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Sucked in again, this time a pair of LSI for $400


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2 hours ago, Marvel said:

 

Easy to add the two at the top and bottom, but nearly impossible to add on the side.

 

What thread size are used on the t-nuts? At DJK's suggestion I used 10- 32machine screws with a hex head so I could use a socket (less chance of slipping and poking a hole through the surround). The 10-32 threads give a smoother tightening and are less likely to vibrate loose.

 

I looked at the screws and I thought they were 10-24 although they may be a 10-32, I'll check and see when I get home (no internet at home now).

 

I doubt I'll be adding any more than the original 4 as I just finished gluing it all back together. I did the one arm paper hanger thing, spread glue, position the two haves, hold the block, set the clamp (repeat 11 more times), wet towel to wipe glue, check for gaps and flush fit, double check everything, move a couple clamps with the blocks, check it all again, wipe off more glue that I missed, chisel the semi-hardened glue that that I missed, and finally walk away before I screw it up. I didn't nail anything yet as there really was no time when gluing two halves together. I do that in the morning. I did this all on the south side deck and it is nice and toasty, its been a miserable spring here and this is about the 3rd nice day where it has been close to 70 degrees. No rain is expected but I will drag it back in the house tonight about 8 pm so the glue will have had at least 5 hours to set. I will need to take off the clamps ( 7 Jorgenson 3 foot I-bar clamps plus the other 5)   as the clamps are nearly as heavy as the empty cabinet.

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On 5/17/2019 at 9:11 AM, garyeanderson said:

Thanks for the info, I am not sure how much work will be involved but I guess I was looking for a "spring" project. In the past I built a pair of ported la scalla clones and well, never really finished them. I guess its been some time since I wrote about it -  nearly 9 years, how did that happen?

The Clones are still around and I figured at the worst I would build some tops for them. I'll have to see how it goes with these new to me La Scalla's

 

That’s the exact set of capacitors my 1974 La Scalas had when I got them in 2006.  They sounded okay, but in four months I replaced them with Bob Crites’s Sonicaps, which made the speakers sound quite a bit better.

 

The 1974 LSes are also top-loaders for the woofers.  The removable tops made it much easier to chisel 1/4” reliefs in the tops to accommodate the larger diameter of the CT125 tweeters I installed a few days after replacing the caps.  The new tweeters improved the sound as much as the new caps had.

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14 hours ago, Islander said:

 

That’s the exact set of capacitors my 1974 La Scalas had when I got them in 2006.  They sounded okay, but in four months I replaced them with Bob Crites’s Sonicaps, which made the speakers sound quite a bit better.

 

The 1974 LSes are also top-loaders for the woofers.  The removable tops made it much easier to chisel 1/4” reliefs in the tops to accommodate the larger diameter of the CT125 tweeters I installed a few days after replacing the caps.  The new tweeters improved the sound as much as the new caps had.

 

Islander - Not my photo, Just some ones reply to the build topic, All of my pictures were on "photobucket" and the forum software chose that one...

 

Marvel - 10-24 is the thread size used so they will stay as Kipsch built them

 

Diz - only 19 screws hold the top on the build from 9 years ago - my bad memory

 

    Back to the $400 LSI topic

I was hesitant to remove the clamps last night and move the LSI inside so I put a large plastic bag over it and weighted the base down with some lead and left it out all night, I kind of felt a bit guilty. Anyway I removed the clamps and nailed all of the glue joints that I did yesterday and I think it is back to being rock solid again. All

 of the joints ended up flush and smooth to the touch except the bottom of the cabinet and that was only sticking out less than 1/64" in between the three clamps. I'll live with that, I am pleased that everywhere else things flushed up nicely.  I need to fill all of the countersunk nails that I put in this morning and a few extraneous holes

that were there and re-paint both cabs. we are supposed to have showers today so I'll move the cabinet inside soon so not much more will be done till better weather arrives.

 

                                                     thanks to all for the interest shown

 

                                                                                Gary

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I was in a similar situation a couple years ago. Another forum member latched onto a beater pair of standard LS for $125!!! But then he figured they were too much work. He basically gave them to me (more of a barter system thing as I was always fabbing something up for him). At any rate, there was a fair amount of gluing, nailing, bondo and then duratex, but they ended up being a great pair of speakers that I use on a regular basis. Great fun to have around. I had plenty of spare parts laying around that I didn't have to buy anything expensive to get them up and running. Yeah, ditch the AL is the first thing to do. Ironically the first member to recommend this to you @wvu80 wouldn't let me burn my set, so I sent them to him. Not sure exactly what he ended up doing with them but would bet that someone, somewhere, ended up burning them. Added some aluminum to look more like Industrials.

.post-60988-0-55420000-1446852241_thumb.jpgaa2.thumb.JPG.5495dca7c0b5c8e4e31e29a6fd30654d.JPG

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22 hours ago, MookieStl said:

Ironically the first member to recommend this to you @wvu80 wouldn't let me burn my set, so I sent them to him. Not sure exactly what he ended up doing with them but would bet that someone, somewhere, ended up burning them

 

I didn't have a project for which I could use them so I sent them to another forum member free of charge.

 

22 hours ago, MookieStl said:

Added some aluminum to look more like Industrials.

 

I love the look of that aluminum trim.  You do great work.  :emotion-21:

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22 hours ago, MookieStl said:

I was in a similar situation a couple years ago. Another forum member latched onto a beater pair of standard LS for $125!!! But then he figured they were too much work. He basically gave them to me (more of a barter system thing as I was always fabbing something up for him). At any rate, there was a fair amount of gluing, nailing, bondo and then duratex, but they ended up being a great pair of speakers that I use on a regular basis. Great fun to have around. I had plenty of spare parts laying around that I didn't have to buy anything expensive to get them up and running. Yeah, ditch the AL is the first thing to do. Ironically the first member to recommend this to you @wvu80 wouldn't let me burn my set, so I sent them to him. Not sure exactly what he ended up doing with them but would bet that someone, somewhere, ended up burning them. Added some aluminum to look more like Industrials.

.post-60988-0-55420000-1446852241_thumb.jpgaa2.thumb.JPG.5495dca7c0b5c8e4e31e29a6fd30654d.JPG

 

Hi Mookie

Very nice work - looks like more than I want to do at this time. I have been listening to the single in mono in the kitchen since I picked the pair up and I need to find a place for it to reside. I am out of corners so the best place I can think of at the moment is on top of the birch lacquered MWM  bass bin that I made 4 years ago. I have been using it as a center between a pair of Klipschorns  that have Belle Klipsch speakers in front of them. The Belle's are hiding the  buggered raw fir (they were dragged across a parking lot). 

The Picture below  ( from the link above) shows the basic setup but the Belle's have replaced the Cornwall's

 

SwitchARoo.JPG

 

All of the current speakers have K33 with square mud magnets, K55-V, K77 round magnets with AA networks so I may do a component swap and use all of the components  from the LSI's in the Khorn tops which have bottoms elsewhere with AK3 networks. Not sure if I'll use the K43's yet

 

I need to get both LSI working and sounding good before I do anything more, I installed the original K43 back into the busted up LSI this morning and stopped at the hardware to get screws for the woofer hatch (they were missing). Hopefully, I have it playing this afternoon and then be able to make a decision on what to do next.

 

This all reads a little bit disjointed but I guess that's just the way I am ----

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1 hour ago, garyeanderson said:

 

Hi Mookie

Very nice work - looks like more than I want to do at this time. I have been listening to the single in mono in the kitchen since I picked the pair up and I need to find a place for it to reside. I am out of corners so the best place I can think of at the moment is on top of the birch lacquered MWM  bass bin that I made 4 years ago. I have been using it as a center between a pair of Klipschorns  that have Belle Klipsch speakers in front of them. The Belle's are hiding the  buggered raw fir (they were dragged across a parking lot). 

 

This all reads a little bit disjointed but I guess that's just the way I am ----

Really not a lot of work once they are stabilized. Sand until you get tired of sanding then duratex (which is very forgiving). Skill level required is very low, so drinking is allowed during the application, which helps keep the workforce (me) motivated.

 

I personally like disjointed, i am by nature too regimented. A certain amount of disjoint, is welcome.

 

You do nice work, keep it fun.

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Hopefully, I'll be picking up my pair of MWM bins within a week. They are doubles, hard to get hold of and heavey! My wife said ok, but we will see once they are here. I think we will just have a Filipino karaoke night and all will be good.

 

I had forgotten the part where you built your MWMs.

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   I got the rest of the components installed and hooked the repaired LSI in mono, turned on the Advent 300 (free on the side of the road) and the B & K AV2500  (also free with a closet of other B & K power amps ) put on the first album I saw (Hot Tuna - Burgers) and played "Keep on truckin mama", Jack Cassidy was kind enough to put enough bass into the song for a fairly good test.  It sounded good enough at low to moderate volume so a gave it a bit of throttle to high noon and was still ok but nothing great. as soon as I hit 12:30 all hell broke loose and the LSI sounded like it was feeding back on itself. It was really testing the glue job. I wasn't sure if it was the glued cabinet or the woofer. I didn't even finish the song and shut it down, hooked up the "good" LSI and repeated the test and got it up to about 3 o'clock on the loud dial and finished the song at a more moderate noon to  1 o'clock. shut it down and left the house to have a think.

 

   I got home mid afternoon and popped the hatch off the bottom and removed the K43. I had some trouble with the 10-24 Phillips screws and went to the hardware store to find some replacements and took Marvel's (DJK's) advice and got some button head Allen screws that were 1  1/2 long to replace the 1 1/4 (that's what they had and got home and used a couple of 1/8 inch spacers under each and installed the spare K33 (it was all I had) and repeated the test with the same cut. The repairs LSI played nicely up to about 1:30 to 2 so I guess I now know why the hatch screws were out of the one cabinet.

 

I'm not sure what I'll do now, I don't see anything visibly wrong with the K43, the cone looks fine. I really don't have the expertise to know if a re-cone will fix it or if its junk. I may just steel another K33 from one of the Cornwall clones and swap out the other.  Need to think about it a while...

 

                                                                                                 Gary

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  • 2 weeks later...

   Not a lot of progress on these but I thought I would update the topic. The problem with the K43-E was diagnosed by a local outfit called Pro Sound Service

in  Weymouth Landing. I walked in off the street and the tech did a sweep and maybe some other tests and all looked good while I stood there and waited. The only issue that he was able to spot was that the tinsel was striking the spider so he tweaked it a bit  and said that might be what I was hearing and sent me on my way (no charge, big thanks to the tech). I left and took the K43-E home and reinstalled into the good LSI cabinet after removing the non-problem K43-E (just swapped woofers) and played both LSI. brought both of them up to the volume where I was having the  problem before (one at a time) and the resonance was gone. I was pretty happy that they are both playing nicely now with all of the original components. I think that I will leave the cabinets as they are and just  touch up  some of the paint issues. They don't look that bad and if do any more than that I would be afraid to move them about and just use them. This purchase has got me thinking about building a pair of the trapezoidal split tops (drawn, measured. and figured out the cut plan) for the spare pair of K400 horns.

Thanks to all that have offered advise, I really do appreciate the experience of others that have been there before.

 

                                                                                                    Gary  

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13 minutes ago, garyeanderson said:

the tinsel was striking the spider

What is tinsel?

  I had a Forte once that gave me grief at certain volumes and tones. I took that thing apart and tested it and after about the third time around I found that there was a screw stuck to the magnet. That little sucker would buzz like crazy and when I removed it the problem was gone.

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6 minutes ago, Dave A said:

What is tinsel?

  I had a Forte once that gave me grief at certain volumes and tones. I took that thing apart and tested it and after about the third time around I found that there was a screw stuck to the magnet. That little sucker would buzz like crazy and when I removed it the problem was gone.

 

The braided wire from the speaker terminal to the cone

 

71921f3f_vbattach187298.jpeg

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   Just call me a heathen, Monday was a nice day so I thought I would take advantage of it. I was driving down by the beach and I spotted the FREE sign on iron mongers wine cart, all ornamental scrolls and it designed to hold over a case of wine. I stopped and had a look and it seems like the poor thing had drown in the ocean a couple years ago during one of the winter storms of 2016 or possibly 2018. It was a bit on the rusty side and the wheels no longer would turn but I tossed it in the back of the truck to "show Mum", well she was thrilled . The picture below is very similar to what I found except the top was a glue up of 5/4 boards painted a nice light blue.

    So if you have read along this far in this post you must be wondering "what on earth" is he going on about, boozed out at 9:30am? , smoking big fatties?, or just lost it. Well none of those really (lost it? possibly) The wine cart looked pretty tatty with all the rust  so I brought it home for a quickie satin black paint job. I was low on rustoleum satin black 7777,  so a quick trip to pick up a couple quarts and home by 11:30 No prep work involved here as there was still a bit of salt water leaking out of one of the wheels and I figured it would last a few years outside with some plants placed on the top. Seeing I was going to have the spray gun out I figured I would take the opportunity to spark up the appearance of the La Scala' Industrials. I pulled the components out of the top and the rest of the trim  and dragged them out onto the deck for a little satin black too. I didn't bother with a lot of prep work but all of the holes that the previous owners had drilled were plugged with dowels and cut flush, not much other prep work was done other than a damp cloth wipe down and I went right over the Duratex with the satin black. This morning after 36 hours of drying I reinstalled all of the components. One of them still needs a pair of KLIPSCH handles but the pair from the KP201 is newer and don't match the 1985 handles so I need to do something else, I have 4 EV handles that may work but that may be sacrilegious.

 

I know topics without pictures are lame, but I guess that's life. For the money and time invested I think they will be just fine and sound even better!

 

                                                                                                 Thanks again

 

                                                                                                           Gary

 

 

f098917c73088eccd91d58d364763965--wine-c

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