Klipsch Pro Trim

[Panacea Engineering]

This is a project that I have been working on for the past two years and we are finally close to a position of being able to offer these, as individual or kit packages, for replacement of the existing Aluminum Alloy Trim, for Fiberglass and Textured Pro/Industrial Klipsch cabinets.

We will have available, starting June first, all of the Klipsch trim for the Pro/Industrial Line of speakers. This will include, but not be limited to New Aluminum Cast corner and straight pieces, which will replace the damaged, beat up pieces, that are on your speakers now. The Trim will be available in sets, for ALL of the Fiberglass and Textured, Commercial speakers; Including MCM’s, La Scala’s Split and single cabinets, Cornwall’s, HSM’s, Heresy’s and any other variant that was available, during the PRO period of the 80’s.

You will be able to order individual pieces or complete sets, for the speakers of your choice and they will be available in Cast Aluminum Alloy or Epoxy, in colors of your choice. Actually, the Epoxy resin parts are tougher and will stand more abuse than their Aluminum Alloy counterparts and are easily repaired, if they get damaged. They will be exact replacements for the existing pieces and you will not have to drill NEW holes for their installation. We will allow a credit for the old pieces, that are replaced and will pay shipping back to us and issue a credit towards the purchase of new items. These trim pieces are not limited to just Klipsch speakers as they will work for any DIY project that you may want to build. These exterior trim pieces offer complete corner protection and will make an added value to ANY speaker project that you want to build. Please let us know what you are thinking and we will be glad to recommend what you may need, to give your project the completed look. They will be available in straight ninety degree and any trapezoidal configurations, that you can imagine. We are not limited to the standard thirty, sixty, ninety degree pieces.

Picture below is the first epoxy prototype, after many attempts. We will be opening a NEW web site, for these items, in the near future and I will post the link in the next several weeks. Please email or PM me with your interest, comments or suggestions. Between the new building, the Jube-Like Drones and a few other projects, we have been a bit busy.....! We will be back to the Jube-Like Drones, the middle of April and I apologize for the delay as the new building has been a Bear of a project, that has consumed just about all of my free time....!

[kg4guy]

Very nice[Y]

[Guest " "]

super....I need some...I'll be watching out for the offering

[Panacea Engineering]

You guys are QUICK.....!

I would have not even bothered with posting this had the prototypes not turned out so well. As I said, I have been working on this for the past two years and making the molds has been the hardest part, but I have finally giot it figured out and we can pour them HOT....!

I look forward to finally being able to provide the Trim as needed.

Thanks for your interest,

W. C.

[joeydingo]

AWESOME!!!!

[CECAA850]

Neat idea, thanks.

[CECAA850]

Just noticed, inspired by Budweiser!

[Panacea Engineering]

It's very surprising how much gets accomplished, when powered by Bud................I know, it sets a very bad example for our younger viewers, but they have to learn somewhere......[6]

[mark1101]

Neat. Nice work.

[colterphoto1]

wow, very cool - nice work, Trying to think how many different models it would take to do the entire series, you'd have square corners, wider than 90 degrees and smaller (for tops of LSI splits). I think the MSM, MSSM are the same angles is that correct?

M

[Guest " "]

wow, very cool - nice work, Trying to think how many different models it would take to do the entire series, you'd have square corners, wider than 90 degrees and smaller (for tops of LSI splits). I think the MSM, MSSM are the same angles is that correct?

M

lets see...LaScala one piece, laScala two piece lowers, Hersey Industrials, CP-1's would use 90 degree corners.....the back angles of the top section of the lascala splits and the side front angles of the HSM's use the same angles.......the front of the top LaScala splt tops use unique angles.....then there's the larger boxes....so many angles...so little time.

[Panacea Engineering]

We are making molds for ALL of the pieces that were made. I have pristine examples of each one. It is a very time consuming process, as some of the molds have to be three part. I tried in vain, two years ago, to locate the original molds and got very close, as I tracked them down to the original source, they NO longer exist. MSM, MSSM and LSI Tops use the same angles, just the straight pieces are different lengths. The straight pieces will even have to be re cast, as there is nothing available, that is the same, as it uses a reverse chamfer on the outer edges. This has certainly been an interesting adventure and I MUST get back to testing the Jub Drones, talk about putting somehting off....! I have NO excuses, as the weather has turned and I can not blame the wind and rain any longer.....! I need serious help with that.

I will keep everyone updated on the progress.

W. C.

[Guest " "]

We are making molds for ALL of the pieces that were made. I have pristine examples of each one. It is a very time consuming process, as some of the molds have to be three part. I tried in vain, two years ago, to locate the original molds and got very close, as I tracked them down to the original source, they NO longer exist. MSM, MSSM and LSI Tops use the same angles, just the straight pieces are different lengths. The straight pieces will even have to be re cast, as there is nothing available, that is the same, as it uses a reverse chamfer on the outer edges. This has certainly been an interesting adventure and I MUST get back to testing the Jub Drones, talk about putting somehting off....! I have NO excuses, as the weather has turned and I can not blame the wind and rain any longer.....! I need serious help with that.

I will keep everyone updated on the progress.

W. C.

I've retrimmed a lot of these cabs with the thicker home depot aluminum stock. the difficulty is in the vertical sections associated with the non 90 degree angles as the non corner stock has to take on the same angles involved in the corners. So there are at least 3 angles involved in the longer non corner stock, maybe 4 if you count th angle of the forward tip of the dog house.

[Panacea Engineering]

Mike,

We are going to cast all of the straight pieces, as well to include the right angles for the various cabinets. That will leave only minor trimming for the final fit. I am trying a new material tomorrow, that is "supposed" to be the same material that the originals were cast from. I have been working with someone that is very familiar with this process and was involved in the original casting. One of the problems was finding the right silicone for the mold, that would allow me to 'Hot" cast the pieces. As you can imagine, this is not a cheap process and I can understand why no one has tried it before. Two years worth of research and we are very close to having the finished product. The epoxy pieces that I am showing below were just for the mold test. Sorry for the blurry picture, I will take some macro shots tomorrow......

On another note, I am picking up a Kenwood L 07D turntable next Tuesday and I am very excited about BOTH f these projects.....!

W. C.

[colterphoto1]

MSM, MSSM - I think those angles are all the same. possibly same as on MWM also. That narrows down the number considerably. Klipsch was good at manufacturing efficiency - makes sense. I have a photo of LSI, MSM,MSSM here somewhere too.

[OO1]

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  heli001 , Please cound me in - I was under the impression that the original product was brushed stainless - it actually was aluminium alloy -thanks for the clarifications - I really like the original look and material -
  

[colterphoto1]

I'm no metalurgist but have been told that the original straight stock is anodized aluminum. I've noticed when cleaning or polishing it that once you get below that hard 'skin' that the aluminum is fairly soft. Best was to clean the old stuff is to use lacquer thinner and shop rag (in very well ventilated area). If they're dented or scarred all to heck if you sand or scotch-brite them too hard you'll sand the anodized coating off which will change the look. I bought one set where someone had tediously painted all the trim silver... arrrggh. If I take an inventory I probably have some gouged up pieces here that could use replacment. Also consider the acute angle piece for the split of the LSI doghouse, some later models simply used a vinyl trim piece but mine have the aluminum which I think gives a more finished, sinister appearance. Question, if the replacement long pieces are cast, will they be brittle to some extent?

[Panacea Engineering]

Michael,

First, I really appreciate you guys (that sounds sooo Yankee like) interest in this project. Like the other ones I am working on, the interest from your peers will certainly give you incentive to continue.

You are right about the pieces being anodized and yes, the layer is very thin and will chip off. Also, depending on the metal mix used for the base material, some had a galvanic reaction with the annodization (sp?) [heII, I don't even know if THAT is a word], and caused the base metal to "Powder" through and break down the inner/outer layers. If you look at some pieces very closely you can see this starting as bumps, if you will and they will grow over time. One of the hardest things I had to do was to research the base metal and find out actually, what it was. There were several different combinations used, some good and a few, very bad. It was driven by the raw material cost at the time as all of these were "farmed" out. The material we are going to use will not "react" and hopefully be a lot better than the originals. As to the long pieces, they will not be brittle as we aren't going to use any "Pot" or "white" metal in the mixture. The material cost is going to be considerably high but I have found a source that will sell it to me bulk at a very reasonable price. I am hoping that these will take off as they are very good protectors for the edges, there is nothing like them on the market and they will work for most ANY speaker. I am working with a larger company to hopefully market these in the near future. They will also be offered in hard plastic resin, which will not chip, crack or break and withstand hard impact very well. The straight pieces will be cast in the various length needed and just a bit longer for trimming purposes. All of the counter sunk screw holes all will be cast in their original positions but off just a bit, so that the screws will grab "fresh" wood. A lot of the original holes have become rotted, due to moisture exposure and time and some of the screws just fell out. Klipsch applied glue on their installations of the pieces. The nice thing about the glue they used is, it becomes brittle and a blow with a "dead" hammer will dislodge and set them free.

On the trapezoidal cabinets, there are two different corner pieces. Also, the LSI is different than the MSM, as one leg is shorter on the LSI corner pieces. This was because of the very small space between the pieces on the back of the LSI box. The straight piece is just over an inch so they had to shorten the "leg" on the angle bracket to give them enough room on the straight piece to get a screw hole in there; Hope that made some sense. The front sharp angle piece is the same for ALL of the boxes. BTW, THAT is the most difficult piece to cast as it takes a four part mold. I could "make" it work with three but I think over the long haul, the mold will get damaged or wear out, quicker

Pictures to follow and more later,

W. C.

[colterphoto1]

fascinating process. Thanks for the reply W.C. Hope your back is doing a bit better from last time we chatted.

[Panacea Engineering]

Michael,

I think that I told you, the last time we met, that I had started with a new Pain Management Doctor. Well, I can only say that I wish I had made this change three years ago, as it is all of the difference of night and day. I was able to make the trip and drive both ways (1026 miles) which is something that I could have NEVER done with the previous Doctor. It was really a time for change, as all "WE" were doing was arguing with each other and I could never make him understand what I was going through. He (the new Doctor) has managed to get my pain relief to last to about seven PM which is a huge improvement over the last Doctor who could only give me half of a day of relief. When I say relief, I mean the pain is tolerable, not devastating, as it was before. I am at least able to function somewhat normally until seven PM, where before, I was only good to about eleven or twelve noon. After seven, it is pretty much a battle of will for me to make it to bedtime. Once I am in bed and imobile, I am able to at least go to sleep, relatively comfortable. My waterbed has been a true lifesaver, in this case as it allows me to get comfortable and sleep. My level of pain in the mornings, when I get up, are still "killer" but he has me on a nerve relaxer which makes it a bit easier to tolerate. When I get up, I have to take the medication and actually sit motionless for about forty five minutes, before it finally kicks in.Anyway IT, is much better now and thanks for asking about my back.

W. C.