Barefaced cab feet repair/upgrade

[countjodius]

Hey all,

Bought my cab at the start of the year & the original feet fell of after a few weeks of use (delicately placing it in the boot of a car!). I have been sent thicker screws and a few have fallen off again! Just wondering if anyone has any advice on a more permanent fix/upgrade to the cab feet?

Thanks!

[JapanAxe]

1. Paint the insides of the screw holes with white PVA wood glue, diluted 50/50 with water. Allow to dry.
2. Make a paste from fine sawdust and PVA, with just enough glue to bond the sawdust. Pack the holes with the paste, allow to dry thoroughly (preferably overnight).
3. Drill a small pilot hole for the screw.
4. Fit the feet using the screws.

You could also consider repositioning the feet so that they still cover the old holes, in which case omit steps 1 and 2.

Possibly -

5. Coat the tops of the feet and the corresponding surface of the cab with a thin layer of contact adhesive, and allow to go tacky (see instructions).
6. Place feet firmly in position and replace screws.

However, you would need to be sure that there will be no adverse reaction between the adhesive and the black cab finish, so -

7. Talk to Alex!

[BassTractor]

When such happens, I just stick on extra wide self-stick rubber feet, after having equipped the surface of the cab with neoprene glue and having let that glue dry.
It reduces the height/width ratio drastically, which is good, and also removes the need to penetrate the case material.

[geoffbyrne]

I put casters on my big cab by drilling all the way through & using bolts with big washers on the inside. Makes everyting tight & sealed - to make sure you could use silicon on everything before tightening. I'd do feet the same way.

G.

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='geoffbyrne' timestamp='1379847936' post='2217313']
I put casters on my big cab by drilling all the way through & using bolts with big washers on the inside. Makes everyting tight & sealed - to make sure you could use silicon on everything before tightening. I'd do feet the same way.

G.
[/quote]
A Compact doesn't really need casters!

[Beer of the Bass]

Having seen inside a BF cab (albeit a prototype rather than a current production model), you might have difficulty using T-nuts or washers as the cabs have a lot of bracing which doesn't leave much area to install hardware on the inside. I suspect the black coating is a little too textured to be messing around with adhesives or self-stick feet too.

[RandomBass]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1379848158' post='2217320']
A Compact doesn't really need casters!
[/quote]

Actually their weight will help to keep it on the floor if there is a breeze, or when it's shifting serious air

[4-string-thing]

Geoff did point out that he'd do[u] feet [/u]in the same way, of course, this means gaining access to the inside of the cab, but its probably worth the effort!

[discreet]

[quote name='RandomBass' timestamp='1379848997' post='2217336']
Actually their weight will help to keep it on the floor if there is a breeze, or when it's shifting serious air
[/quote]

You could also tie it to an anvil.

[Mr. Foxen]

Thanks to TNT this is my forthcoming Barefaced repair:
[URL=http://s17.photobucket.com/user/Incarante/media/DSCF16rdr97_zps5c7b2d46.jpg.html][IMG]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b69/Incarante/DSCF16rdr97_zps5c7b2d46.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Note that all the braces in the port are disconnected, so can assume all the ones inside are the same. They'll pay out £100 if I'm lucky.

[Salt on your Bass?]

That's outrageous!! Was it not fully insured? They've trashed it through negligence!

[Mr. Foxen]

Insuring stuff to value is really expensive, and they find every excuse not to pay, they full on lost an amp months ago, fully insured and are still finding excuses to not pay out, including impounding and searching every other amp I send since they fit the description of a box with an amp in, this has caused several delays. I have a contracted guy who handles all the BS, so I just have to supply the pics, but chances are they'll pay out £100 for this, after denying they did the damage and it must have been sent like that, because the box wasn't pierced.

[4 Strings]

Ouchee, puts the problem of a foot falling off in context!

For the OP I have unscrewed all mine (16!) and put a dab of undiluted wood glue in each screw hole an screwed them all in. I have not lost one since and they are all as firm as can be.

[countjodius]

Ooft, sorry to hear about your BF damage MR Foxen, hope it get's resolved!

Thanks for all of the tips guys, will give these a try!

[MOSCOWBASS]

[i]shove matchstick(s) in the old screwhole and put back original screw.....worked on my big baby.[/i]

[bigash]

I will be doing this again for the 5th time tomorrow. The last time i done it, wheeled cab out to car, lifted into boot drove to gig, arrived at gig foot gone. need to find a better soulution.
[quote name='MOSCOWBASS' timestamp='1380185078' post='2221869']
[i]shove matchstick(s) in the old screwhole and put back original screw.....worked on my big baby.[/i]
[/quote]

[Protium]

[quote name='countjodius' timestamp='1379845904' post='2217270']
Hey all,

Bought my cab at the start of the year & the original feet fell of after a few weeks of use (delicately placing it in the boot of a car!). I have been sent thicker screws and a few have fallen off again! Just wondering if anyone has any advice on a more permanent fix/upgrade to the cab feet?

Thanks!
[/quote]

I'd send it back to barefaced, tell them to fix it and stop penny pinching on cheap sh*te hardware.

[4 Strings]

[quote name='Protium' timestamp='1380452646' post='2225376']
I'd send it back to barefaced, tell them to fix it and stop penny pinching on cheap sh*te hardware.
[/quote]

Even as a very happy BF user, I think this is fair comment, although the feet and fixings are no different to many others. The BF cabs are, I understand, made from ply with varying density, ie tough and hard outer plies and softer but lighter in the middle. Perhaps this give less for the screws to bite into.

As I mentioned, i appear to have solved the problem on my cabs with a dab of glue in each screw hole.

[stevie]

[quote name='MOSCOWBASS' timestamp='1380185078' post='2221869']
[i]shove matchstick(s) in the old screwhole and put back original screw.....worked on my big baby.[/i]
[/quote]

Customers shouldn’t have to use wood glue, sawdust and matchsticks to stop bits falling off a product that costs over a thousand pounds. Bear in mind also that you’re invalidating your warranty by modifying them. It looks like a design fault: the feet fixings are simply not fit for purpose.

Normally you’d take the product back to the shop and insist that the retailer sorts it out. In this case, the OP needs to get Barefaced to collect, fix the problem, and send the speaker back. It is well within the 12-month warranty period – so there shouldn’t be any problem.

[4 Strings]

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1380489361' post='2226176']
Customers shouldn’t have to use wood glue, sawdust and matchsticks to stop bits falling off a product that costs over a thousand pounds.
[/quote]

Fair enough, although they're not quite as expensive as that! Also, unlike many other manufacturers, you're not dealing with lawyers and letters of the law in warranties but a small group of very nice people who want to get things right.

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1380489361' post='2226176']
Bear in mind also that you’re invalidating your warranty by modifying them. It looks like a design fault: the feet fixings are simply not fit for purpose.
[/quote]

I bet you aren't, and Barefaced will continue to honour the warranty. But for a made up thing, that sounds quite realistic if you were talking about a company that the majority of the people in the thread hadn't dealt with, so congrats on that.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Mr. Foxen

[Ghost_Bass]

Stop worrying about the feet. you have two solutions to fix this permanently:

1 - Use a T-nut with a screw cut to size so it won't come too much out of the nut on the inside. Use feet with a metal ring inside for better results (BF feet are Penn fabricated and already have this "ring";

2 - Apply a smal piece of wood (i mean small) on the inside of the cab and use a screw that goes trough the ply and screws on the wood (also use glue on the wood-ply contact zone). Paint it black. A small piece of wood won't disrupt the air flow on the port, the difference will be minimal and perfeclty unconsiderable!

This is the downside of having light, thin plywood to keep the weight down. I konw that this design is prone to having feet falling but it doesn't stop me from buying the cabs. Alex could start adressing this issue with his new models so that people stop having a reason to keep up with this kind of topics...

[Musicman20]

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1380535489' post='2226594']
Stop worrying about the feet. you have two solutions to fix this permanently...

This is the downside of having light, thin plywood to keep the weight down. I konw that this design is prone to having feet falling but it doesn't stop me from buying the cabs. Alex could start adressing this issue with his new models so that people stop having a reason to keep up with this kind of topics...
[/quote]

To be fair, I think its valuable feedback that BF needs to keep improving the cabinets.

[neepheid]

I have no axe to grind, and no experience of these cabs. This idea might be completely bogus due to the thickness of the walls of the cab, but would hollow wall anchors work in this context?



They work bloody well in their native environment (12.5mm thick plasterboard) - I have my stairs handrail held up with 12 (3x at 4 points along the rail) of these bad boys. Perhaps they would protrude too much into the cab, I dunno. Just thought I'd put them forward anyway. They might go loose through vibration, but they're highly unlikely to work loose to the point where they fall out.

Back in my box now

[Ghost_Bass]

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1380536434' post='2226610']
To be fair, I think its valuable feedback that BF needs to keep improving the cabinets.
[/quote]

Totally agree with you, this issue should have been put to rest a long time ago. I know that Alex is putting his atention to more important things on his cabs but the fact is that the posts about the hardware issues are poping uo too often. Personally i don't mind about that, if a foot comes off i can fix it with ease.

I want to get something straight before people start thinking i'm bashing BF:

All the cabs i owned have had one or more feet falling off:
My band's current PA consists on a pair of RCF ART 312-A and one has a foot missing (not what you would call a low-end speaker or a cheap one...) We also have a couple of dB subs and one is also missing a foot.
My previous band had a complete Wharfedale Pro (red logo) PA (tops, mid bottom and monitors). Feet were falling off permanently.
On my own bass gear only feet that didn't work loose were the ones on EBS and Eden cabs but simply because they did not have feet to begin with . The other piece of kit i hadn't have harware comming of was my old Trace Elliot rig but we all know that a nuclear disaster couldn't put a scratch on one of them!