fEarful 15/6/1 build diary... all comments, feedback, comradery welcome.

So... bought a fEarful 15/15/6/6 cab on craigslist and really like it. I have a stereo setup for my bass - so wanted to scavenge the speakers and build two 15/6/1 cabs to house them. Hope you find something amusing or useful here!

here's a shot of the cab I bought...


here are the speakers:


was going to go the flat pack rout... but my local spot had lovely 5' x 5' sheets of 3/4 12 ply baltic birch with some mild figure... so couldn't pass that up.

here's a shot of one of the panels. as with all things I do... I do it the hard way... slow going using a router to put a 3/4" dado the length of the sheet... then follow with a jig saw, then clean up both edges with a router. does leave a nice clean straight cut.


few more closeups of the panels...

placed an order for all the parts for some crossovers... I've got some lovely black fiberglass 6x8" 2 ounce copper clad so... gonna etch my own pcbs. Will have to make up a layout over the next few weeks.

since I'm using 3/4... and since I plan to do all dado/rabbet joints... I made up a little plan for my panels and how to get them out of a 5x5 sheet:


I plan to do a 1 1/4" flamed maple frame at the front... so I've reminded myself here in parenthesis to cut the sides/top/bot 1" short. Taking into consideration the actual 11/16 thickness of the baltic birch... planning to use 3/4" x 1.5" hardwood stock for the supports... and keeping the sm volume inside the box... I'll come out with a box that is 1/2" wider and taller than the original. will gain an extra 1/16" on all sides inside for volume, but will lose 3/16" at the shelf for thickness... and of course the supports. since I'm not seeing at least one odd dimensions on the original plan I guestimate it should be a "close 'nuff" afa volume.

few more shots of the sheets...


these sheets are clear coated and originally was thinking it'd be great to save me time... but now I can't help but think how cool it would be to sand them down and do some contrast dye/sandback to really bring out the figure... esp since the clear coat is not durable at all. that's ok... save me from myself and a shyte load of work!

 

well thanks for the response. Was looking at the crossovers this morning... thinking about what kind of connectors I want to use and what type of pcb standoffs might be worthwhile. Anywho... long way to go so plenty of time to think it thru.

 

thank you for the reply.
mids are 18sound 6ND410 -yes was planning on using them. the 15/6/1 tube layout lists either and the schem for cbg crossover lists the nd specifically... do the NM use diff values there? just hope speakerhardware.com sends me those values! (I'm sure they will but am thinking I might want to shoot an email)

thank you re the wood. I'm doing "bug eye's" for grills so I can show off more of the wood. as mentioned I'm doing 3/8" dado joints everywhere and plan to do a 3/8" chamfer at the edges so that will be the only place the plys are visible... I intend to clear my front frame, tape everything off, and do the chamfer... then use black dye on just the chamfer for a nice detail.

 

thanks, I hope so! I have some maple/walnut rack cases w sm motif so it'll be nice if it matches somewhat.

idk if he(leland) normally sends the exact values from the fEarful site schem... but I shot an email off just to ask - thanks for the heads up.

 

well... it s/b 1.37 times the weight. so if a typical 15/6 tube cab weighs 52lbs (according to greenboy) this should weigh somewhere around 71lbs. That will still be lighter than the gk 410 I have now.
That said... If I wanted a rig to play out I would buy one - I sure wouldn't put the effort in to building it just to have it get all mashed up at shows.

 

thanks for the reply! well, I'm really going to be under powering it with just 60 watts per side tube... so I'm guessing that will barely be breaking a sweat for it... but plenty loud in a 12x14 room! If it sounds anything like the 15/15/6/6 I'm gonna love it!

thank you sir! I hope so! At the least it's going to be a fun build and def prettier than the typical speaker boxes anyway!

 

so got some work done this week despite surgery for a cracked tooth on friday... I'll spare you those gory details but was avoiding the pain meds so I could work with power tools... you know... like a MAN!
anywho, got my pile of sides cut up:


got some roxel safe n sound while I was at the hardware store...


and some polyfil, some handles... other misc crap...

decided it'd be smart to do a template for my speaker cutouts since it would help prevent more scratches... so I spent $8 on a 3/4 x 24 x 24 and did a 1/2" rabbet in it, then followed with my jigsaw...

then cleaned it up with a pattern bit...

unfortunately the 2 7/8" radius called for by the mids is going to require some ingenuity since the pilot hole would be right at my base... may have to just drive a nail into the template and drill a hole in the circle jig.

that's all I got few now!

 

well that's a solid idea... but I already cut it last night. I just drilled through the bottom of the piece into the circle template. The screw bottomed out at the router base, but was plenty to hold it while the router cut the channel.
again, good idea tho... something to keep in mind for future use.
thank you re nice going.

 

right on. I've actually looked at a number of them and considered it... but I rarely build speaker cabs and they only go out to some 20".
I do reg use the diy circle jig for radius top guitars... but was thinking that the next time I do that, I'll just do a bunch of different arcs and save them for later.

 

laid out all my rabits/dados/grooves...

and commenced to cuttin'.

 

right on... thank you for the reply.
I could totally run the router on top of my straight edge and use a bearing... but you still have to make sure the straight edge is aligned exactly where you want it. Also, that means I have to be more careful of my clamp placement as the router will run into them... and I find it's just easier to be able to see the edges of the actual bit right on the piece. Also as you mentioned... you have to use a shallow bit, and this bit happens to be exactly 3/4"(perfect dado size)... but is 2" long so... making due with what I got. The edge of the bit is exactly 3.5" from the edge of the plexi so... pretty easy to align.
the plexi... I've got a number of dif plexi bases I've made... this one is lexan. The angles are just because I rotated the plastic to get more width because I use this to to headstock angles and my jig for that has a wide opening. so rotated the plastic but then had these big corners that were getting in the way so cut em off.
as it were... I just bought a chunk of 1/2 plexi and will be replacing this one... it bends too easily.
I like a big plexi base because I do a lot of thinline guitars and the plexi keeps all the debri in the cavity and lets me see what i'm doing. also, with a circular base... sometimes you get a little inconsistency from the fact that the router might not be tightened in the exact parallel spot... so rotating a circular base will give you a different cut.
sorry for rambling!