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Got to the shop today and started with the grill cloth application. Placed the baffle onto the grill cloth cutout as square as possible. Held it down with the pressure of a Bessey clamp, so the cloth could be adjusted and stretched and the baffle wouldn’t move. Then heated the side of the cloth with a hairdryer, stretched it around the edge, and stapled it down:
Did 2 sides and rotated for the other 2:
After it was completed:
Here is the speaker attached- you can see I trimmed the grill cloth so it didn’t reach and get under the speaker rim:
Couple of side notes:
1. I did attempt to miter the corners as in the Uncle Doug video, but this grill cloth doesn’t lend well because it’s very woven and tends to want to fall apart. With this cloth, it’s better to just overlap the 2 corners and looks good.
2. Good news or bad - with just the grill cloth, it is very snug in the opening. If I would’ve applied Tolex, I think I probably wouldn’t have compensated enough and it may not have fit.
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11-10-2019 07:31 PM
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Decided against 3-2-1 and made a batch of cut polyurethane, since the linseed oil will darken the color:
Here’s the hue right after application of 1st coat:
Appearance with handle:
Back panels post finish application:
Jack assembly attached:
View of back with panels and bits in place:
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It's looking good. I prefer Speakon connectors to 1/4" phone jacks/plugs, but they all work, as long as you're careful. I think the wood looks better than Tolex, but none of this is end-of-the-world important. Enjoy the cabinet, hope it sounds as good as it looks.
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Originally Posted by sgosnell
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You can get them reasonably priced from Mouser or from various ebay sellers, both male and female. The biggest advantage is that they can't short out when connected or disconnected, and they can take very thick cable, 12 gauge or bigger, if needed. My AI Clarus amp, and my MB200, both have only Speakon outputs, and every cabinet I own has them, whether they had them when I bought them or not. It's a simple replacement.
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After the 3rd coat, I dry sanded with 600grit and applied a final coat. These pics are immediately after application:
After drying for 12hr:
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After I screwed the speaker to the baffle- when I went to place the baffle in place I noticed that it didn’t seat down in and flush against the cleats and stuck out a bit:
This came from an oversight of mine. The baffle was 13 1/16” with a 11” hole, 12” outer speaker diameter. Seemingly, 1” would be safe. But, because we had to trim the baffle on adjacent sides to accommodate for the grill cloth and tolex, we lost some surface. So when I went to put it in, it was hitting about 1/4” of the speaker:
To solve this, I used a plunge router with a fence to lower the inside of the cleats enough to seat flush against the baffle:
This solved the issue, and gave me some plunge router experience.
Solderless wiring of the speaker:
Last edited by sbeishline; 11-16-2019 at 11:09 PM.
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All is complete and assembled. She’s ready and waiting to play some music fueled by the Quilter 101R slated to arrived on Tuesday. Here it is in the final state:
Thanks for all the dialogue and recommendations- turned out great. Hopefully it’ll sound as good as it looks. From an active posting standpoint, aside from banter, I shall call this thread retired.
See y’all next door for the continuation and optimistically, finalized Archtop!
Thx!
Sam
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Very nicely done, Sam. You really dodged a bullet with that tolex.
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That's a beautiful cabinet. Enjoy it.
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Congratulations! Well done!
Thanks for a great build thread with so many great pics.
ENJOY!
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Couldn't help one more! Here's after I sewed on the Eminence tag plate and the Quilter arrived. I only had a few minutes to noodle, but this thing puts out some incredible sounds!
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Here’s a clip of my dad playing through the new gear on Thanksgiving:
Elias Prinz -- young talent from Munich
Yesterday, 10:24 PM in The Players