Frugel-Horn Mk3 flat-paks

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by planet10

The 1st flat-pak went out today -- behind expectations but a start. I will be working to catch up. Chris & i went thru and sorted and prepared sets today. A few more baffles need to be made (to accomodate the actual driver distribution as opposed to our inital guess).

Here with Bonita (the pro) and Tiffany (the trainee)



Trivia: Each flat-pak eats up about 2 1/2 rolls of packing tape.

More: If we made these with all 18mm they would exceed the max dimension allowed.

dave

it could take longer to unpack them than to assemble - (I jest)


sir, just insert your chip and wait for the beep

[planet10]

Originally Posted by chrisb

it could take longer to unpack them than to assemble - (I jest)

If you discount the time for glue to dry and the finish, it could take less time to assemble. Chris assembled the beta flat-paks in less time than it took me to pack the one you see on the scale (and they are harder than the current versions to do).

dave

[planet10]

Originally Posted by planet10

The 1st flat-pak went out today

And arrived in Florida today... 5 or 6 days depending on how you count. 3 others in transit and 2 more in my truck to go to the post today. Half-way thu the back log.

dave

[JRace]

Any thoughts on how an early (pre-2007) CSS FR125 would work in this?
And does the assembled box require any finishing?

Looks great!

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by JRace

Any thoughts on how an early (pre-2007) CSS FR125 would work in this?
And does the assembled box require any finishing?

Looks great!

Other than the unfortunate behavior when excursion limit is reached, they should work fine.

Flat pak material is shop grade Baltic Birch plywood - 15mm for cases and 18mm for front baffle. Best efforts were made to select cleanest face for exterior surfaces, but there may still be minor pin-knots or foot-ball patches, and a thorough scraping to remove glue squeeze out and sanding after assembly down to at least 220G would be recommended for direct finish.

BB takes a clear top coat ( lacquer / polyurethane / shellac / natural oil ) quite nicely, but if planning on staining, a pre conditioning sealer would be recommended to avoid blotchiness.

They are machined with dadoes to position internal panels in one side, and all 3 external panels (top/front/bottom) on both. The internal faces could be masked off and prefinished before or during assembly (as I did with current pair)

Maybe when Dave next comes up for air he could post another photo or 2 from our assembly mock up session.

[planet10]

Originally Posted by chrisb

Maybe when Dave next comes up for air he could post another photo or 2 from our assembly mock up session.

Related Downloads

Chris came up with a clever way to deal with the choke point.

1/ the rebated side with the choke point
2/ fitting the back
3/ back & internal divider in place

Note: the fitment here ranges from tight to really tight depending on actual panel material thickness, If real tight just take it slow & steady

4/ the extra little bit to provide more glue surface and proper spacing
5/ clamped up for the 1st "wait for the glue to dry".

Note: it is very hard to install these and not have them perpendicular, but you should check anyway.

dave

[planet10]

Addendum: despite somewhere, somewhen recently posting that it was hard to precision CNC BB, be very careful handling the pieces. Corners are sharp enuff to cut (i had all sorts of nicks after we did pre-pack bundling on the kits... and if you get a sliver, you will be screaming.

Addendum 2: in the pictures in the previous post, you;ll see numbers on the pieces in some of the pictures. These were to keep track of pieces to try to get the best matches for surface character

Attached is a stack of paks (3 had already been taken away, and 2 sets of sides are still embedded in the sheets of plywood -- haven't been CNCed yet)

Next tutorial post >

dave

[chrisb]

a couple of notes, probably to be included in the "full documentation set", but several kit builders could be finished before that happens:

The plywood is machined by CNC, and contrary to opinions expressed elsewhere, the edges can be as sharp as those on similarly machined MDF - as Dave if you can cut yourself -with the added benefit of some slivering on long or obliquely cross-grain directions. Some of those little buggers can be very thin, short and hard to find.

We've found a great nitrile glove that reduces this problem quite a bit. They are thin enough to permit dexterous handling, and are also much more durable than thin latex exam gloves when applying solvent based stains and finishes.




Widely available - Home Depot, KMS Tools (Canada) and probably most major auto parts suppliers.

next turorial post >

[tubenut99]

The pack arrived yesterday..glad I missed the postal strike..
I was going to wait till the weekend to open the box, but I had to have a peek.
I was really impressed how professionally boxed all the pieces were in the box
with lots of tape . The quality of the wood pieces was excellent.
I can't wait to start gluing these together. Great work Dave!!
I'll wait though till you get some documentation and pix on the mock up
assembly. I can see though from most of the pix on the site they shouldn't be to bad to assemble. My questions will be where the wadding and insulation material gets placed inside.
Dan

[chrisb]

Originally Posted by tubenut99

The pack arrived yesterday..glad I missed the postal strike..
I was going to wait till the weekend to open the box, but I had to have a peek.
I was really impressed how professionally boxed all the pieces were in the box
with lots of tape . The quality of the wood pieces was excellent.
I can't wait to start gluing these together. Great work Dave!!
I'll wait though till you get some documentation and pix on the mock up
assembly. I can see though from most of the pix on the site they shouldn't be to bad to assemble. My questions will be where the wadding and insulation material gets placed inside.
Dan

Dan - there were photos taken of the insulation scheme during the same session - as the saying goes

watch this space