BillFitzmaurice.info

What Grant says.

I use the Neutrik SpeakON Combo jacks.
They allow you to use a 1/4" jack in the centre hole. Quite clever.

Probably the guys that do sound reinforcement don't care for these, as they don't support 4-conductor wiring.
Also, the tiny wiring tabs on the back are meant for PCB mounting, so can be a little fiddly to solder.
Still, they are my jacks of choice on bass cabinets. My Markbass head has this same jack as well.

Alternatively, on my old Eden cabinets I use those foam "baby dick" earplugs that construction workers use. To plug the 1/4" plug holes, or to hand out to audience members who aren't digging the gig.

On the subject of speaker suppliers, I know Eminence and many other manufacturers don't allow their products to be sold by US retailers to other countries. They rely on the distributors and resellers for those countries to set the (invariably higher) prices.

I realise you can make a moral case for this, but it doesn't sit well with me to pay twice the price for an already expensive part. For the privilege of supporting a local vendor I'll pay more, but 2x is well beyond the line.
So I occasionally use an American re-mailng service called usgobuy.com. Works great, but you will pay shipping and tax. Speaker parts are exempt from import duty in the UK, maybe the same in Nuw Zullund.
If you are ordering speakers from America, consider getting a bunch of stuff from Leland at speakerhardware.com, and Erse audio for individual caps, coils and crossover parts.

Did that sound like shilling? I'm really not.

Just curious do you have pics of the crossover that you finished installed if you haven't done so. Im confused on an old Omni 12 Tallboy Im about to finish I got the caps and coils all mounted on each board but not yet soldered and looked at the plans, seems the schematics and finished x-over ply boards are reverse. Let me see if I an post what's on the plans and what I've done. Thanks

I looked at my OT15 sketchup dated Oct '17 and pdf from Feb '19 and they're both the same.

Hiya Peeps
Well it's been about 10 days since my last post and I've been busy with other things so have really only nearly got to the end of my mid-horn build.
Only the final edge trims to do now. I still need to be confident how to do that best.
Assembly was OK actually with my only challenges being several out of dimension cuts (the width of the blade), un-nimble fingers and blasphemist utterances to any one who would listen however; I was on my own.
Bill's plans are sooo clever that providing you got your clamps in the right position, it lines up & all was forgiven as they say, a blind man would be happy to see the result!
A few pics uploaded for interest.
Cheers

Kudos, for hanging on and pushing through.

Thanks Tom

Gidday Everyone

Well today was the day when I had to take up the challenge, act and trim my mid-horn for fitting to the cabinet.
I made frequent passes around the horn as per Bill's plans (plus, I made a wooden saw guide so I could screw that to the horn - was much more practical than fiddling with my aluminium sled) trimming a little bit at a time then rotating to the next side.

I got distracted & missed trimming one side, jumped out of order and it didn't look correct; bugger, out of square!
Using my rafter square & checked each of the 4 corners all the way around left then, all the way around to the right until I identified the culprit.
Took some time & various epithets to get back on track & reach the required 7" by 11" dimensions; or as near as dammit.
I was really happy that the final size was virtually square & within 1/32nd of requirements.

So I thought to myself, that was a rather good outcome, I'll proceed and cut the front panel and do a trial fit of the horn.
Even though I was a bit tired after the long first session after lunch, about 3-4 hours, I had thought of stopping for the day then thought, I got this and ploughed on - wrong, wrong, wrong attitude sunshine. Should have called it quits until tomorrow.

I cut the mid-horn hole with me circular saw OK then, just a bit of fettling with the jigsaw and all was tickityboo right - or so I thought. I nearly undid everything at the end when the saw kicked back on me and took off across the panel. Gave me a hell of a fright.

I had marked the horn position as high as I thought safe without fouling the tweeter but, when I had recessed the tweeter earlier, I relieved that cut too far to the south, hence the bloody horn wouldn't fit in the space left!!!! Götterdämmerung...............

I sat for 30 minutes looking, staring, testing, spitting tacks & generally disappointed in my lack of foresight.
Slowly, I hatched a plan with my multi-tool to gently cut away about 5mm off along the top of the baffle down behind & below the front panel. I went slow & the plan worked well & all proceeded again. It was a close-run thing.

COMMENT
The mid-horn can be installed about 1/2" higher than you think; if you look at it enough times and think 3 times before you cut.

Anyway, I've added some pics for your info.
The horn's not glued in yet and needs a bit more trimming. The white raggy bits you can see around the horn is where the ply spalled in my final cuts.
Sanding & Duratex I'm told hide a multitude of sins.

Cheers Aye

Yay, the mid horn looks to be where it should be

Ha ha ha mate; what a f......g up n down day I've had today.
Almost got me drinking alcohool

Grey Owl wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 2:56 am Ha ha ha mate; what a f......g up n down day I've had today.
Almost got me drinking alcohool

Chin up eh.
In my DR build thread, there’s a bit of a focus at one point on where I f, errr messed up.
One response was something like “it’s not about the mistake, it’s about the recovery”.
Well, you’ve recovered well, and a bit of bog later, no one looking at your cabs will ever know any different. You will forget after a while too.

There’s lots of people coming here with various levels of woodworking skills, and mostly we all struggle at some stage. It’s all part of the journey, so just stay focused on the destination...

I can totally relate to the emotional roller coaster a mistaken measurement or cut can induce. I can recall Corona Operator saying that he'd spend more time fretting over a screw up than it took to fix it. I made a few mistakes in my builds and kept that in mind. Which helped in pushing myself through the "oh crap, what do I do now, it's garbage, the project's doomed, AHHHHH!" phase and into the solution fix-it mode. (Corona, if you're reading this... Thank you)

Anyway, Good job pushing through David. Big thumbs up

Something to think about when you're sanding the transition from the mid-horn to the front panel. I noticed in random pictures of other builds on the site that some people tried to round and blend the pinnacle of an angled transition/seem/joint and others left it pretty square and sharp. To my eye, the rounded ones didn't look uniform all the way across the seem/transition, so I chose to try to keep mine sharp and fairly defined. I'm happy with the result.

I'm not really recommending that you choose what I chose. But rather, I mention it and bring it up so that you can be purposeful in choosing how you want yours to be. Had I not noticed it in the pics I mentioned, I probably would have not given it much thought and just rounded it over without choosing to do so.

The pic below illustrates what I'm talking about. Look at the seem at the top of the mouth. Some of it is rounded off and some is a little more squared off. My eye likes the sharper transition (left side of that seem/joint).

Hey, that's not terrible.
Better than my first attempt at a mid horn.

If you find the upper and lower edges of the mid horn a little thin (i did) you can glue 1/2" battens on the inside edges of the baffle mid horn opening to make it seat a little more solidly.

You're a brave man to cut that opening with a circular saw.

Looks good. You will be amazed at what bondo, a sander and a nice thick coat of Duratex applied with the proper roller can deal with.

Nothing that a bit of filler and some paint won't fix. Has worked for my wife for years.

Ahoy Landlubbers!
It's bin 18 days since my last post so here's the update.
Our weather system has changed now that we're 18 days away from our winter solstice down here in NZ.
The days are shorter, temperatures have tumbled and some rain has fallen after about 5 dry months but, our dams are running about 50% down on average. Being largely an agriculture/horticulture based economy, we still need lots of rain to get us through.
On the Covid 19 front, we are going down to Level 1 tomorrow which means the general population can go back to doing whatever we want. Our national borders will still closed to all but NZ Nationals who will need to be quarantined for 14 days after arrival.

On my O15TB front, it's still progressing apace.
I took some days away from it when we reduced down to CV Level 2 catching up with families, friends etc. that we hadn't seen for 60 days and generally celebrating with a few bevvies around town what as a country we've achieved together.

Tallevan - have encased the wheels & handle as suggested thanks;
Seth - mid-horn to front panel transition sanding crisp & now sharp as a rat's tail;
I've changed my mind on metal corner protectors n going with plastic jobbies from PennElcom - easier to trim etc. around wheel frames.
Braces & flanges all installed.
Compared to Bill's plans, you may note that I've inserted an extra flange at the lowest level.
I wanted to have an "uncramped" space should I ever need to gain access.
It's a standard 1" x 1" flange screwed & onto a 1"x 3" back plate; all screwed & glued together.
This slots into cut-outs and then is itself screwed into the external braces. All good.

Pics attached below.
Cheers all