BillFitzmaurice.info

Well its about time finger came out of the famous hole where its been placed for some time now..... I wish it had been up there while I was sitting around doing nothing but with a house to renovate, new born (that's now almost 8 months old) contractual overtime at work, and poor health - I've had a tough time, and "stupid speakers" just are not required. The place where I planned on building had become just full of clutter from the house, I had to sort this out to make some space before I could do anything!

I have had a play with cutlist, however on the plans of the T39's it says that a 20" wide will take around 1 & 1/3 sheet 8x4, however my solution pops up with one sheet, so I've done something wrong somewhere. I think 20" wide would be the ideal size for me, I have measured the back of my 96 Range Rover, and could fit 42" - So the fact these are 39 x 20 means they should go in either way, with plenty of room for other stuff! - If anyone can PM me to offer some advice before I mess up something before I've begun, that would be smashing!

I'll be adding some pictures of how this is going, my first tasks are to sort out the equipment.

I have a little homebased business, and deal with the UK distributor of Behringer so I've managed to get some good priced stuff.

The first being a Soundlab 10U ABS rack case. The plan is to house the DEQ, DCX, with a mixer and twin CD player (for backup) before the signal goes to the amps.

Ill add some photos and edit this posting later on tonight (UK time) with some images of whats going on

BassheadUK wrote: I have had a play with cutlist, however on the plans of the T39's it says that a 20" wide will take around 1 & 1/3 sheet 8x4, however my solution pops up with one sheet, so I've done something wrong somewhere.

When I laid out panels in cutlist, for 2 x 20" cabs I had three sheets in my drag and drop solution.
There was some leftover ply on each sheet.
Don't forget that, in addition to the oversized panels listed, there are parts not accounted for.
Those parts are: Spacer(s), all the braces, access panel, panel 7(s), horizontal and vertical flanges for access cover and anything I might have missed in that list.

While some of these were covered by the leftovers from my sheets, the access panel and spacers need to be accounted for in cutlist...

Well,

Rackmount built,



The VMX1000USB is to act as a "mixing desk" so to speak, the DEQ seen above the mixer, and the cheap CD/MP3/USB/SD card player that is going to be used as a backup device.

The 4U below has the JBL MPX1200 and the DCX, however I have now bought a 12U ABS case, and plan on sticking the DCX in the main rack above the DEQ.

For ease of setup, and to save wear n tear on the jacks of the equipment, I have cut out and fitted Neutrik through XLR's for the inputs and outputs, this is going to have to be revised for the 12U case, as Im going to have 2 outputs for the active tops, and one for the sub.





The rear of the 4U with the amp, currently looks like this, I do plan on getting a 4U ABS case at some point, as this case seems to struggle with the weight of the amp, not surprising at all really.....



Now for the sub, I won't post too many pics of wood.... I've finished major construction of one.....







As far as the build has gone, being pushed for time, the ill health, the wife & baby, work its been a bit of a battle, I've not done the front brace, and am holding off on that for a moment, Im not 100% happy with the build. When I say that, I mean the way I've built it.

As the plans are imperial, and I'm metric, I thought it best that I learn to read 5/8 3/16's etc, than convert things into mm. This has resulted in a few cuts that have been too short, and a fair amount of scrap wood, all in all, as it stands, I have used 2 full 8x4 sheets.

I bought a Festool TS55 plunge saw with track, for home improvement purposes that has now found a use here, all cuts were made with this, and a cheap jigsaw, I need to learn how to use the router properly and make some jigs before I start the next box! The round hole for the driver isn't perfect, yet it fits.

I drilled the T-Nuts, and popped some resin on them, however I crossed one, and it pulled out, this is rattling around, and I've been unable to get another bolt in the bottom of the driver, I know this is going to cause some air issues, but I'm hoping I can get the crossed one out, and perhaps seal up the bottom.

I ran 30Hz through the driver at about 9v, the garage rattled, and there might be an air leak inside, however that could be the two bolt holes in the driver chamber.

I didn't break the driver in either, does this make a huge difference....? If so, I'll pop it out and do it as the cabinet needs to be used for a friends wedding disco in May around the 10th.

I chucked a crappy amp on the end, and a digital meter, and played some un-eq'd music, managed to peak certain stuff at about 12v. Dare not go any higher. I was at 3/4 of the amps max output (its about 90w RMS @ 8 ohm) and the whole garage was rattling.

Is it what I expected....? Umm not sure on that, 12v is plenty enough in the garage, and my JBL could easy push out the 40/45v that the Lab12 can handle. Let me setup the DEQ DCX and the Mackie SRM450v2s and power it with the JBL, might be a bit more daring to push it a little bit then.....

The satisfaction of finishing this = Priceless.

Plan is, slow build cab 2, and see if there is much of a difference between the two sound wise, if there is, then a cab 3, to scrap cab one when finished. Or perhaps just find a crap old 12" driver and have it in the garage for the radio

Have I caught the bug..... Hell yeah. I was watching some Yamaha F28 bass bins, I thought if I can't get this done in time for the wedding, I might buy these as a stopgap, however, realising that they weigh around 78kgs each, thought there isn't much chance of moving these around by myself, so didn't, and pulled that finger out. Glad I did, all the ingredients were in the garage waiting for me to crack on.

Nice

A quick question though... how did you create the holes in your 2U patch panel? I'm pretty sure this isn't an off the shelf part, and i'm intruiged how you made the holes for the various connectors. Looks very neat
I now use NA3MDF & NA3FDM passthrough connectors after yanking the wires off soldered XLR chassis connectors far too many times. They may cost more AND you need an extra XLR plug to go on the 'internal' side, but it makes life so much easier when re-wiring my rack. I just have a row of them and connect them up as I need them on the day.

escapemcp wrote:Nice

A quick question though... how did you create the holes in your 2U patch panel?

Use this....

http://www.amazon.com/Neiko-Titanium-St ... 143&sr=1-1

I've done three or four panels with this bit and it's still going good. Don't spring for the really expensive ones unless you are going to be doing a whole lot of holes.....then it would be best to get a punch.

BassheadUK wrote:

Nicely done!

One change you should consider - change out the IEC connector for a Neutrik Powercon.

The jack...
http://www.neutrik.us/en-us/lighting/po ... /nac3mpa-1

and the plug....
http://www.neutrik.us/en-us/lighting/po ... -a/nac3fca

This combo cannot be pulled apart accidentally like the setup you have now.

Bruce Weldy wrote:

escapemcp wrote:Nice

A quick question though... how did you create the holes in your 2U patch panel?

Use this....

http://www.amazon.com/Neiko-Titanium-St ... 143&sr=1-1

I've done three or four panels with this bit and it's still going good. Don't spring for the really expensive ones unless you are going to be doing a whole lot of holes.....then it would be best to get a punch.

Nice... I have never seen these before now, but it's something else to go my shopping list. So how would you go about making the IEC hole? Is there a square one if these bits for that purpose??

escapemcp wrote: So how would you go about making the IEC hole?

See my post above...you don't use IEC connectors.

I haven't switched over to powercons yet either....
I start with a stepped drill bit and finish with a jigsaw. If I did enough of them I would splurge for the correct punch tool, but they're expensive.

I bought my Neutrik feed through at a good price. I've also got the powercon as the IEC really isn't up to the job.

Cutting the holes was easy. £40.00 silverline drill press and a £2.50 bit off eBay. Cut out all these holes and still isn't marked at all. Low tack masking tape over a panel. Measure centre bang it with centre punch and chop through. Will rip the tape to shreds so I re taped before marking the screw holes again and drilling. I used M4 countersink screws it's all I had at the time with M4 nyloc nuts. Bought some M3 now with nyloc again.

All the leads I purchased were Neutrik with klots cable.

I'm lucky I buy my stuff trade

Might stick up an availability list if anyone's interested. Might be able to save someone some money

All of what you've put together is looking good