From TalkBass Wiki
Warning: my woodworking skills are barely passable, and my soldering skills as bad.
I think that the thing that makes my cabinet unique is that I put vinyl (tolex) on it, in ostrich skin. It looks quite presentable.
This cabinet does not use the handles that are recommended: it has only a single strap on one side. At a bit over 40 lbs (and with the strap centered for balance), it is pretty manageable like this.
[edit] Finished Cab
She shore is purty.
You can call me chip (bracing, drilling no longer necessary):
Crossover:
All glued together:
Sans baffle:
Mostly done, looking through the woofer cutout:
A knife, straight edge, and glue. I bought the glue at Home Despot.
First, we need to cut out the vinyl. That's mostly a matter of doing a lot of test-fitting, grumbling, and scratching your head. Below, I show the piece that is going to be glued up
Once the piece is where you want it, there's a trick to cutting edges that butt together: cut through both layers. Lay one on top of the other, and cut through both. I use a sheet of plywood as my straight edge; it holds the material well with a minimum of fiddling.
The glue goes on both surfaces, the wood an the tolex.
Remember that the tolex stretches! Even though these edges aren't perfectly matched, I can press and prod things into place, and then tape them. I'm using blue masking tape, because it will release when you need to remove it later. I would not recommend anything else.
This is an example of cutting through two layers-- there was a thin sliver that didn't match up.
Tape is your friend. This stuff didn't seem to stick for a while, so the tape was mandatory. I think it didn't stick so great because of the cloth backing.
[edit] Balance
The trick to centering the handle (assuming that you're not using some CAD program that can automatically calculate this for you) is to use some form of cylinder. I used a rolling pin.
The balance occurs along 2 axes, so you will need to do this twice.
[edit] What I did
I put all the parts on the cabinet (speakers, x-over, etc.), and then balanced it on top of a rolling pin.
Basically, just balance the cabinet on top of the pin, and when it is balanced, mark where the center of the pin is. That is the balance point of the axis. Repeat for the other axis.
back to fEARful
