stevie

I've been looking into this issue myself lately. As £250 for a standalone module is out of the question, I've been looking at software solutions, as I have a spare Windows laptop and a quality USB sound card. My research so far is pointing me towards Native Instruments software. There's a free version called Komplete Start and you can download over 2,000 sounds for it - free. I've downloaded the software but not installed anything yet. Perhaps someone has used it and could comment.

Finally.... grilles. These were always a bit of a problem. But now we have several options. First, I bought a sheet of expanded metal and cut my own to size. It took a lot of experimentation and some hardware purchases to figure out how to do it properly. That's the one that funkle has, and you'll no doubt see it very shortly in his build thread. It's primed lightly with zinc primer and painted with Plastikote. I have enough of the expanded metal to make a few more. So if you're interested in one of these, let me know and I can include one with your kit. Luke brought the other options to my attention. There is an Ebay seller who will cut punched metal to size and send it through the post. He offers mild steel and aluminium. I decided to get an aluminium one for £15. Now, the problem with aluminium is that it won't take normal paint directly; you have to use an etch primer. That adds about £10 to the cost. So you're looking at around £30 for an aluminium grille. For some, the weight saving will be worth it. Others might like to go for the mild steel alternative. The mild steel one costs £8.95, and you can paint it directly with Plastikote or similar spray paint. The German discounters regularly sell an equivalent for around £2.99 a can, and it's not bad. These paints do a fairly good imitation of powder coating and are quite tough in practice. Anyway, here's a photo of the aluminium grille on my cab. The white coating is a protective film which I've not yet removed as I've not got around to painting it yet. The photo of the grey paint on the wood is probably the best one I took. That's more or less how it actually looks.

Here's a comparison of my new grey cab with my previous black one - both painted with Tuff Cab. It's actually slightly darker grey than this, but that's photos for you.

As you can see, the Euro Car Parts plastic primer worked a treat on the port. Two coats - so I have plenty left. Shame I got some Tuff Cab over it but I'll fix that later. The baffle took three coats of Tuff Cab applied thinly with a brush. I used some of the Everbuild wood filler to fill in dents, etc. and highly recommend it. You can even use if over the Tuff Cab paint if necessary. I wanted a dark grey cab this time, but as Blue Aran didn't have any of the new 'pro' paint in stock in dark grey, I decided to order a litre of black and a litre of white. As luck would have it, a 50/50 mix gives you a nice dark grey, which makes mixing fairly easy. I used a 1-litre yogurt pot to create my custom colour. You have to use a spoon, by the way. The stuff won't pour.🤨 Should anyone want to make a custom colour, there are a few ways of doing it. You can add some normal domestic acrylic paint or undercoat - I tried that and it works fine. Or you can get some pigment from your local art shop and mix it in. The new 'pro' paint doesn't seem very matt to me, although it is slightly less shiny that the original Tuff Cab. It also seems to take longer to dry, but that could be my imagination. I applied one coat with a 2" brush all over while I was painting the baffle and left it to dry. I then tackled one panel at a time, applying a thick coat with the brush all over the panel and then working it in with the foam roller. It only took light pressure with the roller to spread it evenly and create the 'spattered' pattern. There's no need to press hard. I applied two thick, rollered coats and reckon that will probably do. So, three coats in total. A handy tip when painting is to drill the holes for the cabinet feet (make sure you leave space for the corners). I know I should have photographed this, but please bear with me. Start painting with the cab upside down. Paint the bottom and just over the edges of the bottom. Then insert the screws. You can now turn the cab over and paint the rest of the cab without waiting for the bottom to dry. Just turn the cab round by grabbing the inside of the cab through the driver hole. When the paint takes two hours to dry, you'll be glad you did this. Here's a photo of the top of the cab - not quite dry yet.

Really hard. I took that photo in artificial light with a flash. It looks much better in real life than here. It needs a photo in daylight, which I'll try to do tomorrow.

My paint finally arrived! Unfortunately, I only managed to get back into my workshop yesterday to start painting. But here we are:

The next one will be a doddle!😀

Stew, applying the paint is probably the easiest part of building the cab - and probably the most satisfying apart from plugging in and listening to it. If you're concerned, just practice on a piece of scrap wood. A one-litre pot of Tuff Cab contains enough to paint two cabs - so you'll have enough to practice with until you're ready.

You can get rid of the visible plywood layers by applying a couple of extra layers of paint with a small brush and sanding them back. Then go over with the roller. But I see you've progressed past that stage now.....🙂

I have the new "pro" Tuff Cab. I'll be applying it when I revisit the original thread later this week to carry on from where I left off. It seems that funkle has now overtaken me..... I've used the original stuff and will compare the ease of use and finish. Everyone seems to have a different technique for applying this paint. I used a brush to put a couple of coats on the edges and the gaps. Then I applied two coats with the foam roller. That's it really.

I suspect 8.4V is enough for most purposes. I wonder if the rechargeable lithium batteries last longer than non- rechargeable alkalines. It wouldn't surprise me.

I suppose that just highlights the problems of buying and making in small quantities.

This is the kind of roller sleeve you need for a stippled finish. I've seen them in DIY stores but I can't remember which particular ones. https://www.trade1st.co.uk/texture-stipple-mini-paint-roller-4-inch

You used to be able to correct your spelling mistakes in pms, as in the main forum, but this is no longer possible. Could this option be provided at some future time? Thanks!

I gouged a line along the side of the cab. It was a prototype anyway and I just made good with wood filler. Unless you're using those big plastic corners, you only need to round the edges off slightly

That's a very good point.

If you're a pro woodworker, use a router. However, I tried it with my router and made a complete mess of it. Honestly, it's really easy to round off the edges using sandpaper.

You can also sand the corners by hand using some 40-grit sandpaper followed by something finer. An orbital sander is nice, of course, but it's not absolutely necessary. Blue Aran say that Tuff Cab doesn't cover filler very well but that's not been my experience. I also found, unlike Chienmortbb, that it doesn't adhere well to PVA glue. So, experiment first. This kit has been machined to quite tight tolerances. So there shouldn't be any gaps. I think it's OK if the joins show, as long as they're even.

If you find your clamps have left a depression in the wood, you can usually fix it by wetting the depression slightly. That will cause the wood to expand back into shape.

Yes, I see what happened now. You can fit it either way. The cutout was designed to allow the vertical brace on the baffle to mate with the top panel without the circular brace getting in the way. But I then decided to shorten the front panel brace so that it would fit under the handle reinforcement brace instead. So either way round is OK. I suspect that's probably too much information for most folk.🙂

And remember....... you can never have too many clamps.😀

It's worth pointing out that I'll be changing the hole size in the next batch of cabinets to make fitting the handle much easier. While the bolts and T-nuts in Pete's cab are totally bombproof, they're overkill. So the holes will be sized to take 5.0 X 30mm woodscrews, which are listed in the Parts List.

I had the same problem when I tried to cut the tube with a chopsaw - it shattered when I'd nearly finished the cut. It was fine with my normal saw, which is probably blunt anyway..... Pete's tip about marking the cut all the way round is a good one. If you try to judge it by eye you'll end up with two parallel cuts at the end.

Same applies to bass guitar cabs - but don't tell anybody.

Sorry, KiOgon, you're quite right. The rating is actually .18A. My mistake.