BillFitzmaurice.info

Thanks guys! And Bruce, a special thanks to you for putting up with my incessant questions.

My neighbor stopped by last night to borrow a jigsaw (I gave him my old one ) and he asked what I was building. I showed him the Sketchup model, explained what they were and he couldn't wrap his head around the horn concept. He kept asking "How does the sound get out if the speaker is all closed in?" I explained. Twice. Deer in the headlights look. So I moved on to the efficiency of the design. More deer, more headlights. So I really dumbed it down and said "It gets really loud with a really small amplifier...like the size of a paperback book, the amp could be!" He suddenly understood it all. LOL! Ah, the non-techie population...as long as they hire me to knock the fences down in their backyards, I'm OK with them.

Looking good mike! Im watching closely since these are my radar for my next build. Keep the great pics coming!

Thanks, hifibob. IMO, if you can build DRs, you could knock these out in a few days.

I have learned a ton about "how to ensure things fit together" and where to set the fence on the TS when making a bevel cut, etc. Learning all that as you go takes time (if you don't want to screw it up and are being real careful with every single measurement and cut). Knowing what I know now, if I had to build another 4 of these things they would be done already. I'm building these and I've built 4 OTops. These are easier than OTops.

The only tricky thing, which is no problem for you with that lovely Grizzly slider TS, is that you have some big panels with bevels on them. Easy to cut on a 3+HP tablesaw, not so easy with a circular saw. (IMO...the rest of you don't rag on me for my lack of circ saw skills. ) And, being that the panels for the T60 dwarf these, I think you've got that covered. See, most architects start with a 1,200SF house. You went and built the Taj Mahal right off the bat. Everything else is cake.

Hey mike how far are you from Beeville TX? I'm gonna be out that way the end of October, I'd love to hear your rig and meet you as well.

I did a Googlemap of it, Bob. From "Beeville" to my house is 1:56 (one hour, fifty six minutes). I'm actually in a small city not too far outside the north east San Antonio city limits, just a couple miles off I35. It is a very easy drive from there, just a boring drive. You could spend the day here; it would be nice to meet you and I'd be happy to set the rig up in my backyard. If you visited, I'd take care of you with some Texas BBQ and beer...or whatever your preferred beverage is. Heck, you might get to meet Bruce Weldy too. He's only about 20 mins from me.

End of October is the beginning of fall weather down here. It gets down to a mighty cold 85F during the day and about 75F at night...positively freezing for San Antonio. When the time comes, if you are still thinking about it, LMK and I'll PM you my contact info.

Mike

That would be sweet! I'm already registered and have everything booked. Im just hoping I can get my car fixed before then. I'm running in the Texas mile so I'll be out there for five days. I'll keep you posted as it gets closer.

Thanks for the info. I was wondering WTH you were doing in Beeville, but didn't want to be rude and flat out ask. LOL! Are you DRIVING here? From MA? Are you mad? You do know how far away this part of Texas is from you, right? And TX is HUGE. If you have never driven here before, be prepared. You'll cross the TX border and be all happy thinking "I'm almost there!" and 10 hours later you'll still have a few hours to go. Not kidding. Please fly if you can ( you could fly into Corpus Christi, the nearest big city and rent a car). With the price of gas these days, you really won't save too much driving vs. flying and you won't be exhausted when you get here. Would love to see you, if you can make it.

miked wrote:Thanks for the info. I was wondering WTH you were doing in Beeville, but didn't want to be rude and flat out ask. LOL! Are you DRIVING here? From MA? Are you mad? You do know how far away this part of Texas is from you, right? And TX is HUGE. If you have never driven here before, be prepared. You'll cross the TX border and be all happy thinking "I'm almost there!" and 10 hours later you'll still have a few hours to go. Not kidding. Please fly if you can ( you could fly into Corpus Christi, the nearest big city and rent a car). With the price of gas these days, you really won't save too much driving vs. flying and you won't be exhausted when you get here. Would love to see you, if you can make it.

Haha.. No way I'm driving that lol.. My guys trailer my car out I just race it.. Unfortunately I blew it up a few weeks ago so I'm scrambling to get it fixed in time.. It would be great to meet you and check out the system thats for sure.. Some Texas BBQ would be nice too

I have lived in Texas for a total of 13 years, and didn't know about The Texas Mile. I used to own a GSXR-750 and wore full leathers, shin-high racing boots and 1/2" thick leather gauntlets when I rode, so that should tell you something about me. My former, pre-married-with-children-me, anyway. This is AWESOME. Check it out! Gotta love the ZZ Top background music too. http://www.texasmile.net/

miked wrote:I have lived in Texas for a total of 13 years, and didn't know about The Texas Mile. I used to own a GSXR-750 and wore full leathers, shin-high racing boots and 1/2" thick leather gauntlets when I rode, so that should tell you something about me. My former, pre-married-with-children-me, anyway. This is AWESOME. Check it out! Gotta love the ZZ Top background music too. http://www.texasmile.net/

Thats funny that you never heard of it, its a pretty big deal in mile racing.. I've only been once to this particular track 2 years ago but I ran my motorcycle there but was dying to come back and try it with 4 wheels.. It seems if you like fast cars/bikes you usually love music/sound too..

hifibob wrote: Thats funny that you never heard of it, i

I've lived here all my life, and Beeville was part of my sales territory for 22 years....and I called on car dealerships.....can't believe that I never heard of it.

I HAVE SEEN THE FACE OF MY ENEMY: His name is PANEL 4.

When you're dry-fitting all the panels, it all seems so easy. Especially when you've cut your panels on a TS and everything is lining up perfectly. Yeah...add in a ton of slippery-slimey PL, and adjoining panels that when attached to the sides might not be totally at 90-degrees anymore, and suddenly things arent' so easy to hold in perfect alignment. I got panels 3 and 4 (I hate you, panel 4) installed on all 4 cabs. The driver chamber is done. I am confident that all cabs are/will be air-tight. I did not have any large gaps, and what few small gaps (1/16" or less) I PL'd the crap out of on both sides. All interior panels are screwed in from the bottom, 1.25" brads shot into the panels to join them to each other.

I took a lot of pics, so I won't caption each one. But the following comments apply to all these pics:

All panels had screw holes pre-drilled with a 1/8" bit. I laid down a super-generous bead of PL before installing the panel. After screwing the panel to the side, I made a finger-fillet out of the PL on both sides of the joint. Then I ran an additional bead of PL on top of all joints, filleting with the finger. (I gave it the finger....bwuahahahah!). As stated in the plans, the panel 4/3/2 joints are not easy to fasten at all. Practice does make it easier, but expect a lot of brads to bust through the sides , as the pics will show. When I didn't get the angle correct, and the brad would shoot through the side of the panel, I'd just keep shooting in that general area until I got one that seated properly. On the interior panels it doesn't matter if you've got fasteners sticking out through the panels, as long as they don't interfere with the seating of any adjecent panels. There are a lot of brads either busted thru the adjacent panel, or sticking out a little bit. I used probably 30 brads per cab,just on the panel 2/3/4 joint as well as a ton of PL...it's ugly, but it's SEALED.

Oh, BTW, for planning purposes: I have used 2 full tubes of PL at this point, and I haven't wasted much at all. A great deal of PL was used making additional fillets to ensure everything is airtight. Absolutely necessary? I don't know...I'm not that an experienced cab builder. Worth the expense? Absolutely. A couple of bucks worth of PL stretched over 4 cabs to ensure air-tightness? PRICELESS.

PICS. Ask questions if you'd like but I"m sure you can figure this out. The propane cylinder was used as a counterweight to keep the assembly from tipping over onto my head. Ask me how I figured out "I should counterweight this panel!"


Tools of the trade.

Ugh, curse myexclusive use of my new tablet.... Its been keeping me from writing my walls of rext due to awkwardess.

A few notes. i actually used a little trick to attach panel 4 on my 2 most recent t48s. its a little tough to make out but observe the triangle piece in between 4/3/2, makes it easier to line up/keepsquare/fasten to. i actually glued and installed this piece for good measure.



Another note.... Forgive me if your plans dont state this (or hell if mine dont either, plans are not on tablet), but i believe they recomend "staggering the braces.... now thst your lines are drawn all pretty. Someone else can maybe chime in on this?

Very nice! I like your panel braces. Even that long, thin rectangular piece at the bottom; i can see it's purpose. Wish I'd thought of that tonight!

I've read somwhere about staggering the braces. Ideally, you would mechanically fasten all braces from both sides. But from what I gather it's nice to have but not necessary. I'm going the "fasten on both sides if I can, PL overkill if I can't " route. Astute of you to notice that all my brace alignment lines line up. I lost an entire day drawing those out....nice that someone noticed! I drew those out not so much that I got the braces totally straight, but so that I would know how much, if any, out of straight they were when installing. Makes sense, I hope?

They are braces...as long as they are mechanically secure, it really doesn't matter where in their respecitve areas they are. I may very well wind up staggering them, but I'm not planning on it. This is my first time building Titans, so I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. Thanks for pointing it out, though! I need all the help I can get, and I appreciate it.

Idk what you mean about the long thin piece. that was used as an aligment jig (as per plans). i always thought that staggering the brzpaces helped reduce cab resonance as well as extra reinforcement because you have less unbraced area per panel (instead if 6 inches between braces there is only 3). that being said i used a 1 piece brace on t48 #2, And oddly enough it was the only cab to develop rattles after a couple years use.