Sunflower center build begins - and some questions

[Evan Steeves]

The spacing is intentionally close, yes. I don't think I intended to have the frames touch, though. So if you want to move everything apart 1/8" or 1/4" it will still sound like it should, but might be easier to finish. Totally up to you, though.

My man! thanks for following my thread, and thank you for the great design. My girlfriend and I are real excited to hear the final product!

[Paul Carmody]

The spacing is intentionally close, yes. I don't think I intended to have the frames touch, though. So if you want to move everything apart 1/8" or 1/4" it will still sound like it should, but might be easier to finish. Totally up to you, though.

[Evan Steeves]

some updates!

Last night went to Home Depot and bought the 1/2'' MDF stock for the enclosure. Since you get 3 free cuts, I decided to get my front baffle cut. Guy did a nice job of getting dimensions exact. I then went home and put my old Engineering Drawing kit to use :P amazing what tools will come in handy a few years after graduation :D Dayton drivers and the tweeter are a little tight, no? I get that you want to be as close as possible, just hope the flush mount cut-out portion will cut well. Have barely worked with router so far. The router I got has variable speed - should I be setting it faster or slower for clean finishing on MDF?








Looks like this will be a NICE fit under my TV, between my two Amigas :D





On a more exciting note, I decided I'd buy a router kit. My dad had a fixed router and I figured it was not sufficient for making nice holes with flush mounting speakers. I found great reviews on this one and on top of it, Lowes has it on sale, plus an additional 5% off sale! So I ordered it online from them;

https://www.lowes.ca/products/view.aspx?sku=9623272

Also ordered the Jasper 400 circle jig, and a carbide onsrud straight upcut bit from Lee Valley last week. I should be all set to go now!

My friend, who owns a gear cutting shop with his bro/dad, offered for us to go one weekend day and do the work there, as it is winter here and I have a condo. Hopefully I will get time in the next two weekends to get it done!

[Evan Steeves]

could have been a spec of dust in the gap?

Quite possibly; the first thing I did was blow on the speaker cone and behind it, in case there was anything in there. No sound after, not sure if my blowint on it had anything to do with that. Just hope it isn't compromised. these are pricey drivers in Canada lol, like $40 each

[ontariomaximus]

could have been a spec of dust in the gap?

[Evan Steeves]

well, last night I did some crossover clean-up, finished up the soldering and hot glueing of all wires/components and re-tested to ensure everything works. Forgot to snap a pic of the finished crossover, but doesn't look much different besides the use of some terminal blocks.

Now, I have to figure out a way to cut the front baffle, since I do not have a garage. My dad has one (lives an hour North of me) but not heated so will be COOOLD! I did however just order a precision circle jig from Lee Valley, as well as a spiral up-cut router bit to add to my (small) collection of router bits. So, I may get all the box pieces cut before hand at the local Home Depot, then if it is warmer one day I'll plan to go to my dad's and get the holes cut for the speakers on the front baffle :D

One of the Dayton speakers was making funny noise when I first hooked it up, like the coil was scrapped (have heard this before) but after like 30 seconds of playing, it went away. Had 'Mission impossible' on to get different frequencies to it for testing, and played it relatively loud after that, and the sound did not return...weird.

[Evan Steeves]

Ok, you could use your calibration feature on your HT receiver. It should tell you if your speaker is small or large.

aah, yes, that is what I will be doing after the build is done. But didn't realize it would also tell me if speaker should be small or large...I figured it just detected the distance and then calibrated the decibels accordingly, as it did when I set up the Amiga towers (those can only be large - no option for small). thanks for the info!

[Jeff F.]

Ok, you could use your calibration feature on your HT receiver. It should tell you if your speaker is small or large.

[Evan Steeves]

Here was my testing setup fun :P

[Evan Steeves]

Sweet! Glad that was it. Maybe small for now, large if you keep the volume down. Are you wanting to break them in before installing them in the cabinet?

well no, the initial idea is that I want to ensure crossover is functional before making final solder and connections and hot glueing down connection. That should take me 1-2 evenings this week to get done. then I will be ready to build the enclosure, although it is winter here and I generally work outside at my dad's to cut wood so not sure how I will manage but I am sure I will figure something out :P The small vs large was just for my future reference.

[Jeff F.]

Sweet! Glad that was it. Maybe small for now, large if you keep the volume down. Are you wanting to break them in before installing them in the cabinet?

[Evan Steeves]

Did you scrape off the coating on your inductors where they are twisted together?

Looks like this was the issue!!! What a brain frat! Thank you Jeff for the response. Al four speakers and tweeter are now working. Will be soldering everything cleanly now that I know my config is right.

Btw, just out of curiosity, what would I set my center Chanel to on my Yamaha for the time being - large or small?

[Evan Steeves]

Did you scrape off the coating on your inductors where they are twisted together?

You know what - I though about it but did not since the tweeter side works perfectly which is why I find it weird. I guess I will try that when I get home. Any other ideas? Does the crossover look okay? I am quite literate in electrical and dont see any issues but sometimes when looking too close we miss things.

[Jeff F.]

Did you scrape off the coating on your inductors where they are twisted together?

[Evan Steeves]

Do you have the woofers wired in series.

Yes, outside woofers, negative of first woofer to positive of second woofer. Same with inside woofer