Aaron's THT build.

Hey all, with the sale on the dvc and bash amp over at PE, I jumped in to a THT build. I'm planning on staining it to match the wood trim on my tv stand, but if that turns out bad, I can always prime and paint it black. I'm sure i'll have lots of questions along the way.

Unfortunately, I'm starting off with a materials question:

I bought 1/2" Baltic birch for the outsides, but I bought a sheet of 1/2" arauco as well, to handle interior panels, bracing, and whatnot. At least, they told me it was arauco...
Here's a snapshot of the bill:


And here is what I noticed when I unloaded the truck today:


A shot of the edge:



Sooooo...
Is this pretty much the same thing, or should I pitch a fit tomorrow?

Thanks,
Aaron

Ok. I wasn't worried about the 15/32" part. I was mostly concerned with the company name stamped at the top (the left in the photo... I forgot to rotate it) I googled "Pacific Wood Laminates", and they're a mill based out of Brookings, OR. I thought Arauco was based in South America?
Thanks,
Aaron

Ok. I'll call the lumber company in the morning. It could be a mistake by the guys that pulled the stock.

Thanks

Well, evidently they switched suppliers, and didn't update their computer. One of the guys in their warehouse suggested another lumber company, and when I called them, they were a bit more helpful. Unfortunately, they have no more 1/2" Arauco. He said that they routinely field calls from distrubutors 2-3 states away trying to find some, which leads me to belive I won't be finding any around here. I'll try calling some others, but I think I'd better move forward with a contingency plan.

Originally I was planning on using the BB for any visible pieces (the exterior and mouth braces) and a box for the plate amp, Then, I'd use whatever BB I had left to do the rest of the internal panels, substituting Arauco when I ran out. Other braces and jigs from the plans would have come from the leftovers.

Now that I can't get Arauco, I'm going to have to take another look at my cutlist. If I can get all of the panels and mouth brace done with the BB on hand, I might as well save some money on the other braces. What's the cheapest grade plywood acceptable for the braces? Also, can the octagonal driver spacer be made of the cheap stuff?

Thanks,
Aaron

That sounds like a good plan. Okmulgee isn't too far away, as i'm on the south side of Tulsa.
Thanks!!!
Aaron

Well,
A slight delay. I spent a bunch of time yesterday messing with my track saw kit, before finally realizing it had been pre-drilled wrong. The manufacturer is replacing the part, but I wasted a lot of time feeling like an idiot trying to put it together.
Company Christmas party today, so I probably won't make much progress.
Grrrr

Okay, more than slight delay. Work/Life/Holidays... you get the idea...

Anyway, the panels are all cut, I just need to cut the braces. I tested out my router/Jasper combo, and cut the hole in the baffle doubler. (Pics to come later)

Then, I pulled the driver and amp out of the box, and set it up for driver break-in. Hopefully one someone can tell me if I did something wrong.

1) I downloaded a 20Hz test tone and transferred it to my ipod.
2) Set ipod to repeat track indefinitely.
3) Connect amp (bash 300) to iPod, and throw a multimeter on the speaker leads. \
4) Adjust controls until it reads 10VAC.
5) turn amp off and connect leads to speaker (both coils in parallel)
6) turn system back on
7) immediately turn system back off due to the hideous clanking sound
8) spend a couple of minutes convincing wife that I'm not going to burn the house down
9) turn the volume knob all the way down, and re-energize system
10) Turn knob slowly back up until an audible version of the clanking is heard. (It's a similar sound, just not so alarming in volume.)
11) Turn the system off, and ask for advice on AVSforum.

Now, the driver was sitting on its back on the carpet during this test. I'm thinking that I might want to cut the hole in the baffle, glue the doubler on, and go through the driver mounting procedure, then repeat the procedure with the driver off of the ground.

But, is it possible I have a bad driver, or did I do something wrong?

Thanks,
Aaron

Thanks guys, I'll do it again, starting lower, and I'll slowly take the voltage up.
Just to be sure, there's no problem with is sitting flat on the floor on the back of the motor frame?
Thanks,
Aaron

Tried again. The noise starts at 1V. By the time I hit 1.5VAC, it was as loud as I dared to push it. Is this normal?
This time, the multimeter is connected directly to the coils during the test, so I'm not just measuring open circuit voltage.

Thanks,
Aaron

Thanks for all the support everyone! I'll contact PE, and hopefully they'll exchange it.

Unfortunately, I looked at the calendar the other day, and realized that my PE (professional engineer) exam is only a month away. I haven't been as diligent in my studying as I should have, so all my free "tinkering and building" time is going to have to be dedicated to studying. I REALLY don't want to take this test twice!

So, the updates (and the progress) will slow down for a month or so.


I'm not sure what you mean here. I think you're talking about the baffle doubler, which was added into the plans fairly recently, i think. I know older builds like yours and myn's don't have them, but some of the more recent builds do. I believe Bill said that he put it in so that the driver could be mounted with long screws, rather than t-nuts or hurricane nuts. (I'm still planning on mounting with hurricane nuts)

Thanks,
Aaron

Just a quick update. (I snuck away from the chores for some build time)

PE replaced the DVC, and I got a chance to glue the doubler to the newly routed baffle.

I stopped up the hole in the PL tube with a deck screw, and then rested it on end because it kept oozing. (Wrapped in a shop towel). Does that sound like enough precaution?

Looking forward to the rest of the build!