Article: K-400 Casting Mold

[WMcD]

Attached is a picture of the mold used to cast K-400s. Of course it is no longer used.

[Daddy Dee]

Gil,

Very cool. Thanks for posting.

Is this in the Klipsch museum in Hope?

[WMcD]

Yes, I took the picture in the museum in the old telephone building. Where is might be now, I have no idea.

The hinges were frozen from corrosion BTW. Evidently it had been sitting outside in the Arkansas rain for some time.

Someone (Sgt. Andy?) once said the two halves (top and bottom) of the K-400 were welded together. My thought is that there is a line from the mold, rather than a welding seam. On the other hand, I don't know if there might well have been welded versions. There could be both.

I wonder if there were smaller versions for the K-500, K-600, and K-700 and what happened to them.

Gil

[Malcolm]

IIRC Andy once said the K-700 was welded. None of the K-700s I

have seen from the 60s through the 80s looked like they had been

welded, though. Cleaning up the bead on the inside would

certainly have been a task. I see grinder marks on the outside of

some of these horns. But the insides are nearly pristine, with

very little flash. And there is really no reason they

could not be cast in one piece. The parting lines on the K-700s

are consistent with what would be produced by a mold of the type in the

picture.

[BEC]

Gil,

I saw a mold like that one at a foundry (since closed) in Fort Smith AR. The guy showing it to me thought it was for one of the horns made for Klipsch but did not know which one. I only saw it closed up, so really hard to guess which horn it was for. I don't think the one I saw was tall enough for a K-400, but looked to me like it may have been large enough to do the K500. Too bad that place went out of business. I wanted to poke around some more in the "mold room".

Bob

[colterphoto1]

So was there a full foundry onsite or was this work subcontracted out?

I heard once that Klipsch custom designed the molds for pouring aluminum to make the odd corner pieces for the LaScala Industrial Cabinet tops. They are kind of funny looking, the edges aren't straight at all on them!

Michael

[Deang]

I wanted to poke around some more in the "mold room".

I hate moldy rooms.

Where is Andy these days? Man, I miss that rascal

[seti]

Bob Ft.Smith was a strange place in the day. I was there when the Arm And The Sword Of The Lord got busted strange times in that town for sure.