BillFitzmaurice.info

Some goodies showed up today.

Replacing some gear up front in a house of worship with BFM cabs, starting with the 4 x SLA Pro wall-mounted. Two Titan 39s will follow once I decide on which driver to use in them (had decided on the Delta-12LFA, but thinking I may end up stretching the budget a bit and going with the LAB12s instead). Lastly I will be replacing one of our JBL JRX212s with a Wedgehorn 6 for a smaller footprint on stage and better off-axis response. If it works out well I'll likely be replacing all of our stage monitors with the Wedgehorn 6.

Will post updates periodically!

Looks like Fun!!!

Small update.

Went to a local lumber yard to pick up some 5x5 sheets of 12mm baltic birch today. Discovered the hard way that a 5x5 sheet will not cram into the back of a Caravan, and they couldn't even rip them in half for me because their panel saw accepts maximum 4' width sheets. Can't make any sawdust just yet.

In the mean time, I decided to cut and wire up the tweeter arrays. I used a table saw to make the cuts for simplicity and consistency rather than marking each tweeter individually and using a miter saw. The plastic on the tweeters did chip a little in spots, but nothing too serious. I few plastic chips managed to get inside of the throat of the tweeters which I was able to shake out. On a couple of them I had to remove the three screws holding the flange on to get the chips out. I'm not even sure if them being in there is a big deal or not, but I'm not taking any chances.

Gluing them with the PVC cement was pretty straightforward. I used the straight edge of a medium-sized level to align the tweeters while gluing them. Soldering all the wires was a little more time-consuming (that's 82-ish solder joints altogether, not including tinning all the terminals and wires separately). If I could make one recommendation, use the lowest-powered soldering iron you can get away with while working with these tweeters. I found the terminals heat up quite quickly and have a tendency to melt the plastic they're mounted to. I'll probably clean up the excess glue on the flanges once they're mounted in the enclosures, not that it matters much since the plan is to use grille cloth to cover the front baffle anyways.

More to come!

You could bring a battery powered saw to the lumber yard (borrow one if needed) and use a straight edge as a guide. Make that first cut in each sheet, the width that you need for your parts.

Tom Smit wrote: ↑Sun May 06, 2018 11:52 pm You could bring a battery powered saw to the lumber yard (borrow one if needed) and use a straight edge as a guide. Make that first cut in each sheet, the width that you need for your parts.

I had considered that and have been asking around for a portable circular. No luck yet, but maybe they'll let me run an extension cord into the store.

Also Tom, I see you're from Sarnia. I'm actually in London myself. Do you order all your stuff from QComponents/McBride in the KW area? Just curious.

binsley8112 wrote: ↑Mon May 07, 2018 7:48 pm Also Tom, I see you're from Sarnia. I'm actually in London myself. Do you order all your stuff from QComponents/McBride in the KW area? Just curious.

I like their cross-over components because of value and they have the parts needed. They also have Duratex, which is quite handy.

WOW, that's a lot of piezo's! Interesting build!

binsley8112 wrote: ↑Mon May 07, 2018 5:46 pm I had considered that and have been asking around for a portable circular.

I haven't used a corded circular saw for quite a few years now. Cordless has all the power you need for plywood.

Progress was made today!

The weather was co-operative, so I dragged the table saw into the backyard to make some sawdust. This is my first time working with baltic birch, and I have to admit that I was disappointed that the two 5x5 sheets I bought from Copps were pretty warped. I thought I was seeing things in the store, but upon getting them home and laying them down I can confirm that there's some twisting going on. This made it a bit difficult to make the cuts. It probably didn't help the the blade on my saw is either dull, or doesn't have enough teeth for this type of material, as it felt like it was ripping the wood rather than making smooth cuts. Nonetheless, all the panels are ready to go. Just need to cut out the holes for the Alphas, the piezo arrays, the ports and the speakons. Speaking of speakons... The only parts I omitted were the little panels for the speakon plates. Is it ok to just drill 1" holes in the back panel and flush mount them? These SLAs will be used in a permanent install, so I'm not concerned with portability or appearance. As you can see I started drilling the holes for the ports. And by drill, I really mean burn. The hole saw I found in my basement looked like it had been used in war times, so it was making some magic smoke. Still, it was leagues better than the spade bit I found, which ended up binding and tearing a gnarly hole in one of the panels. Need to invest in some sharper tools...

I also mounted all the crossover components to some 1/4" melamine board I found. Still haven't decided on how I'm going to terminate the inputs/outputs, so suggestions are welcome on that one. The crossover you see in the background is for the Wedgehorn 6 I will eventually be building. It's a pre-built model from Leland that I decided to go with because it has both the mid and high crossovers on one board. I think I still have enough material left over from the two 5x5 sheets of BB to build the Wedgehorn. Maybe that's a little optimistic, but the WH6 is so tiny that I think it's doable. I'm actually impressed that you can squeeze 4 SLA Pros with leftover material out of 2 sheets.

Lastly, the 17th Alpha 6 for the WH6 showed up today. It's been on backorder since I drained QComponents of all their stock with this order. Still impressed at how meaty this little 6 is, and looking forward to hearing what they can do in the finished product!

Anyhow, more to come. As always, feedback/suggestions/tips/questions/criticisms are always welcome. Thanks for tuning in.

binsley8112 wrote: ↑Mon May 14, 2018 10:15 pm

I have to admit that I was disappointed that the two 5x5 sheets I bought from Copps were pretty warped.

I wonder if they sold you Chinese birch...... I've never had Baltic Birch warp or twist.

Bruce Weldy wrote: ↑Tue May 15, 2018 9:11 am I wonder if they sold you Chinese birch......

I hope that's not the case... I asked for Baltic Birch specifically. That's what was listed on their website and that's what it says on my receipt. Talked to 3 different people to confirm as well. They did have another plywood in the warehouse simply called "birch" that came in 4x8 sheets, but due to the lower amount of plies and thin veneer I thought this might be the cheap Asian birch Bill was alluding to in the plans.

Anyways, I took a close-up of the plies. Does this look like the right stuff?

Looks good. The warping was probably caused by improper storage.

That's the real deal, as good as I've ever seen.

Ok thanks guys, that's a relief. I did notice they store the sheets upright rather than laid flat, so you're probably right about that one, Bill.