My Mini Statements build thread

[BeerParty]

Maybe I missed the step, but in the previous photos the baffle and side had 90 degree edges, but in the latest picture the baffle appears to have a bevel and been veneered. Did you route right through the laminate on the baffle to get the bevel then apply a strip of veneer?

The sides had the bevel before he attached them. If you go back to the finishing pictures and look closely, you'll notice the bevel is already there - the bevel is away from the viewer in the pictures (look at the lower right corner of one of the panels in the picture).

[FroDaddy]

The sides had the bevel before he attached them. If you go back to the finishing pictures and look closely, you'll notice the bevel is already there - the bevel is away from the viewer in the pictures (look at the lower right corner of one of the panels in the picture).

Good eye! Also the bevel can be seen in post 38. So after post 38 I put the edge veneering on, sanded, stained, etc. etc.

Going back outside to cut the wood for the stands now 8)

[FroDaddy]

Most of the day was spent trying to figure out the best dimensions for the speaker stands. Although the cabinets are getting close to completion, they won't be powered on until they have stands to rest on. Although I have some doubts with the bases, the "poles" for the stands haven't changed much from the Google Sketchups. So the poles were cut, and I'm going to try out the bases I made for the previous stand design, with an extra 3/4" mdf added to them.

So two cabinets were assembled:



And the final two are forming up:

[FroDaddy]

Picture time! Here are all four cabinets assembled:



Here are a couple of pictures what one of my minis looks next to one of my full size Statements:

[FroDaddy]

I'm repeating the staining process that was done on the sides of the minis. Also I decided to go with a 4.5x5.5in "pole", and a 12x14in "base" for the stands. The poles will have an inside 45deg angle, so the outside won't need any laminating or edge banding. The bases were made about a year ago as part of the old base design, so I'm reusing them. The only difference is that I added an additional 3/4in of MDF on the bottom for some extra weight and height. They are now 2.25" tall.

Here are a couple of pictures of the raw wood for the stands:

[FroDaddy]

Since I'm using quick dry poly, tomorrow I'll apply a morning coat then a second coat in the afternoon. Here are the bases all stained up:

[FroDaddy]

Ran into some issues yesterday with the stands. First here is a pic of the "poles" with 2 coats of poly:



The issue is the new birch I bought from Lowes doesn't even look like the same species from the old birch I had built the bases with. Also the new birch looks like a very young tree, while the base wood looks aged. Even though my application was identical, the woods stained completely different from each other:

[FroDaddy]

Since I had some of the new birch and MDF on hand, I decided to rebuild the bases. I couldn't use the other bases because I had already used screws in them, and some of the heads popped off.

Luckily my dad has ample drills, so I set them up for a super quick assembly of the new bases:



We cut a master template out of MDF, and then cut the rest of the pieces oversized using a circular saw and a table saw. Next I created three more copies of the master using the router with the boss 1/2in trim bit pictured above.

Now that I had 4 master copies of the bases, I glued a piece of MDF and a piece of birch on the top and bottom of a master copy. Then I tapped, countersunk, and used two screws to hold everything together. Finally using the boss bit (did I mention I love that 1/2in flush trim bit?), I flush trimmed the oversized pieces to the master copy that was sandwiched in the middle of the 3 pieces. The bearing rode on the master copy each time. Here's a bottom pic of the new bases:



Then yesterday I applied a coat of stain on them, and they will be poly'd up in a few hours today. Hoping to have the stands, poles and bases, assembled today.

Also on a side note, I have applied the 2" wedge foam to the inside of the speaker cabinets, as well as cut out the 1" tunnel foam. I've also laid out the mid/tweet crossover and cut the xover boards.

Time to go back to work on everything :T

[DeathMonk]

Way to make me feel like a slow-poke frodaddy

[FroDaddy]

I am on vacation from my day job, so that definitely helps progress

Yesterday afternoon the poles for the stands were assembled. We did this the best way we knew how, so I'm not sure how Norm would have done it :W

First we used leftovers from the speaker cutouts to cut blocks with a miter saw. The pieces were grouped together and then cut perfect lengths using the miter saw. Yes we cut through finished wood, but the blade on the miter saw is a really good one so it cut it perfectly. Then to start the process I clamped the blocks to a piece of the pole:



Then after a few minutes of glue time, we temporarily clamped two sides on, so that the opposite side could be glued to the blocks. Here was the end result of that step:



We let the glue set for a couple of hours and came back to finish up the assembly. The clamps from the above picture was removed, then the assembly was rotated 90deg so it was setting on its edges. Then we glued a 3rd side on and held it in place temporarily with clamps. We took two of the window weights and inserted them into the pole; these weigh about 12lbs each:



Finally to complete the assembly, the 4th side was glued and clamped. After they dried, a hole was drilled in the top of the pole and play sand was funneled into them. The poles weigh 38lbs each, the bases weigh 9, which gives the stands close to 50lbs of weight.


Speaking of bases, I had a good setback today because the method I was going to use on the black laminate didn't work out correctly. I was trying to shortcut trimming the black laminate overhang with a multitool (the Rigid version of the Fein MultiMaster), but it's just not accurate enough and is unpredictable when it decides to chip the laminate. The test pieces seemed to work out okay, but the final pieces were chipping with the flush blade I was using. So I'll have to do these the "long" way, but there are 4 cuts per base that I haven't figured out how to do yet.

[FroDaddy]

Switching gears back to the speaker build, I managed to get a mid/tweet crossover board finished. The xover board is 2.75" x 8.25" which fits through the tweeter opening on its side. The length is just enough to allow the board to sit flush against the back baffle with the tweeter having about 1/4" of clearance. The area behind the tweeter was where I would port the cabinets, but since they are sealed I just flat out didn't want that space to go to waste. So I had to get a bit creative with the layout and stack caps on top of resistors.

The problem was I read the wiring schematic wrong and reversed the positive and negative jumper wires from the source on the mid xover. Originally I thought I messed up the tweeter, but after I figured out the problem, it was actually the mid.

(Edited the picture out, see the next post for pictures)

[FroDaddy]

Just a quick update, I finished the mid/high xover boards tonight. Each one took me a few hours to make; much slower than I thought it would take me. Here are two pictures of the same board:





And here are all 4 completed... phew!:

[jyqureshi]

Great job Fro, very impressive

[FroDaddy]

Thanks jyqureshi

The woofer crossover boards are done now:



Switching gears back to the stands, the bases really have been a PIA throughout the project. Using this paper cutter, I was only able to get one perfect 90deg side on the black laminate base trim. So I used the Harbor Freight trim router to flush trim the bottoms, and the same router with a 45deg chamfer bit to do the edges on the back of the bases. Then the miter saw saved the day again to create a 45deg edge:



So the trouble was how to get a piece of black laminate on the 45's. I couldn't use a flush trim bit, a chamfer bit, nor the miter saw. The only option left was the LAST option I wanted: I had to cut each piece to fit perfectly WITH a 45deg edge on their edges. It took a while, and a few wrong processes, to figure out how to make them consistently and predictably. Once again the miter saw saved the day... I'm really amazed how accurate you can cut with it. Essentially the process was to sandwich a piece of laminate between two pieces of wood to prevent the laminate from chipping. I used two small ratchet clamps to hold the sandwich in place, then tightly wrapped the end close to the miter blade in tape, and then re-clamped the other end to the miter saw once the cut was lined up. One cut was made fast, and then using measuring calipers the second cut could be made. It really took a long long time to do this, but still faster than I could have painted these glossy black.

My dad came up with a cool way to clamp the pieces on by making a jig on the opposite end:



Here is a pic of the bases finished; I still have protection on the black laminate because it would be a bummer if something happened to it now:



I'm going to go wire up the cabinets now... getting close!

[FroDaddy]

Some assembly was required with the stands, and mounting them to the cabinets :W



The binding posts, mid/upper xovers, and mid/tweeters have been mounted in all cabinets. Now all that's left is to mount the woofers and their xover boards, in opposite order of course :T

[savage25xtreme]

Looks like the tweeter on the minis is going to be HIGH. Hopefully due to your listening position.

I think they turned out awesome. Another fine job Fro :T

[FroDaddy]

Thanks savage25xtreme! Jumping ahead a bit, but the tweeter height was part of the design. My ear height comes to the upper woofer, and although that's not recommended, I'm finding I like it for surrounds.

Below was my workspace installing the xovers and drivers. I used Lowes door gaskets as my speaker gaskets, and Walmart poly stuff or whatever it's called. To install the woofers I lined up a driver using the carpenters square, taped the driver down temporarily with painters tape, tapped the screwholes, vacuumed with the Ryobi dust buster, then removed the driver and repeated for the next one. Then I installed the crossover, used a full bag of polyfill to stuff the woofer area (the tweeter area was stuffed previously), layed down the speaker gasket, then installed the drivers.



And here is the best picture I have so far of a cabinet and stand fully assembled. Together it weighs 98lbs:



I have them boosted 63.5Hz by 3dB as predetermined by modeling them in winISD, but I was still surprised of their lower end response and how low they can dig after running some test tones. The bass is nice and tight, too, so I'm happy that I tried them sealed. They are crossed over at 60Hz in my AVR.

I forgot how shrill the W4 1337's are fresh out of the box! I definitely noticed this right off the cuff. There's a BIG difference between my well broken in Statements/2rCC W4 1337's and the new ones. But I think I ran enough demo material through them to get the break-in process started

After setting my levels, distances, and placement the first thing I noticed was how "loud" the surrounds were. The Mini's replaced some 7-8 year old Polk RT800's, and obliterated them in every way possible. The "loud"ness was actually the surround information that I wasn't getting with the old speakers.

I'm really happy with these, my system sounds complete and balanced now. Finally I can hear the details in the surround channels, both the upper and lower end. It's really nice to have a matched system again!

I really can't believe how much work was involved to make these. I really did forget how much effort was involved. I started on March 13th and worked every day, including weekends, until April 12th. And for the final week I was pulling 10-15 hour days and often times eating meals while working. I had a lot of hang-ups and problems, and those pushed the timeline a few days. Hell the 45deg laminate on the bases took 2 days to do! Everyday for a week I said, "they'll be done today." I am definitely happy with the end result, but I am even more happy that the project is over with. I have some detail work to finish still, but that can be done at a comfortable pace. Needless to say I'm a bit exhausted at this point.

Okay I'll stop rambling now :2guns:

[Jim Holtz]

The Mini's look great! :T

Jim

[john trials]

Those came out really nicely. We need a panoramic view of your room, with your full 7.1 set of Statements (PLEASE!).

I'm currently making 2 Statement Monitors and a Statement CC to go with my full-sized Statements. My wife is wondering why I'm doing all this. I showed her this thread. Now she's thankful I'm only doing 5.1, not 7.1