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Yet another dual opposed mfw 15 build (my first ever) - Page 3

post #61 of 141
7/19/11 at 6:47am
Very nice build. That is some of the nicest dark stained birch I've seen.

I'd suggest the balanced MiniDSP as well. It give the necessary voltage output to drive the EP4000 fully...even though you won't need that much power.

Edit: BTW, I'd suggest wiring the drivers in each cabinet in series for a nominal 8ohm load per cabinet. Then wire each cabinet into a single channel of the EP4000. The EP2500 was tested at 450w per channel into 8ohms and the EP4000 should be the same. This is about the perfect amount of power into 7 cu ft. You should be within the mechanical limits of the drivers down to 3hz and the amp won't produce full power that low anyway. Limiting yourself to that much power will help protect the driver from overexcursion.

You might be tempted to try running the cabs in parallel to run the amp bridged 4ohm, but then you run the risk of overexcursion. If you notice the EP4000's clip lights flickering then you could try the mono config, but do that with caution.
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post #62 of 141
7/19/11 at 8:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by coctostan View Post

Very nice build. That is some of the nicest dark stained birch I've seen.

I'd suggest the balanced MiniDSP as well. It give the necessary voltage output to drive the EP4000 fully...even though you won't need that much power.

Edit: BTW, I'd suggest wiring the drivers in each cabinet in series for a nominal 8ohm load per cabinet. Then wire each cabinet into a single channel of the EP4000. The EP2500 was tested at 450w per channel into 8ohms and the EP4000 should be the same. This is about the perfect amount of power into 7 cu ft. You should be within the mechanical limits of the drivers down to 3hz and the amp won't produce full power that low anyway. Limiting yourself to that much power will help protect the driver from overexcursion.

You might be tempted to try running the cabs in parallel to run the amp bridged 4ohm, but then you run the risk of overexcursion. If you notice the EP4000's clip lights flickering then you could try the mono config, but do that with caution.

I run my cabs 8 ohm like above, it is a good match. I have clipped my amp though, I just backed down the sw trim.

BTW, nice looking build. I was thinking of doing the pocket screws like you did, but decided not seems how I would have had to buy the jig.

Wem
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post #63 of 141
7/19/11 at 12:00pm
Thread Starter 
That's exactly what I ordered, the balanced version, but I bought the 2 way advanced plug in.

I plan on wiring the cabs in series, to represent an 8 ohm load.

Thanks for the compliments on the finish, I am sure it had a lot to do with the quality of the wood.

I am going to try to get some work done on them, but wifey is uber close to delivering our 5th child.

If she pops, then my already extremely limited time, will become even more so.

thanks again for all the help and kind comments.
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post #64 of 141
7/19/11 at 9:01pm
Thread Starter 
Well did not get as much done as I hoped, but at least I made some progress. I was able to sealcoat the remaining sides of the cabinets with poly.



and a view from the front.



I was thinking I was going to start the grills, but I ran out of time. I did however decide that I am going to use magnets to retain the grill covers.



I did get the four frames cut out.



Maybe tomorrow I will be able to glaze another side with the epoxy.
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post #65 of 141
7/20/11 at 9:44pm
Thread Starter 
So despite my soon to be borns best efferts, (wife is currently in labor) I was able to make progress tonight.

I started making the speaker grills. I was able to drill the clearance hole, and pre drill the tapped side (i was trying to make sure the wood did not spilt). I decided to use inch and a half long number 6 wood screws, and pl to hold the frames together.



I was also able to epoxy another side of the boxes.



This stuff is wicked, I love the way I get a mirror shine, and I don't have to keep sanding it over and over. I mean, just spread it, and you get this...



hopefully next time I update, I will have another member of the family to introduce.. wish me luck....
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post #66 of 141
7/21/11 at 7:54am
Oh wow, that epoxy stuff looks nice.
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post #67 of 141
7/21/11 at 10:32am
Thread Starter 
Well at nine twenty eight local time, I delivered my son.



Yes, I delivered him. My wife and I planned a homebirth with a midwife, but the midwife was about twenty minutes late..

After I got mom and baby settled I was walking through the house and noticed a big box on my porch. The UPS guy had delivered something else I was waiting for...



So so far this is one of the best days of my life.. let's hope it continues...
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post #68 of 141
7/21/11 at 11:19am
Congrats on your new son!
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post #69 of 141
7/21/11 at 4:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mjaudio View Post

congrats on your new son!

+1
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post #70 of 141
7/21/11 at 4:55pm
Congrats on both of the new babys (EP4000 and Son).
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post #71 of 141
7/21/11 at 6:16pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks a lot for all the congratulations, and support.. maybe I will get some work done tonight once it cools down some..
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post #72 of 141
7/21/11 at 6:47pm
Cool! Congrats on the son bud!

That epoxy looks interesting. Though SUPER shiny. Did you mention you put it right on top of the poly?? Hmmmm .... I only poly'd mine, wonder if I could do the same with the epoxy on top. Guess I could always try the bottom of my sub first and see what it looks like...
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post #73 of 141
7/21/11 at 9:05pm
Thread Starter 
Yes right on top of the poly. It is recommended that you seal unfinished wood before you "flood" coat the project. I applied the poly as the sealer.
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post #74 of 141
7/21/11 at 9:40pm
Thread Starter 
Wow, what an exciting day. I tell you what, delivering your own child, is scary as hell. In the moment, I was calm and collected, but once the midwife arrived and I no longer had to be the "rock" I was shaking like a dog shi**ing razor blades. But alls well that ends well, and so far both momma and baby are fine.

Once it finally cooled down a bit (we hit over 100 degrees today, plus high humidity) I was able to make a little progress.

I wanted to be able to wrap the grills tomorrow, so I knew I had to get the magnets in place. First I thought about what would be the best place for them. I thought corners first, but ended going up in the middle of the runs. So I pre drillled though all of the grills at once, in hopes that they all will be interchangeable.
Then I drilled out the pocket for the magnets to sit in. I made the recesses ID smaller than the OD of the magnet.



Then I shot a little pl into the hole, just to add to the retention of the magnets.



speaking of the magnets here is a shot of them all stuck to each other.



But before I shot pl into the pocket for added retention, I marked the hole placement on the cabinets, and used inch and a quarter black drywall screws for the magnet attaching points.



another shot from a different angle.



So back to the grills, after I shot the pl into the hole, I used clamps to push the magnets into the places...l



That's all for now, going to try to get some sleep while I still can. Good night all.
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post #75 of 141
7/21/11 at 9:53pm
Your new babies (subs) and your new son looks beautiful! Great job on all of them - Congrats!
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post #76 of 141
7/22/11 at 3:56am
Thread Starter 
Thank you, but I have to say that momma had more to do with Raudhans looks, although everyone says he looks like me......

Raudhan pronounced ( Roe-in ) We picked that spelling cause of our Celtic heritage. With that spelling it literally means "son of the tree". My wife's youngest sister used to call me Mr Tree when we where teens. Plus, me being a huge Lord of the Rings fan I can't help but enjoy the similarity of his first name and the Riders of Rohan.
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post #77 of 141
7/22/11 at 9:37am
Wow. Very interesting. Am also a Lord of the Rings fan ( used to play AD&D). Congrats on your son; God bless all. This is one of the best looking and well build single sub I ever seen. I was going to buy an Rythmik F15HP but for the money I will do one myself. I dont have any woodwork skills or tools but what I am going to do is to get someone to cut the panels and I take care of the assembly.
I will buy Fi Q15 sub and do a sealed 18x18x18 enclousure. Not sure which of these amps from Behrihger to get. Im inclining in the EP4000, but they have also the EPX and EPQ and the new INUKe lines so Im not sure which series is more suitable for subs. My goal is deep, tight and accurate bass.
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post #78 of 141
7/23/11 at 12:29pm
Thread Starter 
Obviously my time had been limited as of late, due to my responsibilities to mommy and baby, but I was able to sneak off for about an hour yesterday.

I cut the cloth out for the speaker grills, and used my newly purchased electric staple gun, was able to convince wife it will help me when I do the molding as well, (it also shoots brad nails).



As you see in this pic, I was only able to get three done before I was needed in the house, luckily I was able to get one more side coated with the epoxy.



As you can tell on the black it really looks good.
Here is another shot from straight on.



You can even see my bald head taking the shot in that one...

hopefully I will be able to get the other grill cover done today and another side epoxy covered.
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post #79 of 141
7/23/11 at 4:08pm
Wow, amazing. How did you get the piano black look btw? Did you use the Epoxy again?
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post #80 of 141
7/23/11 at 6:23pm
Thread Starter 
Yup epoxy, I started with mdf, primed with auto gray primer, then painted flat black. I then coated it with poly urethane (probably unnecessary). Once the poly was dry, just coated with the epoxy, and bam piano black..
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post #81 of 141
7/25/11 at 9:15pm
Thread Starter 
Wow it seems a long time since I was able to update this thread. Been super busy helping wife and taking care of little Raudhan. Today's main project wasn't really about speakers, but it sure was a project. Wish I had before pics, but for those of you who have seen a bare subfloor that's what was in this room before I started at about noon. After six hours, some sweat, and a little blood, I was able to convert a raw plywood subfloor into this.



But I am sure yall don't really care about the floor, you want to see sub pictures. I am planning on wiring my cabinets is series, and presenting the ep4000 with an eight ohm load per channel. I accomplished this by buying a two speaker input, and placing a jumper between negative 1, and positive 2. To explain easier, here is a pic.



If you look close you will see red wire running from one terminal to another. If you were able to see the other side, you would see that the one end is connected to the black of speaker 1, and it runs to red of speaker 2. That's how I am accomplishing a series wiring.

Now for those that have been following you already know I made my speaker grills the other day. But what you have not seen is hope they look on the speaker. Until now.....



As you can tell, both cabinets have the covers mounted.. Here is one cabinet from another angle. Notice the reflection of the other cabinet. (I really like the way that epoxy shines)



And since my little helper was out there tonight, and was freaking out cause she wanted daddy to "take picture of me daddy". Here is one final.picture..



All I did tonight was epoxy the final side. So tomorrow I hopefully will be able to mount the drivers, and bring them into the house. If my cables show up, I might be able to start to make noise.
Stay tuned....
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post #82 of 141
7/26/11 at 7:38am
how do you handle the epoxy run off on the coners? It always gets messy for me

Congrats on the build and the new addition to the family!!! Fun times with little ones
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post #83 of 141
7/26/11 at 11:47am
Thread Starter 
Two layers of blue painters tape. I placed it just on the tangent of the radius. Gives you about five inches in which to catch your runoff..

Just pay attention to it until it begins to gel, then remove the tape.
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post #84 of 141
7/26/11 at 4:43pm
Glad to see someone else try the epoxy! It's pretty amazing stuff and after you use it a couple times, it's not too hard. The main thing is to mix it really good.

I started on the front baffle, but used a thin coat specifically to get a textured look. I didn't want the mirror finish because they were going next to the projector screen.

I did mine in the winter, so the epoxy was thicker which may have helped keep it on one panel without many runs. Just take your time pulling the epoxy to the edges. If it runs down the sides a little, just smear it flat with something nice and clean. When you coat the sides, it hides those runs. Plus, if you're careful it will 'dam up' right where the last pour stopped on the previous panel.

Any bubbles that show up can easily be removed by waving a lit soldering torch about 4" or so above the epoxy. But you don't want to aim it right at the epoxy. You'll know you're close enough when the bubbles pop. It's very quick.


And that's your 'Epoxy Tip Of The Day'!
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post #85 of 141
7/26/11 at 7:14pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks to you Eric, you supplied the drivers, and provided me with the knowledge of the epoxy. Many thanks to you and all the other people here at AVS that made this build as good as it is, considering my extremely limited knowledge of speaker building. This build stands as testament to the vast knowledge base that is AVS. My hats off to you gentleman.
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post #86 of 141
7/26/11 at 10:26pm
Thread Starter 
So the day that has been one month in the making has finally arrived. The day I mount the drivers into there new homes.

I was looking for a rubber type seal to go between the driver, and the mounting surface to guarantee a airtight seal. But other than some sixteenth inch thick rubber, that we had at work, (that we did not have enough of) I wasn't able to come up with anything. So off to the store I went, and was lost in an isle full of "make your own gasket type products".

It was then while staring at the aforementioned products, that I had an epiphany. F&*k! half this sh*t is colored silicone, I got that at home.

So back home I went and proceeded to "make my own gasket" with 100% pure silicone. But instead of it costing me 10 bucks for a small squeeze tube, this cost me nothing cause I had it laying around from a bathroom recaulking that I recently had done.

I let the silicone "set up" for about 2 hours before I put the drivers in place. Reason being, I didn't want the silicone to adhere to the speakers, rather, I just wanted a plyable seal. Here is what that looked like.



Now before we get to driver mounted pic, let's flash back to a month prior, to the before picture...



And after a month, here is the how she looks..



So I continued placing drivers, and putting grills on until I was all done. I am a little melancholy about coming to the end of the project, but here is a couple pics for you...



And from the other angle....





Now I know it's to late too start making noise with these for tonight, but, hey I can at least get them into the places I think I am going to want them in.

First sub one next to LCR near the TV, corner loaded.



Then sub two, in the middle of the LP. Acting as an endtable.



So that's as far as I got today, but happiness is continuing in my life, today the postmaster brought me....



So I made a quick run to "the shack" and bought.



So once I get that configured, and running I will be able to get some graphs to show you guys.. but until then, I got this cable to run signal to my ep4000.



The great thing is, that cable users unscrews on the RCA end, so once I get the mini up and running, its just a matter of stripping the end and terminating the wires.

That's all for now guys. Sleep is overtaking me as I compose this post. So without further adieu, goodnight, and thank you for following on this journey...
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post #87 of 141
7/27/11 at 6:07am
wow...beautiful finishing work.
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post #88 of 141
7/27/11 at 7:37pm
Everytime I check this thread and think these things cant look any better, you take it up another notch! Well Done! They look stunning!
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post #89 of 141
7/27/11 at 7:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Audiophile34 View Post

So the day that has been one month in the making has finally arrived. The day I mount the drivers into there new homes.

I was looking for a rubber type seal to go between the driver, and the mounting surface to guarantee a airtight seal. But other than some sixteenth inch thick rubber, that we had at work, (that we did not have enough of) I wasn't able to come up with anything. So off to the store I went, and was lost in an isle full of "make your own gasket type products".

It was then while staring at the aforementioned products, that I had an epiphany. F&*k! half this sh*t is colored silicone, I got that at home.

So back home I went and proceeded to "make my own gasket" with 100% pure silicone. But instead of it costing me 10 bucks for a small squeeze tube, this cost me nothing cause I had it laying around from a bathroom recaulking that I recently had done.

I let the silicone "set up" for about 2 hours before I put the drivers in place. Reason being, I didn't want the silicone to adhere to the speakers, rather, I just wanted a plyable seal. Here is what that looked like.

Now before we get to driver mounted pic, let's flash back to a month prior, to the before picture...

And after a month, here is the how she looks..

So I continued placing drivers, and putting grills on until I was all done. I am a little melancholy about coming to the end of the project, but here is a couple pics for you...

And from the other angle....

Now I know it's to late too start making noise with these for tonight, but, hey I can at least get them into the places I think I am going to want them in.

First sub one next to LCR near the TV, corner loaded.

Then sub two, in the middle of the LP. Acting as an endtable.

So that's as far as I got today, but happiness is continuing in my life, today the postmaster brought me....

So I made a quick run to "the shack" and bought.

So once I get that configured, and running I will be able to get some graphs to show you guys.. but until then, I got this cable to run signal to my ep4000.

The great thing is, that cable users unscrews on the RCA end, so once I get the mini up and running, its just a matter of stripping the end and terminating the wires.

That's all for now guys. Sleep is overtaking me as I compose this post. So without further adieu, goodnight, and thank you for following on this journey...

Those turned out real good. I really like the high gloss finish!

Next time you want to seal drivers, foam weather stripping at Lowes or HD.....

Nice job Jive Turkey!
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post #90 of 141
7/27/11 at 8:00pm
Are you using binding posts?
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