I used screw in eyes to tidy up the cable ties holding the bottom of the line arrays and some more pens to make mechanisms at the tops to allow fine adjustment of the angle the arrays hang at. I’ve set them precisely vertical using a spirit level.
The conduit from B&Q is sold in 2m lengths but they are not cut very accurately. The bottom of the conduit is raised off the floor by about 1cm so it doesn’t vibrate and I tried to get the tops to line up precisely when I drilled the holes for attaching to the buckets but the tops are not quite at the same height. I tried to correct this by measuring the locations for the new holes for the pens to be the same distance from the floor.
I want to get some stainless steel springs to replace the bungees and cable ties. I think that will look neater. Maybe if I can get some whippy springy steel I can make some to fit.
The conduit from B&Q is sold in 2m lengths but they are not cut very accurately. The bottom of the conduit is raised off the floor by about 1cm so it doesn’t vibrate and I tried to get the tops to line up precisely when I drilled the holes for attaching to the buckets but the tops are not quite at the same height. I tried to correct this by measuring the locations for the new holes for the pens to be the same distance from the floor.
I want to get some stainless steel springs to replace the bungees and cable ties. I think that will look neater. Maybe if I can get some whippy springy steel I can make some to fit.
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Maybe take it up a notch with ceramic pots
It’s necessary to cut holes in the bottoms of the buckets to install the woofer drivers. I used the saw feature of a penknife (which was doable but a bit painful). You’d need a diamond hole cutter to cut the same holes out of ceramic pots.
I paid £1.99 each for my buckets at co-op (B&Q has some that look suitable for 95p). Ceramic pots are going to be 5-10x the price maybe.
Concrete might be an option. You could just put the buckets of the current design into a slightly larger bucket and fill the gap with concrete. Take away the pens and use some rebar in the concrete instead. It would be quite a lot of effort and mess for a marginal improvement though.
One of the things I like about the design is that it’s quite light weight. With the cones inside to eliminate the flat surface of the bottom of the bucket, the buckets make quite good pressure vessels and the opposing drivers cancel each other out so there is very little movement. When suspended from the pens in the middle it all works quite well and the bass is very tight. There is a little flex though so the design isn’t quite as good when the buckets are used standing on the floor.
Using concrete would help but I think it’s a bit of a brute force solution and it would make the speakers very heavy and hard to move. I think it would be better to come up with a different frame design that would allow the woofers to be suspended from the middle above the floor.
Testing out paint adhesion. Seems to be good enough if you rub the surface down with wire wool before priming it. The plastic has some flaws so the finish isn’t perfect. Coverage is not very good — using those paints would be expensive. I bought the silver by accident thinking it was a clear lacquer. I don’t like the color. There is a nice pearl black though. Anyway, I think the bottom line is that it would be easy enough to paint them any color you like but better to do that before assembly. I’m tempted to make another pair.
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I’ve done another little project. I thought anyone following this one might be interested in the next one here:
Ghetto Bikester
Ghetto Bikester
Thanks, that’s very kind. I’m going to have to take a break from playing and do some real work soon though so there may not be much more for a while.
I applaud your willingness to dive in and experiment. The best way to learn and the true spirit of the scientific method. Something I find I have to force myself to do every know and then... to have fun with it again, be more creative, less critical and remember why I fell into this hobby. Never know what you'll discover.
Great job, enjoy the results, I like what you've come up with!
Great job, enjoy the results, I like what you've come up with!
I could not agree more. I find this thread inspiring. Personally I am a bit of an OCD engineer and can lapse into the trap of overthinking a problem ("paralysis by analysis" as my wife calls it) or seeking to make everything "perfect" from the start. It's good to be reminded occasionally that the purpose of this hobby is to have fun and enjoy the journey.
Thanks for the reminder.
-b
I'm with you there.
Sometimes it takes a couple drinks to get the sawdust flying.
I bought an adjustable heavy duty circle cutter for my drill press and made a simple press fit circle jig for my cordless trim router so that I could rough baffles out quickly when the inspiration strikes. Have many different drivers and a 4x8 DSP in the shop too.
The size of these digital amps makes them so easy to store. You can throw 8 amps in a box that would have only fit one not long ago, and a 2ohm load doesn't bother most of them.
Being able to try out an idea quickly is many times the difference between going for it and not going for it, or getting too drunk first ha
Nowadays you can mock something up and measure it in just a few hours. Incredible how far it's come from when I started.
I especially like that he used car head unit/amps in the build. I've used head units with 4 channel 5V pre-outs to do active man cave party barn builds lol and they worked great at a fraction of the price of a consumer integrated unit with line level outputs for home use. Ran them off paralleled tractor batteries and they were dead quiet too.
Great thread. Cheers!
Sometimes it takes a couple drinks to get the sawdust flying.
I bought an adjustable heavy duty circle cutter for my drill press and made a simple press fit circle jig for my cordless trim router so that I could rough baffles out quickly when the inspiration strikes. Have many different drivers and a 4x8 DSP in the shop too.
The size of these digital amps makes them so easy to store. You can throw 8 amps in a box that would have only fit one not long ago, and a 2ohm load doesn't bother most of them.
Being able to try out an idea quickly is many times the difference between going for it and not going for it, or getting too drunk first ha
Nowadays you can mock something up and measure it in just a few hours. Incredible how far it's come from when I started.
I especially like that he used car head unit/amps in the build. I've used head units with 4 channel 5V pre-outs to do active man cave party barn builds lol and they worked great at a fraction of the price of a consumer integrated unit with line level outputs for home use. Ran them off paralleled tractor batteries and they were dead quiet too.
Great thread. Cheers!
I think with two extra buckets per side it would be possible to decouple the woofers from the floor:
Disconnect the woofers from the frame. Put a ring of foam neoprene around the top and bottom most bucket rims to act as suspension. Sit the woofer in one of the additional buckets, resting the neoprene ring on the new bucket rim. Put the other bucket on top upside down to rest on the other neoprene ring. Attach the new bottom most and top most buckets to the frame. The woofer assembly will now be a little taller with the two additional nested buckets and the old woofer will be suspended inside between the two neoprene rings.
I think most of the flex in the woofer is in the bottoms of the outer buckets between the internal cones and the bucket walls. By suspending the woofers inside another pair of buckets this flex will happen inside the gap between the nested buckets and will no longer be pushing against the floor.
The frame would no longer be a statically determinate structure so it might need a brace somewhere but I think it might be OK without if the neoprene was compressed a little to prevent the top bucket rotating.
Nested buckets could alternatively be used to implement the concrete idea by filling the gap with concrete but expanding foam between the nested buckets might work and would be a lot lighter.
So, a couple of alternative design possibilities to test out.
Disconnect the woofers from the frame. Put a ring of foam neoprene around the top and bottom most bucket rims to act as suspension. Sit the woofer in one of the additional buckets, resting the neoprene ring on the new bucket rim. Put the other bucket on top upside down to rest on the other neoprene ring. Attach the new bottom most and top most buckets to the frame. The woofer assembly will now be a little taller with the two additional nested buckets and the old woofer will be suspended inside between the two neoprene rings.
I think most of the flex in the woofer is in the bottoms of the outer buckets between the internal cones and the bucket walls. By suspending the woofers inside another pair of buckets this flex will happen inside the gap between the nested buckets and will no longer be pushing against the floor.
The frame would no longer be a statically determinate structure so it might need a brace somewhere but I think it might be OK without if the neoprene was compressed a little to prevent the top bucket rotating.
Nested buckets could alternatively be used to implement the concrete idea by filling the gap with concrete but expanding foam between the nested buckets might work and would be a lot lighter.
So, a couple of alternative design possibilities to test out.
Good Stuff
Lets see here.... Mop Buckets, Big Ole Rolls of Tape, Bungee Cords, Twist Ties, and Spray Paint. Throw in some WD-40 and a couple Cresent Wrenches and you have
what we call over here in Louisiana a "Master Redneck Tool Box". I know this because I am an Old Redneck.
I began my journey in DIY Audio bout 3 years ago. Learned lots. What kills me is some kind hearted soul will start a Thread after having spent countless hours building an amp
or speakers or power supply or other audio stuff. At first the thread is very accepting then the "Nit Picking" begins. Why did you do it this way or to make it better you should have
done it this way. Blah Blah Blah some degenerating into nasty arguements.
Not this thread,, The True Diy Sprit lies in these six pages. My hat is off to all who posted to this "Thread" Got the "Git er Done" attitude all the way through!!!!!
I think I see some speakers for my shop in the future.
Wrankin the quote "paralysis by analysis" sums me up to a T. Please don't tell my wife, because that will surely become her new Battle Cry!!!!
heb1001 Thanks for the inspiration.
Lets see here.... Mop Buckets, Big Ole Rolls of Tape, Bungee Cords, Twist Ties, and Spray Paint. Throw in some WD-40 and a couple Cresent Wrenches and you have
what we call over here in Louisiana a "Master Redneck Tool Box". I know this because I am an Old Redneck.
I began my journey in DIY Audio bout 3 years ago. Learned lots. What kills me is some kind hearted soul will start a Thread after having spent countless hours building an amp
or speakers or power supply or other audio stuff. At first the thread is very accepting then the "Nit Picking" begins. Why did you do it this way or to make it better you should have
done it this way. Blah Blah Blah some degenerating into nasty arguements.
Not this thread,, The True Diy Sprit lies in these six pages. My hat is off to all who posted to this "Thread" Got the "Git er Done" attitude all the way through!!!!!
I think I see some speakers for my shop in the future.
Wrankin the quote "paralysis by analysis" sums me up to a T. Please don't tell my wife, because that will surely become her new Battle Cry!!!!
heb1001 Thanks for the inspiration.