Building Titan 48s and OmniTop 12s in europe

[Nayberg]

Hey guys!

We've been lurking around here for a few weeks trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible before starting our own build - this is an awesome forum, so of course we will be sharing our experiences here as well!

We're running a small socioeconomic sound-initiative in Denmark, focusing on making it easier to get into the soundworld from a technological perspective (making expensive equipment available to practice with). So far we've built a small recording studio, are doing live-sound regularly and are arranging all kinds of meetups, free concerts, workshops about how to use common gear and so on. The profits from selling cheap studio recording sessions and doing live gigs for others are reinvested in providing freebie events and buying more gear, benefiting everyone

Ok to the point. Until now we've been using a HK Linear 5 setup for live applications, but have been wanting some more power for a long time. Recently we got some funding for a project aimed at producing as eco-friendly speakers as possible, making the building process an open and free learning-event while providing our initiative with new awesome gear. Also our HK's burned down (one sub literally catched fire) for the fourth time in 1,5 years... so: NEW SPEAKERS! We think BFM designs nails it in this regard, using quite little energy, being very modular, easy to repair and so on.

And so yesterday we bought some finnish birch ply from a sustainable foresting area, ordered a bunch of delicious eminence speakers (Kappalite 3015LF, Deltalite II 2512, Monacor MPT 016) + a lot of other stuff from Germany and went at it.

This is how far we came just yesterday! With a proper table saw and the proper experience we should probably be able to do one T48 a day. It's really quite easier than we thought if you just take your time getting the angles right ( ... ).

We hope to fundraise more as we go, ending up with 12-16 Titan48s and 8 Omnitop 12s. But first off we'll build 4 Titans and 2 OTs.

Right now we are kind of stuck since the speakers haven't arrived - so we might start building another Titan tomorrow while we wait for the germans to ship our goods. In the meantime: Pics from the process.


A quick note regarding glue:
In europe it's almost impossible to get your hands on Loctite PL Premium if you don't import it from the US. Since import VAT and fees are crazy in Denmark we searched wide and far (even on this forum it was hard to find real alternatives mentioned) and found this SIKA PU glue. It's doing the job great! It's 100% Polyurethane, expands quite a bit and cures in about three hours - and is made for gluing wood.

Hope this can help others who are maybe desperate in europe

[Nayberg]

This is the glue we found (on the picture). It needs moisture to cure, so you have to spray it with water before attaching the part you want to glue on - seems kind of counterintuitive to make something wet in order for it to dry .

And by the way - since it's important to mention your mistakes here - it's a good idea to wrap your jig in plastic or something... Took quite a bit of muscle to get it off after a good nights drying and curing (we left it like picture 2 above).

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Found in the T48 plans:

On interior joints use a 2 piece right angle jig, made of two 24 inch long straight plywood scraps. Screw the right angle jig to the panel, apply adhesive to the joint, screw the panel/jig to the side. Drive fasteners into the panel, remove the jig, fill the screw holes in the panel and side with adhesive.

Attach the top to the side. Leave the jig in place until panel 2 is attached to the assembly. If you’re not installing panel 2 in the same session isolate the jig from the assembly with waxed paper or polyethylene so it won’t be glued in place.

[Tom Smit]

First: welcome to the forum!

Second:it's nice to see others helping other people get ahead.

Third Sika has been successfully used by forum members.

[Nayberg]

Hey Bill - yeah we read that, but of course thought we could just "knock it off" if it stuck. Maybe some part of us even wanted to see how good the glue really was Good enough! No harm done though, and we will definitely stick to the plans from now on. Thanks!

Tom: Thanks! Cool with the SIKA - good to know. I couldn't find anything stating that any specific glue other than PL worked for sure, but now we know

[Tom Smit]

I couldn't find anything stating that any specific glue other than PL worked for sure, nut now we know

I searched "Sika" on this forum since I thought others did have success.

[Grant Bunter]

Indeed, welcome to the forum

Looking good so far.
A couple of things;
While I applaud the collective idea, please make sure that Bill's intellectual property rights aren't abused.

How wide are your cabs to be?
In the second picture, is that actually a brace already glued in place?

Something to consider since you will build more cabs.
Unless pack space is a problem, build the T48s as wide as possible. That maximises output...

[Chris_Allen]

Sika do a number of polyurethane adhesives but I don't recall seeing one not in a cartridge/tube (is that the correct description?)

[Nayberg]

Indeed, welcome to the forum

While I applaud the collective idea, please make sure that Bill's intellectual property rights aren't abused.

How wide are your cabs to be?
In the second picture, is that actually a brace already glued in place?

Something to consider since you will build more cabs.
Unless pack space is a problem, build the T48s as wide as possible. That maximises output...

We have been considering this, and of course reading the terms. We're are pretty sure we aren't violating anything The goal is definitely not to teach people how to exactly build these - more to teach people (and ourselves) about how speakers actually work in general and how we can minimize energy consumption in everything we do by thinking differently. The finished product will only be used by us who bought the plans and we will not be handing over the plans to anyone.

As for the cabs, they will be approximately 45,58 cm wide following the plan for the 15" version - we have quite limited storage space and are focusing on the thought og 'many instead of big' to keep up with the idea of never transporting more energyconsuming gear to a gig than necessary - smaller cabs allow for a more modular system if you will

Sika do a number of polyurethane adhesives but I don't recall seeing one not in a cartridge/tube (is that the correct description?)

We actually tried to get this in a cartridge/tube/'gunmountable enclosure', but they only had this. Works fine though

[Grant Bunter]

As for the cabs, they will be approximately 45,58 cm wide following the plan for the 15" version - we have quite limited storage space and are focusing on the thought og 'many instead of big' to keep up with the idea of never transporting more energy consuming gear to a gig than necessary - smaller cabs allow for a more modular system if you will

Arrr ok.

Space is space. Doesn't matter if you fill it with a lot of smaller, or less of larger.
Larger or wider is actually even more energy efficient, because you get greater output from them with no increase in energy to supply them...

[Nayberg]

Yesterday we got a bit further

Since we still haven't received all the stuff we ordered (it was sent yesterday though) we decided to cut out a lot of ply for the three remaining Titans. Since we thought this was a bit of a pain using the circular saw (is it called that?) we decided to splash out the money for a proper table saw and do a few hours driving to pick it up. Best decision ever - this baby made our lives a whole lot easier, and it's going to be it's weight worth in gold when we get the funds to build more cabs

We also got around to making a routing-jig for doing the handles - but things shouldn't be too easy, so of course one of the routing bits decided to crap out, destroying both the jig and one of our perfectly cut backpieces. But we will not be defeated by crappy tools, and so we are back on track with a new even better jig

Thanks for all the input so far - we're learning a lot as we go!

[Nayberg]

So we haven't really been that good at updating the thread - time for that!

Since last post we got the first Titan all assembled to the point where it plays (still missing sanding and paint). We now feel so much more confident in building these - thanks to everyone recommending starting out with just one!

We also got a amprack together. We decided to go for the iNUKE NU6000 amps after researching a lot - they just seem to be really good bang for the buck when you're not exactly swimming in money. 3 of these should be able to power 8 Titans and (at least) 4 OmniTops.

So of course we tested out the one finished Titan - damn that thing is LOUD! By the looks of it it easily plays as loud as our two HK Linear 5 2000 Subs, which is at least double or triple the price (and power consumption) EACH!
And it sounds great too! We could not be happier

And so we have started building 3 more which we are expecting to be done within a week:

[Tom Smit]

And it sounds great too! We could not be happier

That, right there, is a great review!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Please post in the reviews when you get them all up and running.

[Nayberg]

Please post in the reviews when you get them all up and running.

Will do - can't wait to test them out. 4 of these babies should cover our needs for almost any gig. Hopefully we'll finish all the glueing tomorrow so we can focus on sanding, painting and so on the rest of the week. Saturday they need to be ready for use to play some artsy techno at a local festival It's gonna sound massive

Looking forward to building OmniTops also