Simplexx 1x12 Build - Woofer only

[jimbo7]

Looks great! Good job. I made mine with a BP102 and a circular grill protecting it. Later I added Eminence APT80 tweeter and a pole mount for maximum versatility. Sounds great.

[LankyJohn]

Looks great! Good job. I made mine with a BP102 and a circular grill protecting it. Later I added Eminence APT80 tweeter and a pole mount for maximum versatility. Sounds great.

Many thanks. Sounds even better than it looks.

[LankyJohn]

S12 Build
Day 6
1. Materials
Cabinet & components.
Grille
Matte black spray paint
Tuff-Cab “Funky Purple” Cabinet paint
Four-inch paint rollers
Masking tape

2. Tools
Lathe, roughing gouge, skew chisel
Dividers, pipe cutter, drill-driver & bits
Saws

3. Objectives
• Fit grille
• Make 14 half inch long 15mm diameter spacers
• Paint cabinet

4. Method
• Removed driver, handle, feet & jack-plate from cabinet. Stored driver in original box for safety.

• Making 14 half-inch spacers:
◦ Turned a 12 inch piece of scrap hardwood (mahogany? from an old coat-stand) into a cylinder to (friction) fit inside a 12 inch piece of copper pipe on the lathe
◦ Pushed dowel into copper pipe & cut pipe & wood into half-inch long segments.
◦ Sanded ends flush on 6o grit abrasive paper.

• Fitting grille
◦ Filed edges of metal grill smooth
◦ Fitted spacers to baffle through holes in grille using 1½ inch No. 8 wood-screws & cup-washers.
◦ Removed grille – superglued spacers in position and attached to baffle with screws & cup-washers until glue cured

• Painting cabinet
◦ Removed screws & cup-washers
◦ Masked edges of cabinet surrounding baffle & jack-plate.
◦ Sprayed baffle, spacers & jack-plate recess matte black
◦ Allowed to dry
◦ Inserted 4 off 1½ inch No 12 wood-screws into cabinet feet holes to support cabinet
◦ Paint exterior surfaces (base/bottom of cab first) & edges
◦ Stand cabinet upright on supporting screws while paint dries

5. Results
• Cabinet painted – first coat

6. Lessons learned
• Paint inside ports before wadding & cabinet back are fitted

7. Next
• Re-fit driver, handle, jack plate, feet.
• Paint cabinet with second coat of TuffCab paint
◦ Allow to dry
• Print & fit BF logo on baffle (so it is protected)
• Mount / fit baffle

Photos:

Making spacers

Making spacers

Finished spacers

Finished spacers

"Funky Purple" cabinet (hope it improves playing funk)

Bottom with temporary screws "Funky Purple"

Cabinet painted (first coat) & drying

Cabinet painted and drying

[Seth]

Interesting choice of procedure for the spacers. The ambidextrous use of measuring units, "half inch long 15mm diameter spacers", is also noted and appreciated.

I absolutely LOVE the color choice!

[LankyJohn]

Interesting choice of procedure for the spacers. The ambidextrous use of measuring units, "half inch long 15mm diameter spacers", is also noted and appreciated.

I absolutely LOVE the color choice!

Couldn’t find any suitable spacers to buy.
Plan dimensions are in inches, and the only suitable copper pipe I had is metric.
Glad you appreciate mixing of units: not something I usually do

Thought black was boring; sulphur yellow was considered, but was too gaudy, and would show scuffs too easily. Purple certainly stands from the crowd, but is dark enough to mask the inevitable road-rash. Will order a cover from Hot Covers (U.K.). May yet add protective corners.
Glad you like it. Will post some better photos when finished.
Thanks for the feedback.

[Tom Smit]

"Funky Purple" cabinet (hope it improves playing funk)

LOL!!!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

'Prince'.

[LankyJohn]

Painted.
Logo fitted.
Grille fitted.
Not entirely sure about bright ‘n’ brassy screws/washers.

Sounds fantastic! Thanks Bill.


Needs breaking in next.

Finished cabinet

[LankyJohn]

Am building a second Simplexx 1x12 with no tweeter, and intend to stack them one above the other.
The plans state that cabs with tweeters should have the baffle for one cab of a pair flipped on the horizontal axis, so that the tweeters are closer together than they otherwise would be.

Is it necessary to flip the baffle for one cab of a pair without tweeters?

Thanks I’m advance.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

It does apply. It's critical with tweeters, not so much with woofers. But the flip will put the woofers closer together, which will improve the results when stacked.

[LankyJohn]

Many thanks for such a prompt reply.

I will flip the baffle - easy before it’s glued in; impossible afterwards.

Dry fit before glue-up with flipped baffle.

Part built Simplexx 1x12

[LankyJohn]

Have replaced the gaudy garish brass screws & cup-washers with black flange-head screws.

Ran 20Hz through the speaker - easy to make the cone hit the grille, which clears the driver front gasket by about a millimetre

Bill’s plans say read the plans at least twice: I did, but still installed ½ inch grille stand-offs.

The plans say use ¾ inch.

Easy to fix: will add spacers to existing stand-offs

[LankyJohn]

Half built second cab.
Used a different glue up process.
Glued top to one side, base to the other side & allowed to cure whilst making baffle.
Put 1” spacers on a flat board.
Put baffle face down on spacers.
Glued edges of baffle & remaining two top/base/side joints.
Assembled cab. around the baffle.
Secured with strap clamp and quick grip clamps. Put 3 or 4 25mm brad nails in each joint. Punched down nails near corners to be routed.
Pictures below:

[LankyJohn]

To cut bevels on port pieces, I made & tested a sled for use with router flush trim bit.
Basically 2 x 45° pieces of ply fastened to a second piece.
Fixed workpiece to angled part of “sled”with double-sided tape.
Cut bevel using ½ “ flush-trim bit.

Picture below:
Used push pads to grip “sled” with test piece of 12mm scrap ply. Note the fancy router table. Too busy to make a proper one (yet)

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

About the baffle blocks...they're there to give screws more wood thickness to grab hold of. There's no point in them with T nuts. I stopped using T nuts 20 odd years ago, when their quality became so horrible you'd strip half of them, coinciding with when they all started coming from Asia.