Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?
Its 2:30am and I can't sleep...oh well After considering the type of cross bracing I want to do, I thought to my self, what's hard, stiff and easy to machine? Got to be easy to cut, glue and cheap. I was going to use Finnply, great stuff, looks gorgeous when finished.....But really, the idea was to utilize less expensive materials in the cabinet that can be found at HD or Loews. So I will use this tempered underlayment 1/8" thick hard as nails and stiff.....PERFECT. I'll make a sandwich construction of the board and a mix of different soft materials, it'll be easy to cut, drill and shape with a router. I did find some aluminum extrusions from another project in the back so I'll use that for corner bracing (why not it isn't costing me much). Any way back back to sleep......🇸🇪 |
After a few cup of Joe's.......I'm up The problem with being semi-retired is that I have way to much time on my hands, I'm not complaining or bitching about it, but My mind I kind of welded to the project at hand and with that nothing else gets done. So in the middle of the night right after the last post I had an idea. You see the image of my vacuum pump for composite work....You can see were this is going lol Damn I really wanted to shy away from the expensive stuff, but a few layer of CF won't kill the project money wise, plus working with composites is fun as you can make shapes that otherwise would take a rapid prototype machine or a five axis machine to produce. There might be more this afternoon, but I need to get stuff ready for the Sweden trip later this week. Here is my vacuum pump. https://www.flickr.com/gp/147883144@N08/59ujV5 Hej då......🇸🇪 |
Greetings from a gorgeous day in SoCal... With my Sweden trip approaching in a few days I'm running out of available time for fun stuff like working on the Ohms.... After the CF ring was installed I did have one more layer to go and that was today's one hour project. The layer from top to bottom contains everything from Butyl rubber, 1/8" aluminum, 1/4" steel, neoprene, 2 types of glue, and finally some 1" felt as you can see in the image (8 layers of metal). The last layer was compressed and glued together with Gorilla glue. If you look closely you can see the the compression bolts pulling it all together. There is also an inside thick layer of non drying clay, neoprene, CF and Gorilla glue bonding the layers together. WOW I know it's a lot but I do want the Walsh drive to be on a super inert 2 3/4" thick surface, no bad vibes....lol https://www.flickr.com/gp/147883144@N08/277b0L The second image is after the compression screw were installed. These will be replaced with real bolts and then Loctited with the red stuff and a big blob of epoxy to lock it in forever. https://www.flickr.com/gp/147883144@N08/F7mV30 The third image is the first of the cabinet reinforcement puzzle. the first layer is the checkered neoprene which allows the glue to wet through the layer and subsequently stick to the inside wall. The thicker part of the part is cement board, totally dead and great to work with. https://www.flickr.com/gp/147883144@N08/56r210 Fourth image is the part installed on the inside wall, you can see the Gorilla glue expanding which is great as I will know that the glue is filling up all nooks and crannies:) Removing the expanded foam does take some elbow grease, but a sharp chisel and some acetone will take care of it. To keep the part from floating away you do have to clamp the piece down. https://www.flickr.com/gp/147883144@N08/56r210 The idea to keep standing waves waves from building up in the cabinet I will stack the surfaces in an unusual pattern allowing the surface To avoid it as much as possible. The edge of the part is were the first horizontal brace start. It will be built up with hard board honeycomb and carbon fiber. Attached will be a special secret sauce aluminum extrusion that will be a vibration damper attached with a very low shore hardness silicone ;) The difference between stock cabinet and the new layers attached is amazing. A thud and no ringing is very exciting indeed. Here's the cabinet knocking from inside out... https://www.flickr.com/gp/147883144@N08/90Dku7 Here's the new layer I knocked on... https://www.flickr.com/gp/147883144@N08/2dk21o More to come and Im loving it.....🇸🇪 |
So the first 4" layer is complete, but not finished. The opening for the Walsh driver is precariously close to the edge of the side wall build up so now I have to make a decision if the I can make the material intrude past the sight line of the driver cone, or the option would be to utilize a softer shapable material.....Hmmm So what should I do? A few options contemplated is leave it alone add some polyester fil glue it in and make it a day..... Or use a material like "Blackhole" to dampen the sidewall surface. I could shape the foam surface a bit so I have a gradual slope in to the cabinet. Lots of ideas in my head, but I would love some input. throw it at me nothing will be discounted unless it's really stupid stuff like depleted uranium, quantum dots and elk horns for bracing...🤓💯 Tomorrow will be tight as I'm leaving for Sweden on Saturday but part of the first horizontal layer is layed out, and all I have to do is making sure the exact dimensions are finished so I can start the CF layup and bagging as soon as I get back.... Bättre brödlös än rådlös.......🇸🇪 |
