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the only time I've hurt myself while building bfm cabs was scraping PL. took a chisel to the middle finger, nice little gash.

sine143 wrote:the only time I've hurt myself while building bfm cabs was scraping PL. took a chisel to the middle finger, nice little gash.

I dropped an Omni 10 on my foot. Alcohol was not a factor, I'm just a klutz!

It's been a few days, so I felt obligated to post at least a few new pics. I spent the afternoon and early evening truing all the edges, as well as giving the cabs an overall sanding to knock down sharp edges, stray splinters, etc. Four cabs with a few uneven panels...that took awhile! I trued the "easy edges" with a flush trim bit in the router. The rest were done with a 6" air sander and 120-grit discs. No pics of all four cabs with trued edges b/c in pics, they don't look any different than untrued cabs.

But after that, I managed to get one cabs' edges rounded over. Hooray! Keep in mind I've done no hole patching yet. This was the preliminary finishing step. Very happy with how panel 5 (front panel) turned out. It was a lot of work, TBH, but they look great IMO.




The edges on the rear/top panels are round and even. It's just a coloration thing that makes them look wonky in this pic.


See that oops in the lower right-hand corner, right where the bottom meets the side panel? I forgot that the roundover bit's bearing needs something to ride on, and I gouged out about 1/2" of the bottom panel. We've ALL done that. C'mon, admit it! The corner protector will cover that up nicely. /whistling


Tomorrow I'll get the other three cabs' edges rounded over and then we start with the patch/sand/patch/sand cycle. That will take two days. I've got four cabs and easily 240 holes and assorted gouges/ground-out brad nail holes to fill. Of course, there will be pics. I need to get the cabs laid-out in sort of an assembly line fashion, so I can patch all four tops, then all four sides, the all four other sides, etc, in an efficient, orderly manner. I should be able to do that in the available space in my garage, as i was able to do that when I got all four 2nd sides put on. OK then. There's the plan!

Thanks for looking.

sine143 wrote:the only time I've hurt myself while building bfm cabs was scraping PL. took a chisel to the middle finger, nice little gash.

I had two nice chisel slices on my left hand from scraping PL the other night...while under the influence. I decided against posting pics, since I already knew what kind of sympathy (NONE) I'd receive. LOL!

All four cabs are now completely trued and their edges rounded over. At least until I patch all the screw holes on those edges and on all the other sides of the cabs. IOW, there's still a lot of work to do before we even get to the painting stage. I also got the access panels drilled and countersunk for screws.

One nice access panel.


Back of the access panel. Of course, they've already been sanded down.


All four access panels. They are ready for paint and installation. Too bad the cabs aren't. LOL!


This thing has been my best buddy throughout this build as well as my OTop build. Something like $30 with a coupon at Harbor Freight. You haven't lived until you've used an air sander with the appropriate grit discs for the job. I'll never sand anything but small parts by hand ever again.


You always have to be thinking two steps ahead on these DIY builds. I was staring at this pic, and it screamed "Feed me, Mikey!" BTW, to put it in perspective; a 15" driver fits on that spacer ring. These cabs are not T60-sized, but they are BIG.


It also whispered to me "The access cover screws are going to come awfully close to the driver basket in some places...you should check!" Hmm. So I threw a driver in there.


And fabricated an "access panel with the 1-1/4" screw in it."


Starting to see the problem here?


Lemme clarify that for you.


To put it in perfect perspective, this is the screw at about dead-center of the access panel. Yeah; 1-1/4" screws will not work in this location!


The screws immediately to either side will be just fine.


So, I'll have to go buy a $5 box of 1" screws, in order to use FOUR screws out of that box. It is what it is. If this was not an air-tight, mission-critical application, I'd just cut the screw short with a grinder and be done with it. But there are no short-cuts w/these cabs. It's all or nothing. Better to figure these things out in advance than to be all happy that the cabs are complete and I'm buttoning-up the access covers and wondering why I can't get the screws in, or worse, driving a screw thru a $200 driver!!! As I learned long ago: "Experience is what you get when you don't wind up with what you wanted."

I tell you guys; it takes awhile to do the finish work on four big cabs. Especially when they aren't totally square and have a bad case of "PL Splooge." I'm "that much closer" though. Tomorrow starts the patch/sand phase.

miked wrote:Thanks guys. I TRY to scrape the PL after 18-24 hours of application. At that point it is almost fully-cured, but not rock-hard yet. However, the time varies b/c of the variable heat and humidity in my garage. It could be 86F/45% humidity or it could be 102F/20% humidity. It's a total crapshoot, unfortunately. But still, better than building them in my kitchen, which is what I used

On the next build try using a cheap HF steal bondo spreader a hour or two after applying. One clean scrape It comes up efferessly withou a chisel and really fast and much cleaner IMHO.

miked, try throwing washers and lock washer on all those screws and I bet youll clear the driver fine.

although it does look like you already counter sunk theme

Keep in mind the gasket will give you a little more clearance too.

I will do a little "screw clearance testing" tonight. If I can get away with lopping off a 1/4" or so off that one screw, it will still hold tight as it'll be all the way into the flange. And it's one screw out of 18; won't make a diff.

Without the driver in place, sink that screw. Later on when you are doing assembly, proceed as normal and then lop off 3/8" from the screw and sink it!

Please take a moment to congratulate Mike here:

http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewt ... =7&t=20558

Big day today. One door closes, another opens.

GREAT!!!!

now get back to the shop

I'd have rather been in the shop every day for the past weeks than dealing with all the tedium that comes with this point in life! But I am glad it's here.

My dad did his basic down there in '60. Freshly uprooted from Pittsburgh, he said he couldn't stand the weather.....

We're getting there. Did the first go'round of filling holes on the top, back and one side of all four cabs. I am anticipating having to do a second fill/sand on most, if not all, of the screw holes.




The Spackle can says "1-5 hours between sandings or coats, depending on depth of application and temperature." The screw holes are deep, but it is 84F in my garage ATM. I'm thinking 4 hours should do it. I hope to do the leak testing on Monday, after they are fully patched and sanded. More pics later.