Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

[WesL]

Started off innocent enough as a box on the front porch greeting me when I got home from work. Started March 22, put in lots of hours to get to today. Whew. Learned a lot about my skill limitations and how to ignore them. :D

Thank you so very much to Paul Carmody for this great design. They sound so good for being set up in the middle of my living room. Easy to listen to, no ear fatigue and no subwoofer needed!

Few things:
-Translam is hard to do. Lots of sanding, lots and lots of sanding. I really need a drum sander table machine thingy.

-As much as I hate painting, veneering isn't any easier. Iron on is ok but its way time consuming and then theres the bubbles after you think its all done.

-Measure twice, heck measure three times and STILL cut too short! Thankfully MDF is cheap.

-Patience is an undervalued virtue when it comes to finishing and veneer work. Does not work as well with slight OCD and PTSD as the brochure promised.

-Always practice routing speaker holes and counter setting on a scrap piece....always. I wasn't about to ruin pricey baltic birch/walnut translam baffles.

-Have a clock in the garage so you can glance at it randomly, looking at your phone and seeing its 1:30am and you have to be to PT at 6am is no bueno.

-Watco Danish oil and Arm-R-Seal makes a low talent hack job look really good.



Again big thanks to Paul for designing so many awesome projects for the community.

Wes

[WesL]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

New Eurekazone track saw and Rip attachment. Porter Cables circular saw dust collection stinks. Made a youtube inspired dust cover for the thing. Worked ok. Woodpeckers box clamps are fantastic.

[WesL]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Cut all the little pieces for the translam, drilled each one for crossbolting in a threaded rod. Lined up great. Made clamp up easier. Still had to sand like a mad man to get the things close to flat. Planned out the baffle so that the rods didn't interfere with holes or bolts.

Somehow managed to mess that last part up but a plug cutter from Woodcraft made a nice almost invisible patch. Hahaha. No pics of that.

[WesL]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Clamped and glued baffle. 80 grit one side and 150 grit the other side on a 2x4 piece of particle board. Connect two long clamps and play rowing machine until flat. Stack kettlebells, car batteries, whatever on top to add weight and speed it up. One of those rubber sand paper cleaning sticks from Rockler kept the sand paper going well past its service life. ha.

Routed baffle. Template for practice, I wasn't about to ruin all that sanding.

[WesL]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Dry fit to make sure I'm on the right track. Really put a fire under the posterior.

4x8 and 2x8 sheets of flat cut walnut from Veneersupplies.com. Came quick and undamaged. Woohoo.

Lots of glue, lots. Half a gallon to be exact. Used a foam roller to put three coats on veneer and box's. Titebond Woodglue.

Testing danish oil or just straight Arm-R-Seal. Went with two coats of danish oil and then a few coats of Arm-R-Seal. Turned out pretty good. Just wiping it all on and trying to be patient for the next coat.

[WesL]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Make sure everything is there. Everything wasnt there. I only ordered enough resistors for one speaker. Doh! Oh well, ordered them and added a Lepai amp to the mix. It was on sale, what was I supposed to do?

Installing the Electratube connectors from Danny over at GR. Too big for my drill press so I made a drill jig and it worked pretty good. A little hairy drilling into finished veneer and not wanting tear out. I really need to get some brad point bits but thats for another project.

I just wanted to try them. I didn't want to have binding posts sticking out the back. These things are going to be moved quite a bit. Still have 3 years left until I get out of the AF so streamlining stuff helps. Got enough for when I build a Class D amp. Install very easy. 7/16 hole, pull wire through, crimp and then solder, shrink wrap end and drive into hole with mallet. Theres a how to on Audiocircle in the GR circle.

[WesL]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Some finishing pics.

2" open cell medium density foam from JoAnns. They always have 50% off foam sales going on. Got three yards and only had a foot left after lining the bass bins. Its funny because when I'd put my head into the box it was like going into the chamber you get your ears tested in. ha.

Got some Button Head socket bolts from Fastenal with nice small washers to attach baffles to the boxes. I really wanted hex head for this build on the baffle. Also makes it easy for later when I make grilles. I'll have something for the neo magnets to stick to. No kids though so grilles will be much later down the road, besides I don't want to cover those baffles up too much. I'm really digging them the more I look at them.

Plenty of gasket material, no air or buzzing coming out of any speakers. Whew.

Learned from years ago making (horribly built) car subwoofer cabinets. Always use long enough wire for speakers.

No eyes or ears were harmed during the making of these speakers. Fingers...well a few cuts and nicks here and there. Cant always wear gloves doing this stuff.

Thanks for looking at my build. I know I like rifling through build pics.

[joeybutts]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Beautiful beautiful beautiful. Very well executed.

[greywarden]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Wow those look great!

[[email protected]]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

I can't seem to spot the hack part. They are very beautiful!

[WesL]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Thanks guys. Really. I'm usually the first to point out flaws but I think I'll just sit back and enjoy these suckers.

Running them off two channels of my Emotiva UPA-5 and with proper signal going to it, these things just deliver. Paul wasn't kidding when he said pants shaking sensation. I am really overjoyed with these. They don't need to be cranked to sound great but its nice to know they can pull it off.

[50 watt head]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Holy cow, those look awesome. Outstanding work!

[martyh]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

That's a project to be proud of for years to come. Congratulations on your work - and on your wise choice of designs!

[lowpolyjoe]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Great build!

[dynamo]

Re: Second speaker build, I give you Paul Carmody's amazing Tarkus

Um..wow.. Those are amazing. Great work! It is projects like this that inspire me to build and do DIY..it's just that mine turn out like crap.. :D