BillFitzmaurice.info

Thank you for all the kind words! I'm totally psyched tonight! It is indeed, a very good night. A 2+ month build saga comes to an end, but in reality it is a 2+ YEAR project. I planned this rig out more than 2 years ago...it just took this long to make it all happen.

I was quite happy to clean up the shop and put all the tools away...for a few days anyway. I have some small "honey do's" that I have to build. Goes without saying, but "they are not cabs." That's OK; it'll be nice to not deal with PL for a change!

I'm very pleased with the way the T48s turned out. It's been a long haul, but an educational and enjoyable one and so far, the subs are performing every bit as well as I'd hoped they would and THAT makes it worth every drop of sweat I put into it. They sound really good with the OTops. Way better than my 18" direct radiators sound with the OTops. Maybe it's psychological?

Now that I've got 8 square feet less of storage space in my already full garage, I thought about selling my direct radiator subs and plastic Peavey PR12 tops to reclaim some storage space. But then I realized that it could be my "B rig" or my "small gig rig." I have the amps to make that happen, but I would need another Driverack and a rolling rack to house it all. But that decision is down the road...and nothing to do with this thread. Sorry about that...I hijacked my own thread.

There will be more pics posted as soon as I can get it all setup in one place to wring it out. I haven't had the cops called on me in years...sorta looking forward to it.

Bruce Weldy wrote:

miked wrote: these here women!

The "Yankee" is draining out of him right before our eyes. Once he moves up to the HOT salsa - we're gonna' have ourselves another Texan!

Excellent. The conversion is almost complete! Nice job on the cabs.

Hmmm...I've got to get a couple of cans of that OCD stuff, they put my attempts at building to shame.

Nice work, now if only I could find the time to start on my next build, I'd try a few of these tips.

miked wrote:See the corner protector in relation to the access cover cutout? I wish I could say "Yeah, I planned it that way." But I didn't. Just stupid luck. Worked in my favor for once! Last night when I put the corners on I said "Holy crap...lookit that! *whew!*" LOL!

You may not have planned it that way, but are you sure a certain someone else didn't??

Great build... good to see you looking forward to the visit

The depth and width of the access cover cutout are variable. There's a minimum size, obviously, to get a 15" driver in there, but no real max size. I made my access wider and deeper than normal to use a 1-piece flange, which itself, was cut wide to give me more room to install the driver. I really just got lucky.

And here's something you don't see everyday. 4 T48's sitting in someone's very small dining room. I don't want them getting full of sawdust in the garage, and since the reason I'm making sawdust is to build a table for my son's train set, the wife grudgingly agreed to let them sit in the dining room for a max of two days. I'll get the wood cut tonight and move'em back tomorrow. No way do I want sawdust on my brand-new, not even gigged yet, subs!

Would you like a little music with dinner? Just let me adjust this knob here...



I fully understand that this does NOT count as the group shot pics I promised you. LOL!! Those in a few days.

"Music crap belongs in the shed or your truck": from my SWMBO.

Your wife has given you a little leeway, if even for a brief period
Still, the sentiment seems universal

Grant, the only reason she let them in the house is b/c they are brand-new-spotless-not-a-spec-of-dirt on them. Else they would be on the back porch, covered with a tarp as I prayed that no field mice took up residence inside them. So it was sort of a negotiation. I will build Junior a play table, but I need to store the subs inside so they don't get filthy. The planets must all be aligned or something. LOL!

Hey, while they're in there, maybe some wire might make it from one of them to your home theatre....... At least for an hour or so.

draehn wrote:Hey, while they're in there, maybe some wire might make it from one of them to your home theatre....... At least for an hour or so.

"Here you are love - $60... go buy yourself some shoes"
Sod's law she'd use the internet though

Bravo mike! Such a feeling of accomplishment I bet! I was hoping to witness this madness but my engine blewup on the dyno and my club opening has been delayed once again Oh well hopefully a BFM gathering will be in the making soon!

Thanks, Bob. I am glad they're finally finished. Of course NOW that they are finished, the temperature outside has dropped 15 degrees...at least in the morning. So nice in the garage now. OH well.

Sorry to hear about your engine self-destructing and that you won't be making it down this way. What's going on with your club?

Only thing left is v-plates. They will be built next week. In the meantime I fabbed up 8 of Bruce's most excellent V-Plate hold downs.

I know one is missing the knob. Woodcraft only had 7...go figure. The 8th one will be in next week. Luckily I have a Woodcraft in my city. The big box stores only had T-knobs in the lawnmower section and nothing in the hardware section. Of course, 1/4" t-knobs would work. But I wanted 5/8" star knobs. My subs, my OCD.



These are simply an outlet box cover (if you buy the rounded edges one, you don't have to cut anything off) with the edges bent in a vise, a bolt/lockwasher/washer/nut and of course, the star-knob. I went with 5/8", BTW. Felt they were a little sturdier than 1/4" especially for the 6-foot long v-plate the T48's use.


Time will tell but I am fairly sure that the nut/washer assembly will not get in the way. My v-plates will be 3/4" or 1" thick (undecided ATM) and the height of the nut/washer is not even 1/2". So the plate will be clamped on and tightened down before the nut reaches the v-plate. It makes sense in my head, OK? If it comes down to it I'll just epoxy the bolt to the plate later on.

Total cost for 8 of these is less than $25. I already had the black spray paint. Most probably they'll never be seen, and that's fine by me. But for "completeness sake" I painted them the "Standard PA Flat Black."

For the complete lowdown on this awesome idea, please check Bruce's original thread here: http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewt ... te#p187461

Got started on the vplates today and made good progress.

Also, today was yet another reminder that I cannot use a damn circular saw to save my life. I've built sled after sled and I always wind up cutting into them and my cuts come out all wavy. Today was no exception. After snapping my gouged-out 3/4" MDF sled in half (Hulk STRONG when angry!) and throwing it down my driveway, I broke out the jigsaw and finished the cuts. I cut close to the lines, but left about 1/4" overhang on purpose. I will use my flush trim bit, with a straight piece of hardwood as a guide to true the edges when the time comes.

I'm making 1" thick v-plates out of laminated 1/2" ply. You can get two T48-sized vplates out of a 4'x8' sheet of ply, but just barely.
These pics show the two triangles drawn out. There is 1-3/4" of space b/t them.



Lovely triangles. Bigass triangles, but lovely nonetheless.


You wind up with some crazy looking cutoffs, that's for sure. Not sure what I'll do with them. Normally I throw nothing away, but I can't use a circ saw (how lame, I know.) and fitting these on the table saw is not a good idea.


Got jiggy with the glue.


Brad nailed the living daylights out of them while I knelt on them for clamping force. They are never coming apart.


I will let the glue dry until tomorrow before continuing. While the plates were sitting there doing nothing, I figured it was a good time to patch the brad holes.
Not sure how many brads I shot, but I'll let the patches to cover the holes speak for themselves.
All hail the Leopard Spotted V-Plates!




I am planning on three handle holes; one in the middle for carrying ease and two at the edges to facilitate hanging for storage. Tomorrow I'll sand them down, true and round the edges, cut the handle holes and hopefully get the first coat of primer on there. Planning on two coats of primer and one heavy coat of DTex. I don't have enough left to get two coats on both sides of the plates. Not sure if I have enough to do 2 coats on the top of the plate/1 on the bottom. But I have to at least get a full coat on them 360-degrees first, before seeing if I can get more out of the can.

More tomorrow. Thanks for looking.

Vplates sanded down, handle holes done and edges trued. Not bad for a mornings' work.



No point in rounding edges yet, since I have to hand-fit the plates to the cabs. I.E. measure and lop off the corners of the vplates to fit around the corner protectors on the cab. But, the vplates are all trued up and ready for that. More later.

Nice job. Why are you making the V-plate a full inch thick? It must be pretty heavy.