and the prize for stupid act of the week goes to.....

[wintermute]

ME....

This afternoon when doing some tests on my speakers I was screwing the screws back in and slipped off the screw and put the phillips head screw driver through the edge of the rubber suround

It is just a rupture, it meets up perfectly, no missing material, but I'm wondering whether I should put some rubber glue on it, and if so what type?

I'm wishing I had have bought some Allen head or other types of screws and proper tnuts now Will have to be more carefull!! and make sure I don't work on speakers when I haven't really had enough sleep!!

Tony.

[maxro]

Ooooh, bummer.

The trick is to put your other hand over the driver; if the screw driver slips out, the pain will remind you to take more care. Also, the puncture wound on your hand will heal itself. No glue necessary.

Can you get Robertson (square drive) wood screws and drivers in Aus? I imagine not, as they are considered exotic in the US. Standard fare up here though. If you can get them, do. The driver simply WILL NOT jump out.

Max

[wintermute]

Hi Max,

getting anything other than phillips (or worse still flat head) bolts with hex nuts here in Aus has been proving difficult (and I can't really justify spending $50 AUS on shipping from Parts express (and to make it even worse they have a minimum international order of $50 US, so to get some bolts and insert nuts would cost me about $125 AUS, still I guess that's less than the cost of the driver I just air conditioned)....

Someone pointed to farnell the other day, nice button head M4 screws, but they only came in 20mm (I have 25mm thick baffles and need at least 30mm )

I'll have to try the pain reinforcement method next time .... I have slipped before but never done any damage, time to break out some new bolts too, I suspect the head on that one is a bit past it!

Tony.

[Zaph]

Hey, lets turn this thread into a report of stupid things we've done.

Here's the one that hurts me the most.

Router and countersink a couple of 3-way baffles. everything must be perfect - flange clearance, flange depth and airflow scallops next to the woofer and mid frames.

Then router the roundover on the wrong side. Believe me, a screwdriver through my hand would have hurt less.

ps. I used the "pain" method when I used standard screws, but now I use socket head cap screws with t-nuts on everything. Looks better and pulls stronger too.

[wintermute]

ouch!!! knowing how long it took me to do my baffles I can understand, and suspect there were a few choice words flying about

The stupid thing I did with this project (other than the one at the begining of this post) was forget to drill the holes (and especially the bigger ones on the inside of the baffle) for the bolt holes and nuts, before gluing the box together..... I said to myself first thing in the morning I must set up the drill press and drill the holes in the second baffle. when I got up I went and glued and clamped the box together, didn't realise till about 20 mins after I had it all together doh.

I'm still having some problems with those nuts ( I think this box is cursed, as it is the one I did the damage on this midbass on), time to araldite them in I think (next disaster waiting to happen????)

I'm happy for this to be a stupid mistakes thread

anyone with suggestions on rubber glue feel free to post too

Tony.

[martin clark]

For repairs to driver surrounds my favourite is.... that very light, aromatic glue you get in puncture repair kits. No really- it's a contact adhesive, and it bond rubbery things like surrounds incredibly well. I 've used to keep togther rotting foam surrounds before, in one case that repair lasted 3 years of daily use before i decided to recone the drivers!

Give it a go.

[wintermute]

Thanks Martin,

I think I have some puncture repair glue too. I think I will get a cheap artists brush and brush on a really thin coat..... I'm most concerned that I stop it from getting any worse, and second is that it should be air tight.

Tony.

[demogorgon]

Stupid things you say?

hehe, how about putting my 10.000uf caps the wrong way, not once, not twice but three times on a lm3886 amp i was building.
they all got hot and bubbely, nothing boomy though, as was the case when i did the exact same thing with my lm 4700amp.
the cap, qite sturdy, didnt blow for 20 minutes. but when it blew, it took half the veroboard and some resistors with it. seriouse blow..

wintermute:
you dont have umbraco bolts and hammer-inn bolts?
even up north we do..
Go to a specialist, or a company that deals specially in hardware, you know, those privatly owned thats been around for decades, that stock everything, and that's about 50% more expencive than all the others..

-Marius

[wintermute]

Hi Marius,

hehehe about the caps, I blew up a 1000uF electro once (teach me to solder on into the wee hours), made quite a bang!!! scared the life out of me, and since that day I always double check them Blowing 10,000uF caps three times must have been a somewhat expensive excercise!!

I did find insert nuts but the smallest were M6 and I needed M4.... I did find a specialty nuts and bolts place in the yellow pages, but I got slack and didn't ring them, partially because I already had one box done with standard phillips head bolts..... now I guess I'm paying for my slackness

Tony.

[jaudio]

How about a bicycle tire repair kit? Before everybody say anything not the patch but the glue.