Help,I May Need A New Crossover and Cabinet Reglue For A Heresy II, 1986

[CECAA850]

Well, I had some time over the holiday weekend and got to just about finish one up. It's completely done except for the velcro. I ended up going to 4 different hardware stores to find all the screws I needed for the drivers. The problem was that I wanted black heads. Persistance paid off and I like the looks of them better with black than chrome. Here we go...........................

The first thing I had to do was open up the hole for the new tweeter magnet. I tried every possible way to get it in using the existing opening, but it just wouldn't go. I used a rat tail file and only took enough off to allow the magnet to pass through. My anal retentive side wanted to paint the filed surface black, but I ended up leaving it as is. Painting it would not have allowed me time to finish it up and I really wanted to hear it.

[CECAA850]

The cabinets didn't have any dampening material in them so I decided to line the sides as I was puting them together. I'm sure I put more in there than the factory installs, but I had the material and in it went. I can easily remove later on if I don't like it.

[CECAA850]

Here's the rest of the material in place. I made sure there was room for the mid horn magnet before I put the rear material on. I did however have to allow room for the tweeter magnet on the top, by cutting a void in the dampening material.

[CECAA850]

Next up was sealing the crossover to the cabinet. Klipsch doesn't give you anything in the kit to do this with, so you're on your own. It took me a couple of tries to get it right. On my first attempt, the stripping I used was too thick. the flash makes it look like it's the same material I used for the dampening, but it was a lot denser and harder to compress than what I used on the inside.

[CECAA850]

This is NOT acceptable. I actually got it a little tighter than this pic shows but I was afraid of breaking the face of the crossover. The remedy was to remove the crossover and cut the weatherstripping down.

[CECAA850]

That's better. I still think that there should be a gasket engineered for this application from Klipsch. It would have made the job much easier.

[CECAA850]

Now we're ready for drivers. Unlike Bob's kit, this crossover's tweeter wiring will work as is, with no lengthening required. I'm a little worried about the crossover for the other speaker as the wiring seems shorter. We'll cross that bridge if necessary when the time comes.

[CECAA850]

In goes the tweet. I had about 3 to 4 inches of wiring to spare.

[CECAA850]

Next, the mid horn.

[CECAA850]

And lastly the woof.

[CECAA850]

I leaned the grill into the cabinet for the sake of a picture. I still have to put the velcro on the front of the speaker, but you get an idea of how it turned out.

[CECAA850]

Posterior.

[CECAA850]

Now we can finally listen to it. I have a pair of RF-5's in my bedroom hooked up to a Carver amp and pre-amp. I REALLY like this setup and the room has good acoustics for some random reason. Very brief first impressions of the non critical variety............... The vocals and highs of the H3's are noticeably better (clearer) than the RF-5's, but bear in mind, the RF-5's are no slouch and I like them very much. The bass can not be compared in this set-up however. To make a good comparison, I would need the get the H3's on the floor. I'm loosing the benefit of bass loading of the floor plane in this configuration. Plus the woofer on the H3 hasn't loosened up yet. I don't think they'll ever match the bass of the ported RF-5's but the contest would be much closer if the H3's weren't 4 feet in the air and were broken in. Overall, I absolutely love the way these speakers soud. The fact that Marshall made them so nice to look at is just icing on the cake.

Carl

[rll]

But, if you really want to do it by hand, here’s the best product for that method. It’s specially formulated and thickened for brush/ roller applications. It can also be tinted or dyed black. It can also be sprayed if you want a nice semi-gloss clear coat.

http://www.woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=952-283'>

Marshall,

In anticipation of some future project, I've decided to experiment with veneering on some boxes I built last year to raise some KG4s to ear level. In the middle of the veneering at the moment, but earlier this afternoon gave the trimming a go trimming using the router and a flush trim bit. Piece of cake. I'm using Ash veneer, and plan to finish them in black lacquer, similar to what you did for your son's Heresies. I don't have access to spraying, and don't want to invest in that gear, so I'll try the hand method. My question is this, do you know what formula to use to tint Watco's lacquer to the proper black?

Thanks in advance,

Randy

[jwilson55]

Beautiful! I have a set of Cornwall's and soon to have a set Hersey's I would like to do exactly like this. Great job!

[BE36]

Carl's H-II's "in the rough". Panels are applied and trimmed, etc. The next part of this takes a considerable amount of time and attention to detail. It's called blending and "easing". Using a sanding block and 220 or 360 grit, you must absolutely blend the tops and bottoms into the side panels. The effect will be a perfectly straight and sharp knife edge seam and corners. It should be done by hand. I can do it with a random orbital sander and 400 or 600 grit, but it's tricky and takes a lot of practice. "easing" is very, very, very, very carefully making a two part bevel on the edges. It should be almost imperceptible, and can only be "felt" by running your fingers along the seam. The reason for this is to prevent veneer lifting, and to lessen the chance of damage to edges and corners from normal use. If done properly, it still looks like a "Ginsu steak knife", but is protected by the geometry of the bevel.

Groomslakearea51,

Great post, even after all these years.

By blending and easing do mean tapering down both the side panel and the top panel veneer at the corners? (Double bevel - Bevel top panel and side panel at the corner?)

[bwilbur]

quote] Groomslakearea51, Great post, even after all these years. By blending and easing do mean tapering down both the side panel and the top panel veneer at the corners? (Double bevel - Bevel top panel and side panel at the corner?)

I second the praise and the question. Prior to reading this thread, I thought that the top and side veneer panels were joined by a 45 degree bevel, similar to the cabinet. GLA51, could you elaborate on the blending and easing technique? Many thanks.

[Groomlakearea51]

Ok... sorry for the delay..... been very busy with real world home crisis management......

Blemding and easing is the term I was taught by a cabinet maker. It's making sure that where two pieces of veneer join at an angle, the "edges" of the veneer are very slightly beveled. This generally prevents a piece from "lifting" if a fingernail, etc. gets caught on the otherwise sharp edge.

The trick is to do it very slightly and very lightly so that to the naked eye at 4-6 inches away the join still has the "knife edge" appearance. It is critical when using paper-backed veneer to do it very, very carefully, using very, very slight pressure in a downward motion, at an angle, in the direction of the veneer piece.

In the case of the speaker cabinet, the piece of veneer that is most prone to your fingers, hand, etc., "catching" on the exposed edge is the top piece, as generally the speakers are handled on the sides when lifting or moving. So.... the first piece that is laid on is the top piece.

After the top piece of veneer's glue has dried (24 hours...) it is trimmed with either an "edge-band trimmer", or a router with a down angled straight bit. After trimming, you have to make sure that the edge of the veneer is exactly even with the side panel of the speaker. Done by hand at 0 degree angle, again very, very carefully, using very, very slight pressure against the edge of the veneer, in a downward angled motion along the face of the speaker cabinet side panel. It should almost imperceptable to the eye, and generally you will run your finger along the join to detect uneven spots.

Then the side pieces of veneer are glued and allowed to fully dry (24 hours). Again trim, and make sure the edges that overlap the top piece are flush.

Even if you have the capability of producing a perfectly straight, 45 degree angle cut on a 0.020" thick piece of paperbacked veneer, the above still has to be done to "Blend and Ease" the join between the two edges of the veneer.

But for paperbacked veneer, or veneer that is 90 degree cut, you still need to make sure that the edges of the veneer at the join are flush, mated properly, and there is little chance of a cloth, fingers, etc. catching on an edge.

For this part, Look at the below diagram. It is a "highly magnified" drawing of what the two pieces of veneer look like at this point.

Use only a block sander with 400-600 grit paper to carefully make the bevels. Note: they should be virtually imperceptible to your eyes and you can basically feel it with your fingers. Usually, it should only take a couple of extremely light "swipes" at the angles shown to achieve the effect. When you run a finger along the edge, it should feel smooth. You must, however, be very careful not to expose the backing material, thus a very light touch with the 400-600 paper.

Hope that helps.

[bwilbur]

Great, thanks GLA51. I hope that you are able to find resolution for your crisises. Regards,Brian

[Groomlakearea51]

It's the normal crises of being a parent..... Just consumes time, money and mental stability..... LOL!!!

Thanks for asking though... The meds are working for now.... [6]

[H]