Sealing up the piezo array

Message

Pete J · #1 Post by **Pete J** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:29 am

Hey,

It's hard to get those piezo arrays air tight, and the glue is a nuisance. Been working on that for a while and they still leak.

Has anyone ever tried putting a piece of plastic sheeting over the backs of the piezo array and either gluing it down airtight to the back of the Piezos - where the piezo array's flange meets the baffle - or perhaps just sandwiching it there between that flange and the baffle with a layer of sealing caulk - rope style - sandwiched in as well on both sides of the plastic sheeting.

Its a sealed enclosure of sorts but it would not take up very much interior volume.

Would this melt? Do Piezos get hot or need to be ventilated?

Don't want to burn down my speaker cabinet!

Cheers,

Pete J

Paul Norman · #2 Post by **Paul Norman** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:33 pm

Glueing the piezos together is fairly easy. Make sure your cuts are all straight and deburred and glue them together with ABS plumbing cement. Make sue you put wax paper under them so they don't stick to your bench. I found the best is the black ABS glue. It's thick and coats the backs really well and dries pertty fast. You can get it at Menards for about 2 bucks. It's in a small can with a red label. Good luck

wallywally · #3 Post by **wallywally** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 1:15 pm

Plastic won't work as it is flexible and would simply act as a diaphram. The leaks would still chuff and cause distortion. I used ABS cement to glue the piezos together and hot melt glue to seal around the body.

Mark Coward · #4 Post by **Mark Coward** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 7:06 pm

I've been thinking about something along these lines, also for the plate amps which leak around the input jacks. I was going to try the aluminum tape which is used to seal duct work, maybe that and some hot melt.

gerryc · #5 Post by **gerryc** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:35 pm

I just started working on gluing up a couple of melded arrays for a pair of Omni 10.5's. I've been debating whether to spend the effort trying to seal them properly, or to do what Dave Perry did on his Omni 10, by making a small sealed enclosure within the cabinet itself.

http://billfitzmaurice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5141

I'm starting to lean towards the latter. If you go that route you might want to compensate for the lost volume by adding a bit on the width and/or depth to compensate. I haven't gotten that far yet so I don't know what the numbers would be.

Harley · #6 Post by **Harley** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:15 am

gerryc wrote:...I've been debating whether to spend the effort trying to seal them properly, or to do what Dave Perry did on his Omni 10, by making a small sealed enclosure within the cabinet itself. .....I'm starting to lean towards the latter....

I wonder how would that work on the DR series though? On the DR250 with the DL2510, there is actually room to isolate the pizeos with a panel, but this would also take up the volume of the woofer chamber......????

I'd love to be able to isolate those pizeos and not worry about leaks. I have two access covers in my DRs so getting access to the woofer bolts is easy.

DAVID_L_PERRY · #7 Post by **DAVID_L_PERRY** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:32 am

What cab is this for ?

I have done this on my last two builds:-

Omni 10 I made a simple box to seal the piezo array:-

On my Omni 15 I used a half round section of PVC to seal in the piezo array, although this is not deep enough for the melded array. I am retrofitting a melded array tonight so will have to figure something out....best laid plans and all that....

It removes all elements of doubt as long as you have the space to build one, and also keep the box size to an absolute minimum so you are not loosing to much internal cab volume.

Dave

coyoteboy · #8 Post by **coyoteboy** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:53 pm

How did you seal the top and bottom of the half pipe?

if you don't mind me asking.