The Mystiques - Build Thread

[Kevin K.]

Great job at overcoming the design obstacles and arriving at a very cool shape.These are very unique and will sound excellent.

Thanks Randy!

[Kevin K.]

Round 4: Sorry for the delay guys, had a little trouble with the latest update to the Forum software. This last weekend's progress. Baffles are cut and the process of gluing all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together has started.

Front and rear of the Baffles:



Wanted a sneak peak of how the drivers and port would look together:



Baffle attached to the cabinet. Starting to look like the real deal now.



A quick tip. Other than it's obvious uses (floor wax, wood polish), Johnson's wax makes a great release agent to prevent glue or epoxy from sticking to cauls, apply a couple of coats and you're good to go. Works great on clamps too. Nothing sticks to this stuff.



Couple of more tips. Ever tried clamping curved surfaces only to have your clamps squirt off as you apply pressure? Cut some pieces of 60 grit sandpaper, fold them with the grit out and the clamps have something to bite with afterwards. Second tip in this photo, when using epoxy to glue up a cabinet, wipe off the excess on the outside with a paper towel soaked in acetone or lacquer thinner. The epoxy sands at a different rate than the MDF and it's easy to cut grooves in the MDF if you're not careful. Not much sanding required this way.

[Kevin K.]

Last picture from this weekends progress. Epoxied the braces, sidewalls and rear baffle together. Next step will be cutting the 3/4" Sonic Barrier damping for the top, bottom, and rear of the cabinet.



Tracking number shows the Carbon Fiber will land today, super stoked about that!

[wogg]

These are going to be freakin' gorgeous.* Excellent work as always Kevin.

Also... your tips are super!

[Kevin K.]

Thank you Sir, hope you find some of the tips useful someday.

[Kevin K.]

Guess what just showed up....yep, my mouth is drooling. At first I was like "What the ......, scratches all over this stuff. Don't tell me I just paid $200 bucks for this!" Then I saw the little sticker in the corner, "Peel back the protective coating", sigh...



Trust me, the camera on this phone is doing this stuff no justice, it looks freakin awesome!



The sheen on this stuff is crazy too. Check out the reflection of the woofer in the next pic.



I'm STOKED! Can't wait to get the cabinets painted and this stuff installed!

[KEtheredge87]

Holy Carbon Fiber, Batman! I love this look!!!
Takes me back to my grad school days making hand-layup uni-directional carbon fiber panels

[Kevin K.]

Sorry fellas, I'm running a little behind on posting this last update. Left off needing to get the 3/4" Sonic Barrier damping cut for the cabs. Since none of the pieces for this cabinet were straight, I cut templates out of 1/8" tempered hardboard



The best way I've found to cut this damping material is on a bandsaw with a 14 tooth blade. Whether it's straight cuts or angled (the piece in the next pic has two sides cut at 20 degrees), it cuts very clean on the bandsaw. A hot knife works pretty well also but you have to deal with the smoke coming from the burnt foam.



I like the hollow punches for the opening around the binding post. Used a 5/8" punch which leaves me just enough room for the socket to tighten the binding post nuts.



Ready to move forward with gluing the remainder of the cabinet together now.

[Kevin K.]

If you've been following along, you'll remember the tear out issue I had on the tops due to cutting them to a razor edge. Next couple of pics will demonstrate how they were repaired. The first pic shows the tear out that need the fix.



Made a patch paste using the same epoxy resin I've glued the cabinets together with. Added a product called Cab-O-Sil until it reached a peanut butter consistency. The Cab-O-Sil is a fumed silica thickener that can be mixed into an epoxy to help in applying it to vertical surfaces. A word of caution though, it's bad news stuff if you breath it into your lungs. This stuff is very fine and can become airborne with just the slightest motion. Wear a dust mask at minimum, respirator would be best.



Pic after applying the patch paste.



Didn't mix quite enough of the silica into the patch material and was still getting a little sag. Applied a piece of masking tape over it to hold it in place until the next morning. Tape peels right off without a problem afterwards.

[Kevin K.]

This picture is right after sanding the first of several coats of primer required. My preference is the Evercoat G2 polyester primer. Stuff builds well and sands even better. Only drawback is the fact that it is a catalyzed primer. Once you mix it, get it sprayed and out of the gun as quickly as possible. Don't leave it sitting in the gun afterwards or plan on spending the next hour or more cleaning the gun back up.



Front view after the second coat of primer



Side view after the second coat of primer. Everything is starting to cover, no sign of the laminations any more. Three coats may get the job done, I'll have to see how these turn out after sanding this second coat.



This is where I've left off. Purchased the 3M 2216 adhesive, spread a layer of it on the back side of the carbon fiber and used the vacuum bag to press it onto the piece of 1/4" MDF. Sat in the bag overnight. Manufacturers recommendation is 8-12 hours under clamping pressure. Will take a shot at cutting this stuff this evening or tomorrow night. Stay tuned.

[Kevin K.]

Last of the teasers on the Mystique's for a while guys. After this, it'll be time to dig in and catch the other cabinet up. Also need to vacuum press the other Carbon Fiber insert, paint the cabs and then clear coat everything as a whole. The CF isn't standing out very well in these pics. Once the cabinets are painted to match the Ceramic driver, the CF should pop a little more.

Disclosure: All though these photos of the CF look okay, I didn't realize until peeling back the protective tape how lumpy the finish is. It's got a great gloss to it but it's not very flat and as you move around and view it from different angles, you can see the lumps. Sorry, I'm anal about this kind of stuff and that's not gonna work for me so I'll be shooting clear over these panels at the same time I shoot the cabs. After some wet sanding and polishing, it will be flat along with glossy.









Got the paint match done this week. Lady at the paint supply nailed it IMO.

[Kevin K.]

Couldn't resist the temptation to hear one of these so I took a quick stab at the crossover on one of the Mystique's. 3rd order on both drivers crossed at 2.5K. Also tested the tuning this afternoon and this was the closest I've been on any of my builds. Needed a 1/2" adjustment to get it to my target of 37hz. I've got some special company coming by this weekend, Mr. Rick Craig of Selah Audio. He's going to take a listen to what I've concocted here and give me some tips or advise. Looking forward to learning some stuff from one of the Masters.





I suspect there are some phase issues that could be addressed, only seeing about a 6db drop when reversing the tweeter polarity. And it may need a little more baffle step, not sure yet cause it's out in the middle of the room but it sounds pretty thin to me.

[howard]

Beautiful speaker.* Response looks promising!

[tomzarbo]

They look really nice Kevin.* FR too. I forgot, what's the white paint for again?* Oh, never mind, duh... cabinet color. It actually looks pretty sleek in matte black to be honest!* Strange, I don't care for that look on cars, but on these, it looks pretty cool.

Looks amazing!

TomZ
*

[Kevin K.]

Thanks Howard.

Thanks Tom. I'm right there with you, I've never been much of a fan of the hot rod black on cars or trucks but for some reason it does look pretty cool on this cabinet. Maybe it's because it's being complimented by the Carbon Fiber.