Altec 816 build.. Many pics.

This is my first "proper" build, really taken my time with it so far and enjoyed it immensely! Its all 13lam birch with 8mm rebates and the curved sections are 4 layers of 3mm birch.

Always do the hardest bit first, cutting out the horn formers using a large radius-ing jig...


Then trimming the edges using a temporarily screwed on bit of wood with a straight edge and an edge trimmer bit in the router. Before...



And after....


Final cut...



Hooray! perfectly square and true horn former. .. At this point i made 6 copies by rough cutting with a jigsaw, temporarily screwing onto the "master" copy and then trimming back with the edge trimming bit again. This left me with the original to be used again if i make a second box.


No pics of making the basic panels and rebates im afraid! Heres the rough box slotted together..


Screwed, glued and with handles routed...


Handle boxes in...


Curved sections in: not happy with the method we used for these as it takes to damn long doing them one at a time with external clamps and the only way i could get it clamped was a huge effort. Going to build a proper jig for making these if i make another as despite the extra wood and work building it im sure it would work out much easier overall.



Fixings for the removable baffle (a design addition so that i can test multiple drivers and see what works. This can still be finally glued and screwed in if/when i settle on the driver.)


From behind..


Close up of the inside of the horn..


Putting the lip in to hold the back panel...



Thats it for now. I still need to fill, sand, roundover, sort the back panel bolts out and most importantly aquire a driver and route the baffle :P Looking forward to hearing it speak.

Wanting to use some kind of natural varnish finish on this that shows the grain and woodwork, does anybody know where to look/ whats worth trying?

Alf

nice, I hear 16 of these. they were horrible.

djstefanos wrote: nice, I hear 16 of these. they were horrible.

You mean you heard a pile of SIXTEEN of these? I think that sorta explains itself as there is simple no way on earth to properly array 16 of these boxes. Your pretty much limited to 2 a side in vertical MTM configuration.  Do you know what else was running with em? hehe.

Alf

" Lab horns.

The sound engineers don't know jack s*** about sound."

Ahh yeah that lot, thats one of the ways you definitly shouldent be arraying that box!... it looks from that photo as if they actually built them as double units? Is that right or have they just put the 4 in place then attached one massive bit of grill to em?

james folkes wrote: superb work alfie, those look very tidy. i shall get those gauss 4583s up to you asap so you can start making noise with them! is 18mm enough internal clearance for the handles? i've been thinking of doing some handle back boxes like this but was worried that it would be a bit cramped inside... oh yeah, your batteries are on the way too, i have secured something in the region of 500 Ah at 12 volts of deep cycle sealed lead acid joy. oh yes... james.

:P ello there james! hope ya doing alright. I sent you an email a while ago saying i could get a lift down to your place at some point for the gauss units. If thats easier for you then let me know. Nice one on the batteries, swamped in goodies I be!

The local "ergonomics research department", which is me, matty, rob, some sheathing ply and a jigsaw, thinks that 18mm depth is fine for the kind of handle where your wrist is going to be at 90' to the hole with only the first two knuckles actually inside. If you want to be able to do a vertical lift with the box resting on your lower hand and thumb it would be too tight. Im pretty sure we will do any high lifts holding the corners of the box with this one so its ok.

Beautiful build.

mykey wrote: Cab builders, take note! this is how to build a cab   Alf, you should have used undilited PVA for around the handle box's,  it dries transparent and doesn't look like you've ran out of bog paper

haha yeah that shade of filler is a little tinnnnnnny bit off putting. Its sanded down now and looks a lot better. You reckon PVA would seal that up well enough? I was leaning towards trying some silicone sealant next time. Its probably not really necessary as the joints alright but it would be enough of a PITA to fix it later that the belt and braces approach seems sensible!

Thanks for the kudos mykey, and you too rog! Its high praise indeed coming from you two:P