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Hackomatic wrote:Sounds like I'm gonna need to do a structural analysis of the roof! And speaking of the roof . . is there any thing to be gained by its boundary?

I don't think so, it's not a large enough structure to get any loading.
You might make it rattle a lot though

Those crossovers are really nice looking! Great job with those. I like how you soldered on ring terminals to connect to the binding posts. Too cool.

After I posted about the port location, I remembered your original post on this subject and Bill blessing the bottom port location. Covered with some chicken wire, you'll be good to go. Of course, a ported cab, outdoors will invariably wind up with condensation inside, but your choice of cab material takes care of that worry...as does using plexi vs. wood for the crossover bases. You get a big thumbs-up for thinking this through so thoroughly!

As for the cab locations, the optimal placement would be where DJP suggested. At each goal line, toed inwards. HOWEVER, me being the practical person that I am, the following thoughts come to mind.

The current towers/poles/whatever where the old cabs were already have wiring run to them for speaker signals. Putting up new poles requires all the futzing around to sink poles into the ground as well as probable trenching to lay new cable. Even if you go with (and code would let you get away with) direct-bury cable (vs. conduit with cable inside), you still gotta dig at least a 2" trench 6" or so deep...for how many hundreds of feet? See what I'm getting at?

The OTops are so efficient that with the power you're going to feed them, you should have more than adequate coverage by using the original locations...AFA I can see from the photo, anyway. My two pennies.

Looking forward to more progress and pics!!

I decided to add a couple of tools to my arsenal for this build . . I like my 25 year old Craftsman Radial Arm, but I've always wanted a table saw and something much more portable. I figure I can still use the radial arm for any cross cuts and jig building etc. So . . I popped for these yesterday from Amazon and they will arrive on my doorstep tomorrow. Here's the kicker . . I had rewards dollars I knew nothing about until checkout . . significant Rewards Dollars. Grand total for everything delivered to my front door . . $78.08
I should be ready to rock and roll this coming weekend!

That TS is pretty cool. I looked it up on Amazon; it's got 24-1/2" of rip capacity, which is surprising for such a little guy. The fence rails extend outward on a rack/pinion. Pretty neat. Glad to see it comes with a splitter and a blade guard. Use the blade guard whenever possible and ALWAYS use the splitter.

I have several Dewalt power tools and they've served me well. Be sure to register it with Dewalt for warranty purposes. Congrats. We'll be expecting pics of you making sawdust...er, PVC dust next weekend!

Perhaps you'll want to set it up in this.

I might when I get to having to contend with 5 x 5 or 4 x 8 sheets of material. I already have those steel saw horses shown! . . In the meantime, I need something for quick and easy deployment and storage. Amazon still offering $25 off DeWalt purchases >$100, So I just ordered this. Doorstep delivery Saturday . . $111. Since The largest sheets I'll be using is 2 x 2 for now, I should be in pretty good shape . . . I hope.

That Dewalt stand will really help with stability, especially with 5'x5' or larger sheets. I hope that handle folds down or is removable? I have a very similar (without wheels) Dewalt stand that I use with my miter saw. The stand is rock-solid.

Well . . it's not likely this build will be as entertaining or controversial as a on1sony thread, but here we go . . .
The first cuts have been made and the resulting pile of PVC wool. I need to get a Shop Vac with a 2-1/2" hose. PVC cuts without much dust if any, but makes wool-like wads. the DeWalt saw is an unbelievable aid in doing the cuts . . a very well thought out and built machine with the exception of the miter gauge which is totally laughable. Rough cuts made on everything but the sides, back and spacer ring. I'm still trying to layout the spacer ring as a glue together two piece arrangement and save a lot of material. You will also note the non-traditional baffle!

Is the baffle dadoed? It sure looks it. What's up with that? Inquiring minds want to know. Glad to see the TS is working out for you....and you definitely need to get your shopvac on there. FYI, they sell adaptors at Home Depot/Lowes that will convert your 2" hose to a 1" hose, etc, etc. You might not have to buy a whole new hose. But far be it from ME to stop anyone from buying new toys...er, tools!

miked wrote:Is the baffle dadoed? It sure looks it. What's up with that? Inquiring minds want to know. Glad to see the TS is working out for you....and you definitely need to get your shopvac on there. FYI, they sell adaptors at Home Depot/Lowes that will convert your 2" hose to a 1" hose, etc, etc. You might not have to buy a whole new hose. But far be it from ME to stop anyone from buying new toys...er, tools!

I'm glad to know I can just buy an adapter . . on the list for my Lowe's stop tomorrow!
On to inquiring minds . . . The panel was grooved with a 1/4" router cutter . . 1/4" wide, 1/4" deep. Rather than fumble and bumble with all the curves and angles to get the phase plug support nice and pretty with a jig saw, (which I've never been good at with a jig saw) I decided to cut out the entire square of the baffle, (still to come) cut grooves all the way across the baffle face both horizontally and vertically with the router, use a hole saw and place the pilot right at the groove junction and get my phase plug support from there. Then, 1/4" stainless rod with marine epoxy to embed the rods into the grooves which will suspend the phase plug support in the square opening. The four phase plugs will be glued on top of the side of the plug support with the rods . . covering those rods over, and the woofer spacer will be glued on the baffle side where the rods extend into the baffle mostly covering them. So, between the marine epoxy and the associated glued covering pieces, I'm pretty sure it ain't gonna fall apart! Yeah, a few more materials, but it was real quick to cut the grooves, and all that will be left is straight line cuts on the opening with a guide rather than freehanding fiddly curves . .especially on the PVC, which is quite dense.

miked wrote:That Dewalt stand will really help with stability, especially with 5'x5' or larger sheets. I hope that handle folds down or is removable? I have a very similar (without wheels) Dewalt stand that I use with my miter saw. The stand is rock-solid.

As it turns out the saw's table is well above that "Kick Stand". Yes . .that's what it's called and it is stationary! It's what the saw rests on when stood upright for storage. The handle is on the other end and telescopes with latches in or out depending on whether your moving the saw, or not.

A little more progress today on Otop build #1 . . Got everything cut now including the horn braces and throat reflectors. Time to start gluing it up . . .
Here's a couple of pics of the baffle . . first one shows the stainless support rods being rough fitted to make sure the grooves were deep enough and the second pic shoes how it will look after the first phase plug has been stacked on. The support structure has been assembled since these pics with marine epoxy which is pretty slow cure, so the baffle has been set aside for at least 24 hours . . .

That is pretty badass...and totally weatherproof. Using those rods to suspend the phase plug eliminates having to cut all the fiddly curves in the baffle...which is easily the biggest part of the OTop build. Hats off to you for ingenuity! Really looking forward to seeing your progress.

I'm on vacation ALL WEEK, so what better way to spend it than building speakers and drinking beer!

Here's what I got done today . . started gluing things up. It is a bit more challenging when you can't pop a brad to hold things together while the adhesive sets up . . and speaking of adhesive . . Why do glue products not like me? When I work with PL it's this . . When I'm using PVC cement it's this . . That and I knocked the can over spilling half the contents on the garage floor. Note to self: screw the lid on the PVC cement everytime you use the dauber.

Now, some pics showing the glue up of the weatherproof Otop15 . . .

. . and a few more . . . Pic 7 & 8 show a rough fitting of the throat reflectors . . . Not bad for my first attempt!

So . . I decided to reward myself after a good day of progress . . Went to the game room to retrieve a home brew . . just can't decide which one!