back the way I did? I don't think so! And I was able to be sloppier with cutting the fill in pieces into 3 because I added the 2, 1/2 inch wide strips vertically between them all. Those strips have to be cut right before gluing down unless one wanted to do the router thing to get the surface on the same plane as the rest of the rear of the cabinet.

[hilo4noff]

Keep in mind that this is just a sketch based on the quick measurements I took a couple of days ago. The thing to keep in mind when laying it out is to verify that the measurements are precise and only for this cabinet, due to slight variations in building techniques. So each cab needs to be specially measured for it's own elevator settings. Then, as I'm adding protective corners which these will fall inside of. They will have to be drilled out and the thickness of the installed corner will have to be added to the end of the dowel if not planned for in the measuring process. I was thinking something non slip from the chair glide isle at the hardware store.

The bolt locations can obviously be moved farther off from the center line of my little dowel sketch but longer bolts would be needed the farther you stray away from the main movement groove.

The main channel will be easy as the router with fence makes quick work of it, but the resting locations or locks and their paths to the main travel channel of the bolt have to be drilled aiming toward the center of the dowel.

Another way would be to just route the center channel maybe a total of 5 inches and have a tightening knob to clamp the leg in place at any extension. I'm not a fan of that idea, personally.

That little diagram could be located vertically wherever one wanted, but the higher it is the more dowel that will be inside the cabinet when extended. I want to get as much in there as possible without it intruding into the handle location.

I suppose if you used 1/2 material for the back cover they could be located on the back, But I'm using the 1/4" stock and I don't know if I'd trust that thickness to hold the positions.

[N.Webber]

Wait !! Don't drill the holes and slots for the bolts yet. I'll elaborate later...