stevie

Lovely photo, Luke.

Here's an article on wood joint strength:https://woodgears.ca/joint_strength/glue_methods.html What I took away from this is that you should not apply excessive force to a joint when gluing but you should apply glue to all mating surfaces.

It's REALLY important that you do a dry fit before you do anything else. That way, you can be sure that you have all the parts and that they fit. The rebates on this batch seem to be a bit tighter than on funkle's first one. However, I've measured them and they aren't undersized. If you feel that any of the panels are a bit tight in the rebates, take a piece of 40-grit sandpaper (which you'll need later to round off the corners of the cab) and rub it along the edges of the rebate a few times - then round off the corners of the mating panel slightly.

RichardH, who produced the fantastic drawings and diagrams on page 1 of this thread, has stepped forward and produced a really neat pictorial wiring diagram that will make wiring up very easy. I'll get it onto page 1 eventually, but here it is for reference. I just love the community spirit here.

Personally, I'd glue it with some Copydex and treat myself to a few beers with the money I'd saved. Seriously, unless there's a piece of cone missing, just glue it back together.

Nice job, Stub.

I have to wonder what progress has actually been made in bass guitar cab design since the 1960s. A modern design might split the drive units into two separate cabs - not that that will necessarily make much difference - but apart from that, this is typical of what's on the market today - a fifteen and two tens in an undamped ported cab. At least the Marshall has a bit of bracing.😀

I have a few things to point out before people start building, but then it will be up to the builders to ask questions as they go. One thing I do remember is that you asked for a pictorial wiring diagram, Pete, which I'll post before everyone starts wiring their cabs up. One cab kit has been collected so far, and I hope to send two out today.

pm'd

Maybe we should just keep it all in this thread in that case. When Pete was building his cab, we were in touch regularly by pm; we reached page seven in the end. Quite a lot of the information that was exchanged will be useful to other builders.

My experience with Plastikote goes back to a time when I was involved in speaker cab manufacturing. Grilles for all the models were normally powder coated. However, when we needed to produce a small batch of grilles in a hurry, we used to paint them with Hammerite or Plastikote black spray paint, which at the time were pretty much the same. Their formulations may have changed since then, and the Hammerite spray is now a lot more expensive, but the end result was indistinguishable from powder coating. That was painting straight onto bare mild steel. When I tried the Baufix spray on the Tuff Cab coating as I described earlier, it initially softened the paint, but then hardened up after a day or two. So I reckon that the Plastikote clear acrylic matt spray would be ideal but haven't tried it myself.

Sounds like a good idea to me. However, it would be good if we could have a private message thread where all current builders could ask for advice without boring the pants off the entire Basschat population. I think there is a maximum number of participants in any pm conversation, isn't there?

I tried out the clear matt spray and it worked fine. It takes the sheen off without changing the colour. I reckon the Plastikote one would be even better, as that's an acrylic paint, the same as the Tuff Cab.

Update: I now have all the cab kits and they look lovely! The Celestion compression drivers will be with me on Friday, by which time I should have some of the crossovers ready. Anyone wanting to collect is welcome to do so at the weekend. I'm going to start sending boxes of goodies out next Monday. It'll take me a few days to pack everybody's orders up. I just hope the local supermarkets and stores have enough spare cardboard boxes.

I really like the SM212 as well, but you save a couple of kgs with the Faital for not much more money. The Celestion 12 is another nicely designed speaker. It doesn't handle as much power as the first two but is cheaper and definitely a good choice.

Hi Hashmash, I'm organising two batches of ten cab kits. The first ten are all taken and are about to be delivered to their builders. The second batch will be available around the end of October. Some of these have already been reserved but there are still some left. If you'd like one, just send me a pm and I'll put you on the list. Stevie

Everyone on the waiting list for the first batch of cabs should now have received a pm from me with all the info re. payment and delivery. If you haven't received one, please let me know.

Sorted now. I think it's just necessary to wait for a while after you've sent eight near-identical messages.

Plenty, Aidan. A cab uses about half a litre, although you can apply more if you like.

The cabs kits have been machined and I plan to collect them early next week. Crossovers underway....

Yes, it's really neat!

I've sent eight messages to Basschatters with the same header. I need to send another two but I now see the message "XXX cannot receive messages" and cannot send any more. I assume this is some kind of spam/flood control in operation. What to do? Stevie

I've just uploaded a new Parts list with info on the grilles. Unfortunately, I've also noticed that tinypic has gone out of business, which means that we've lost lots of the photos from this thread. I'll try to upload the assembly photos as soon as I can, as I'm sure some people will want to refer to them during their builds.

I'm not sure steel wool is a great idea. As Luke says, a roughed-up surface is likely to attract dirt. I've been using gloss black paint on my grilles and then flattening the finish with clear lacquer. It's invisible, provides extra protection and takes away the shine to leave a satin matt finish. I used it on the grille I sent to funkle. This is the kind of thing: <https://www.toolstation.com/plastikote-quick-dry-clear-lacquer-spray-paint/p56142> - although there are lots of other companies making a similar thing. I used a Baufix satin lacquer from Lidl and have a bit left in the can. I'll try it out on the bottom of my cab and let you know how it works. The new 'pro' Tuff Cab is less shiny than the original stuff, but it's definitely not matt.

OK, everyone who has a kit on order should receive a pm about payment today.