Altec 604 cabinet design considerations

[VolvoHeretic]

Thanks GM, I don't know what's wrong with photobucket, the login window is totally missing.

Is this what you are talking about with the 30 and 60 degree flares? I like the ideal of dowel pins and clamps.

604-8G Speaker Mounting-3.jpg

[GM]

Thank you!

GM

[rogerh113]

So basically you are using the dowels as alignment pins, and the clamps secure the speaker to the back of the baffle. Willing to reveal your preferred clamp??

regards -- Roger

[bowtie427ss]

Willing to reveal your preferred clamp??

Modified JBL MA-15.

For clamping the rear of the rim you need to grind off that little lip that is intended to "catch" the rim edge from the front.

[Altec Best]

Thanks GM, I don't know what's wrong with photobucket, the login window is totally missing.

Its your browser... Google Chrome ? I use Opera 36 and photobucket works fine for me..

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at 50$ a sheet you can have all the BB you want.
aside from the wood grain and the exotic name, I don't see any great benefits over OSB.
I have no use for mdf especially here in florida where it starts expanding as soon as it leaves the air conditioned store.

OK yeah don't know why I thought you were using MDF... But even still OSB is a compressed wood chip Ply.. By its nature will have voids in it..Even at $50 sheet why wouldnt you use the best thing available... Most folks will only ever build cabs once twice,three times in their lifetime so...

the flooring material sold in florida is guaranteed not to go to crap when it gets rained on.

It has a thin wax coating that allows it to get wet once ! After that the wax wears off and disappears..

[GM]

Willing to reveal your preferred clamp??

That's what BB, etc., ply and hardwood scraps are for if one has a modest woodworking shop.

Large 'Curb Queen', etc., used or God forbid ; new retail, conduit clamps works too. They use to sell fancy milled alum. block ones at the local MI Emporium like JBL championed, but can't find them in a quick search. You can also make heavy duty versions of simple speaker grill retainers: Penn-Elcom G0780KIT Large Speaker Grill Clamp Kit

GM

[Elitopus1]

So what are the benefits of using clamps versus screws and t-nuts? I notice that many of the big JBL's use clamps. All the Altecs I have seen use t-nuts and screws.

[GM]

For me it was cosmetics with my bartering builds and after I got 'deep' into helping garage, frat house, roving dinner bands, wanted a 'lazy' man's way to swap out drivers as well as keeping folks from over tightening them.

In short, all one needs to justify it is to have a screw or two drop down in an A7 with close mesh screen over the vent to limit retrieval while the frat's off campus party is in 'full tilt boogy'/'God's own drunk' mode.

GM

[VolvoHeretic]

I would still use screw-in epoxied inserts to secure the clamps. There's a BIG chance of blowing out the edge of the chamfered speaker opening with the insert's corner only 1/8" away using them at the speaker bolt pattern location. I would also find or make out of bolts, a 1/4" steel dowel and screw them into epoxy filled holes to locate the speaker. I will draw another picture tonight when I get home.

[GM]

Huh?! I agree that an insert is a good plan or even a T-nut, but the clamp's hinge point is well away from the driver, so baffle thickness at this point. My dowels are threaded rod just screwed in the wood with a bit of PL400 on the threads.

GM

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Its your browser... Google Chrome ? I use Opera 36 and photobucket works fine for me..

But even still OSB is a compressed wood chip Ply.. By its nature will have voids in it..


It has a thin wax coating that allows it to get wet once ! After that the wax wears off and disappears..

Forgot about you telling me about Opera......gotta try it if I can ever get the time to screw around with computers.

Hmm, the OSB sheathing they used to fix my roof decking didn't have any visible voids, just what looked like a baked glue/sawdust filler where a void would otherwise be.

WRT waterproofing though, I laid some long strips of scrap to make a temporary walkway across my rotted deck and after a few rains it had mostly turned to mush, so long gone to the landfill now.

GM