Overnight Sensation MT build.

[DIYNut42]

I'm in the process of building a set of OS MT's for a friend of mine.

A while back I ordered an OS flat pack from Erich's site. The quality of the CNC cuts is very good. The cabinets glued up very square and strong, and the quality of the Baltic Birch is great. It's very strong, so I decided against adding any bracing.

I decided to make the back baffle removable, so I added some corner mounting pieces to hold mounting screws.

The baffles will be gloss black, and the sides and top will be stained with a gloss clear coat.

Here are the cabinets fully assembled. So far The sides and top are sanded and ready for stain. I used body filler to fill the edges of the baffle and give them a better round over. The baffles are coated with 2 coats of sanding sealer, and after staining, I will tape off the stained edges and prime and paint them.

I used some egg crate foam on the sides, bottom and top. Making sure to leave clearance for the woofer and the crossovers which will be mounted to the removable back under the port.

[DIYNut42]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

Before finish prepping started, I buttoned one of them up to give it a listen. Just like everyone else who has built them, I was very surprised at how big the sound was, and how low these can dig for such a small speaker.

These flat pack cabinets are great. The woofer hole is just big enough for a little adjustment room if needed, and it already has a nice chamfer on the back.

The tweeter hole needed just a very light sanding on the inner circumference, and the tweeter fits very snug. No need to glue or mount it in any way other than a press-fit mounting.

Since the XO's will be mounted vertically, I used both hot glue, and zip ties to mount each component to the boards. They aren't going anywhere, and there's no wiggle room to risk rattling of any kind.

I will post more about them as the build progresses.

[DIYNut42]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

Finally got these all buttoned up and ready to go. I had to buy a completely new flat pack and start over on the cabinets. My friend that I built them for decided she wanted to go a completely different route with the look of them. It required me to be able to remove the baffle though, which was impossible to do since it was glued on to the original cabinets.

As I mentioned before; I decided to make the rear of the cabinet removable, and also mounted the XO to that panel. I used some rubber spacer rings between the XO board and the rear baffle to put some clearance between the two for the wires and leads on the back of the board.

The XO board has a "flange" at the top where the smaller coil is set. This allowed me to put a little more space between the coils to avoid cross talk.

[DIYNut42]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

Here's where the build gets... different.

My friend is really big into tattoos, and tattoo designs. She found some fabric she really liked, and asked if I could make the front of them look like it. I ordered the fabric to give it a try. After I got my new flat packs, I sprayed some 3M 77 Spray adhesive to the front baffles, and wrapped them in the fabric. The fabric was very dense, and I waited for the adhesive to become tacky, so there was no bleed through.

Then I cut the fabric to size, folded it around the rear edges of the baffle, and used the adhesive to get them to stick as well. I left enough clearance in the rear of the baffle between the fabric and the inner edge to allow the wood glue to have some wood to wood contact. With the fabric folded around the top, bottom, and sides of the baffle, I was able to glue the baffle on and use that connection to hold the fabric edges in place for good.

The top and sides are stained a dark red mahogany. The fabric and stain combo doesn't suit my taste really, but she was very very happy with it. So that's what matters.

She also decided she wanted the woofers to be covered with a speaker grill. I advised against this since it would require me to make a ring to sit around the woofer that might cause some unwanted diffraction issues, but it fell on deaf ears... So I used some 3/8" thick birch to make the rings. I figured it would be thick enough to hold the grill guides, and be sturdy, while not being thick enough to make any really drastic changes to the sound.

The inside of the rings got a healthy chamfer, and the outside is rounded over. I spray painted them flat black, and used the spray adhesive to wrap some PE grill cloth around them. After some listening with and without the grill, the main difference I noticed was some dulling of the vocals off axis when the grills are on them.

Here they are all buttoned up and ready to take to her for her birthday. Oh... and they sound AWESOME! A big thanks to Paul for the design.

[rvsixer]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

Wow . Those are certainly...interesting.

What kind of stain/procedure did you use? On my baltic birch Sunflower build, I am swaying between natural color vs. dark stain. I love the look of natural, but concerned if/how much they would "stand out" watching a movie in a dimly lit HT (especially the CC perched on a black stand/TV), so I am open to staining a darker color.

[DIYNut42]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

I used some Minwax Red Mahogany stain I had on hand. I brushed it on liberaly with a fine bristled brush, let it set for about 10 minutes, then wiped away the excess. I let them dry for a little over a day, then sanded down any burs standing up with some 320 sand paper, then applied two coats of clear poly.

[rvsixer]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

Good info gives me direction, thanks.

[DIYNut42]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

No problem! I forgot to mention that its a good idea to sand to 150 before staining as well. This helps to flatten the grain a little, as well as open the pours on the wood for a more even stain.

[rvsixer]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

I like how the tweeter is one of the skull mouths .

[DIYNut42]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

Haha thanks. I tried to position the fabric in a way that would strike up a conversation when someone saw them. I personally wouldn't use this on a pair of my own speakers, but it was a cool learning experience. Ive never seen or made a baffle covered in fabric before.

[fastbike1]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

Nice job! Glad the 'packs worked out for you.

[DIYNut42]

Re: Overnight Sensation MT build.

Thanks, man. Also, thanks again for helping me out!