Major disaster! 
Went along to the lumber yard where I got my beautiful 9 ply 8x4 BB from last time, but as they had none of this in stock atm, I was going to opt for pine ply instead. I thought it actually might be quite interesting to build with another type of wood, so that I could compare the differences. When I got there I was told that they had 2 types of ply, Elliotis and Radiata. They then took me into their warehouse:
Gettin' wood??
They showed me to the 2 types of pine ply, and the Elliotis was a C-grade face with lots knots all over it. It looked very much like someones wood that I have seen on a build thread on here (can't remember which/who's though). They then showed me to the Radiata pine, which seemed to look good and I've heard of Radiata pine and people using it on here (I think), so I opted for the Radiata.
When I got it chopped up, I noticed that I had forgotten the golden rule (5+ plies (ok) WITH NO THIN VENEER (DOH!
)). When I had looked at the plies when the wood was on the stack, it had some green paint on the edge, which prevented me from seeing the plies... I should have still checked, but for whatever reason I didn't after not liking the Elliotis (which I think was actually the stuff I
should have bought!).
Got home, pissed off and decided to see what it was like... shit is the nice way to put it. Holes in the ply, veneer face is stuck on with white spirit. Oh dear! Thought I'd try making panel 8 and seeing how it went. It wasn't the prettiest sight by a long way, but I made it happen. I then got called up to play skittles down the pub, so out I went.
A new day brings new hope. I DO have shit wood, but my panel 8 from last night is sounding just as structural as the BB. If I give it a knock below the brace, it sounds very sturdy. I therefore figure that I am stuck with the pine (well, poplar actually... pine is just the veneer!!
), so I might as well just get on with it and see how good I can actually make this bad situation. Thinking back (6 months) my first sub was out of rubbish veneer stuff, and it rocks, so why shouldn't this one be any different. I know the weaknesses of this wood, so I'll just attempt to engineer my way out of the problem (screws and glues - although the screws sometimes don't bite due to the separation of the plies!
). I am actually building these thinking that they may well get replaced after a year of 2 (as this wood will not take the sort of beating that these cabs will probably have to endure). I've even already imagined a whole cab (unloaded) sitting on a bonfire with flames licking around the base of it! By the time I build my 5th and 6th cabs, my builds will be looking a whole lot more tidy... my 1st cab was my first ever woodworking, so I consider these cabs 'learning'.
Anyway... here's the green stuff that made me miss the veneer check (still not quite sure how I missed it
) and a nice void in the ply.
Note: the nice looking bit of wood is a bit of my old BB... you can see the difference just from a pic!! The BB is there to provide extra support for my castors which get attached to panel 10 (the back) and the whole things is rolled around with the mouth facing upwards.
Before I got started I made myself a 15" jig as I don't have a tablesaw to cut all pieces to the correct width, and my saw sled is only 30" long. I chopped off a straight edge from the new ply and made the jig:
The wood to be chopped goes in (like the bit laying left to right in this pic) and I run the saw along the edge of the 'guide' wood (which has 2 screws in to hold the bit of wood you are cutting to length). I made 'end-stops' from a couple of bits of scrap BB.
Using this jig I have been ripping through the build, even with shit wood. I am now nowhere near as
off as I was yesterday and I am now seeing it more of a challenge than an obstacle - hey, it's the only sensible way to deal with all the bad things in life
Theodore Roosevelt wrote:Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.
So ex-prez saying it is actually BETTER that I have got this shit wood and I'll get more reward from knowing I triumphed over adversity (of the shit wood)
It's all about your perception of where you are at, rather than where you are actually at!
So, this is where
I am at:
Pretty well much built the first one... just panel 13 to cut & install, the 12/6 (mouth) brace to install and then the side to put on. Obviously it is actually more than this if I start including Speakons, castor cutouts (I do not actually have the castors for these subs yet, but I do have them installed on the other 2 subs, so I can use those for templates) and Duratexing the mouth... oh and handles... and there is probably other stuff I have forgotten.
The sharp eyed among you might have noticed that I have overshot on all the sides. The router and his flush-trim bit will be bought into service to tidy those up. It seemed a more sensible way to do it than cutting it and then realizing you had cut it a mm or 2 short as I did last time... it needs quite a bit of work with a sander to get it all even again. I did mean to cut panel 12 to length, as I won't be able to use the flush-trim bit on the mouth bit, but forgot, so I'm yet to work out how to do that (probably in a similar fashion to how panel 7 is chopped once the second side is on).
OK, break time over... back to garage... more later.
Off to the lumber yard I go... 
)
