BillFitzmaurice.info

First off I want to thank the people who have taken the time to respond to my questions. I had asked about how to balance an unbalanced signal and how to wire my speakons (whether series or parallel). Both questions were answered quickly by the community.

I also want to thank Leland with Speaker Hardware. He has always been very responsive and good to work with. I am working against the clock to finish these. I needed a driver and all the fasteners to be able to layout panel 2 and the access on all 4 cabinets. We reached a fair price and the materials are in hand. Thanks Leland.

I built two Jack 15's (3015) last year. I want some low end. This is for my own personal amusement and parties. I have a Crown Drivecore XLS2000 and will be getting a second soon. I have also picked up a DBX PA+. Time to build some cabs.

I purchased 10 sheets of Baltic Birch and should have been able to get all the panels out of 9 sheets according to "Cutlist" I botched one cut, which killed two panels. So I needed the tenth sheet for the two replacement panels and the V plate.

All parts were cut on a Delta 30 amp table saw with a Biesmeyer 51" fence, side feed table and an out feed table. Yeah, I like this saw.

Parts were shot together with a pin gun and clamped using C Clamps, open corner, slider, and bar clamps.


Things I have noted to myself:


1) I avoid a jig saw whenever I can. I could not bring myself to use a jigsaw for the baffle hole. Since I do have a Jasper Jig (If you have a router, get a Jasper set. To do my SLA's, Jacks, and Tubas... its worth the expense) I used it to cut out the holes. I still wanted to open up a hole a bit where it meets the driver to allow room for the suspension. I used a 1/4" round over. way, way nicer than a wavy line from a jig saw.

2) PL dries very slowly on the cool end of its temperature spectrum

3) A tap for the hurricane nuts is critical, and a PITA.

4) The baffles are not an easy layout, What jerk decided to take an American made speaker and tell me I need to have a hole that is 10.95 inches? I am in construction professionally, if I'm not setting grades or elevation or using my engineering scale... my world's resolution revolves around a minimum of 1/16 of an inch. Ke Sera. Rant complete.

Here are some pictures of progress thus far:



Gluing up Panel 1. All other panels are cut, sorted and stacked.




Multiple Panels Clamped up



Baffle/Panel 2 Set Close up.



All Panel 2's Set

More Pictures to come

4?

Looks awesome man. I LOVE my four. Working on the finish right now, but they've gigged already.

Nice... What music and usage do you expect these to see? I'm interested in how you think the Delta 12LFA performs when they're done.

bitSmasher wrote:Nice... What music and usage do you expect these to see? I'm interested in how you think the Delta 12LFA performs when they're done.

These are for fun. General DJ or music player setup. I would expect to listen to Dire Straights to Barrington Levy to Tupac Shakur and whatever kids are listening to these days. Since I am using them in a group of four, I have no reason to doubt the SPL charts in Bill's design. They should work fine for outdoor parties and if a DJ friend of mine wants to pay for me and my equipment, I imagine this stuff will rock a bar just fine too.


A few more panels set last night:







I will apply another coat of epoxy to the hurricane nuts tonight before placing panel 5, I don't want to face a nightmare of spinning out a nut.

It looks like I will have to add some sealant around the bolt holes of the driver, I don't think the gasket will seal it up, I see gaps of daylight... this will be interesting.

Looking good!

I just picked up some more epoxy for the hurricane nuts, I want to slather them up a little heavier before placing the next panel. I also want to seal the panel seams due to errant pins which may become pinhole leaks.

I see Silicone sealant is not recommended. Is window acrylic latex caulk an acceptable sealant?

The devil is in the details. Since this is a glue up design, it must be right the first time.

For sealing around the driver? I used latex caulk and it worked fine, no leaks. PL for anything else.

Ditto on PL for any suspected holes. I've not put sealant on any of my drivers. I sanded the baffle really good and pl'ed and sanded any little chips that came out where the gasket goes.

I had lots of chipping and filled it with wood filler and sanded, but then I mounted the hurricane nuts the wrong way and had to remove them and install in the other side. There's a good and bad side of my ply and I originally mounted the nuts so the driver baffle would be pressing against the good side. With the nuts properly placed the baffle was against the bad side of the wood, more uneven and very chippy. Also, the drivers I used had a sketchy hard rubber gasket that I suspected wouldn't make a perfect seal. It's not mandatory to seal the drivers with latex caulk but I figured the extra insurance couldn't hurt.

I got Panel five set last night and I epoxied the living daylights out of the hurricane nuts, only a matter of not cross threading the cap bolts at time of placement.

I hate my camera phone, but its all I have at the moment.







Today I get to start the bracing...

Fantastic, always good to hear of decent rigs being built for fun

I got a bit more done this weekend.

Braces took a lot more time to place than I had thought. I put together a simple schedule in my head and I have taken about three times longer to fit up the braces than I intended. Mass production of braces just wasn't an option, too many little inconsistencies made it impossible for a universal brace dimension for each panel.

In order to speed up the cuts on the braces I used a long saw sled (60" long) and placed a block of BB Ply under one end and clamped it with an Irwin quick clamp. I have another quick clamp at the other end. I only had to loose the one end with out the block to place a brace and make the cut. The pinch force developed by the saw sled was more than enough to hold the work in place. It has worked very well. I'll show some pictures later so this actually makes sense.


Saturday Progress







Sunday Progress






The PL joints are ugly, but they are air tight and no one will ever see them.

Only a bit of work this week. Making some Jigs for the handles and jack plate. The handle jig has worked very well and I have the jack plate jig laid out, just have to do some work with twist bits and a jig saw. I have to admit that I hate using a jig saw. I will probably make a jig for the jig saw which will be cutting out a jig... go figure.

Hats off to Leland, the remaining drivers came in yesterday along with the other items I needed including 2 gallons of duratex. He worked with me to customize the orders for this project so I could get what I needed, when I needed it. Thanks to Speaker Hardware.


This weekend will be quite busy.

I got a bit done this weekend. Between Friday and Saturday I got the jack plate holes and handle holes cut in. I put reinforcement around the holes and put in a set of braces. On Sunday I placed the last two large panels, set some braces and cut out all the flange plates. Just a reflector, a side panel and some braces to go. They are getting heavy enough that swing the cabs around with one hand is getting difficult.









Jig Setup, it worked great for cutting the braces, both rips and cross cuts.









I am going to place the drivers, wrap them in plastic then place the side, it will give me access to both sides of the driver. Then when the side is on, pull the plastic off through the access panel.

It is getting closer...