Cutting and making melded arrays

[Harley]

Any advice on taking apart piezos so that they still work when you reassemble them?

Don't loose the screws

[Tom]

It seems scary until you've opened up the first one.

Wager $2 and just do it.

After that, you can relax.

[gdougherty]

+1, just unscrew the back and lift off. Like Harley said, don't lose the screws.

[gdougherty]

Following up from Horst and mlkras' ideas. I stripped small sections as I went along and wrapped the wires for each side under light tension to help hold things securely. Just working with it, it seems there's no need for even adding solder. With the ends secured by threading through the hole and wrapping around the tab the wiring is tight enough it won't slip off.

Once I got in the groove of things I was running about 30 minutes to wire both sides of an array. When I made everything out of individual segments it probably took at least that just to measure, strip and twist all the segments.

The arrays are painted with a flat white plastic primer since they're going in installed OT12's painted white to approximate ceiling color. Metal grill up front will also be painted white.

Finished:

Close up of the twist: