Ratchet's Mini Statements

[ratchetfps]

Hope you enjoy my picture heavy worklog! The project is complete, but I still need to get the pictures of the painting process & current "in action" pictures off my camera.

Before I dive into things, I would like to extend my humble and sincere thanks to Jim, Curt, Wayne, Brian, and all those involved with the creation of the Mini Statements! ;x(

Another immense thank to all those that posted worklogs and asked questions so that I could leverage your learning and start this project well prepared! :T

The HTGuide forum is absolutely inspiring, thank you for helping me turn my dream of diy hi-fi into a reality! These speakers sound nothing short of superb!

For those interested I am 25 and this was my first speaker project.

Inputs:
PC (S/PDIF)
Pro-ject Debut III

Receiver:
Harmon Kardon HK-3490

On to the show!

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Materials

Had to start the worklog with the traditional materials money shot :

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Mid tunnel & Baffle

Decided to start with the mid tunnels & baffle work

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Crossover beginnings

Because a majority of this project occurred on weekdays after work, I found myself running out of daylight too quickly! Luckily I used the night hours to work on other things like the xovers. Excuse my big, ugly, inefficient solder connections...I kept having nightmares about a loose solder connection so I went overboard ops: I taped them all up eventually...

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Cabinet

Trying to make due with the tools I have...will certainly be buying more clamps for my next large speaker project. Here you'll see I attached a rear panel to one of the cabinet's side panels, allowing me to affix the bracing and mid tunnel.

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Driver Routing

Had to purchase a router for this project!! What a thrill it was to add this to my tool collection and repertoire of woodworking skills.

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Top/Bottom

Cutting out & attaching the top/bottom pieces

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Side Panel

Now for the side panels!

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Routing, sanding...

At this point I began to think about the end game a bit and began routing the edges, sanding corners, and test fitting

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Hurricane Nuts & Scalloping

Some detail work behind the baffle, allowing the drivers to be locked in and breath

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Base & Foam

Beginning to come together as I craft the base with port.

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Foam

Beveled & glued in the internal acoustic foam

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Attaching the Crossovers

Final details on the crossovers, including the adhesion of double sided velcro tape (should I find myself needing to remove them in the future). A quick panic as I realized they would not be remove-able once I glued the baffle caused me to cut them down enough to fit through the woofer holes. At this point I also did a test fit of the drivers, ensuring the hurricane nuts were set & there were no last minute complications before gluing.

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Wiring

Wired up the cab with flat, in-wall wiring to allow easy hot-glue placement and tidy cable flow

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Baffle

No turning back! Time to glue the baffle!

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Final details

With everything glued & solid, I began the laborious road to completion. Began with an all-over sanding. After that, I went back with Bondo and corrected any noticeable flaws. The second picture here is "pre-bondo".

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That's all I've got for now! Give me a few more days and I'll post up the pictures of painting and final detailing. Will also include some shots of the current setup :T

[Jim Holtz]

Very, very nice! :T

Enjoy!

Jim

[AdelaaR]

Nice one

I like how you somewhat customized the base, but are you sure that there is enough clearance in the base to allow the port to breathe without chuffing?
And also ... doesn't your base design in fact "lengthen" the port, changing the design frequency?
Or are you going to put long spikes under there?

[johngalt47]

Very good write-up!

[Jim Holtz]

Nice one

I like how you somewhat customized the base, but are you sure that there is enough clearance in the base to allow the port to breathe without chuffing?
And also ... doesn't your base design in fact "lengthen" the port, changing the design frequency?
Or are you going to put long spikes under there?

Actually, the base looks like he's following my plan exactly. The base was a running change for the Statements too. There is ample breathing room and doesn't change cabinet tuning.

JIm

[AdelaaR]

Ok then ... just wanted to make sure.
I didn't know the mini's had such a base with the back left out like that.

[ratchetfps]

Nice one

I like how you somewhat customized the base, but are you sure that there is enough clearance in the base to allow the port to breathe without chuffing?
And also ... doesn't your base design in fact "lengthen" the port, changing the design frequency?
Or are you going to put long spikes under there?

As Jim stated, I followed the plans as close as possible. I added floor spikes towards the tail end of the build.

[AdelaaR]

As Jim stated, I followed the plans as close as possible. I added floor spikes towards the tail end of the build.

Ok my bad.
I thought the opening at the backside of the base was your design ... it'll be fine with spikes, as Jim said.
Anyway ... nice going with your build ... I like it!
The name "mini's" is quite funny though ... I'm sure your friends will frown when you point at your new speakers and say: "...and these are my new mini's" ... LOL :lol:

[BeerParty]

Make sure you seal up the opening where your wires enter the mid range tunnel so you don't have any air leaks.

Other than that, fantastic work so far! :T

[ratchetfps]

Ok my bad.
I thought the opening at the backside of the base was your design ... it'll be fine with spikes, as Jim said.
Anyway ... nice going with your build ... I like it!
The name "mini's" is quite funny though ... I'm sure your friends will frown when you point at your new speakers and say: "...and these are my new mini's" ... LOL :lol:

So true! Only on a forum such as this does a 44" tall pair of towers pass as "mini" :roll:

Make sure you seal up the opening where your wires enter the mid range tunnel so you don't have any air leaks.

Other than that, fantastic work so far! :T

Thanks for this tip, this is one area of my cabs I was concerned about. I used a 3/4" chamfer bit to make the indentation through which I pass the mid wires. While I did use a substantial amount of wood glue around all sides of the mid tunnel before baffle adhesion, I know wood glue does not expand like PL so there may be leakage. I wonder the impact on midwoofer performance? Now I am thinking I might go back and plug that area with some wood putty to be sure...

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By the way, beerparty, i would like to sincerely thank you for your great statement monitor build thread! I can't count the number of times I read through every detail of that thread and, in fact, you are the reason I went for chamfering instead of roundover! Absolutely beautiful speakers, you have; quite the inspiration for me!!

[JonMarsh]

Definitely a lot of sweat equity on this page! :T

[BeerParty]

By the way, beerparty, i would like to sincerely thank you for your great statement monitor build thread! I can't count the number of times I read through every detail of that thread and, in fact, you are the reason I went for chamfering instead of roundover! Absolutely beautiful speakers, you have; quite the inspiration for me!!

You are welcome, glad to hear I inspired/helped you with your build.

[BeerParty]

While I did use a substantial amount of wood glue around all sides of the mid tunnel before baffle adhesion, I know wood glue does not expand like PL so there may be leakage. I wonder the impact on midwoofer performance? Now I am thinking I might go back and plug that area with some wood putty to be sure...

As long as you got a little squeeze out from the wood glue, you should be fine. Your goal is to keep the woofer compartment airtight except for where the port exits the cabinet - any air leaks will throw off the response of the woofers.

[impala454]

Very nice work, great build! I'm anxious to see your steps to painting them. What are you doing to seal up the MDF edges?

[ratchetfps]

Very nice work, great build! I'm anxious to see your steps to painting them. What are you doing to seal up the MDF edges?

Will try to get them up this week :T

To seal the cabinet I first used bondo to smooth all imperfections and slight bits of misalignment. Once smooth and level, I coated the cabs in a 60/40 solution of wood glue/water, sanded, coated with the glue solution, and sanded once more before priming.

I did a few tests before going with the watered down wood glue sealer, including sanding sealer and fiberglass resin. I simply could not get the sanding sealer to sufficiently cover the porous edges, even after 3-4 coats, prompting me to move to something more viscous, fiberglass resin. I did two test runs using fiberglass, once with the resin alone and once having cut it with (apologies if I can't recall the correct name), styrene monomer. Both results were incredibly difficult to sand and left me all too eager to move forward with the wood glue approach!

It has been almost a year since I've sealed these and most seems are still invisible.

[NPE]

looks great and nice thread!

What are you going to do for finish?

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Completely spaced on wrapping up this thread, I'm so ashamed! But now I get the chance to come back years later and finally share the exciting conclusion!

I've also uploaded all of my worklog photos to HTGuide so they can live on here, as my previous host went down.

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Prepping for Paint

I touched up a few spots using bondo, sanded it down, then sealed the cabs with a mixture of wood glue and water. Went through a few rounds of sanding & wood glue to get a great surface for painting.

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Painting

With the cabs sealed I then laid down a coat of primer, wet sanded, then moved on to the black! Laid down a few coats of black with laborious wet sanding in between.

I wanted a flat black finish so ultimately I opted out of sealing with clear. There just seemed to be more risk than reward and I was really digging the look of the last few layers of black! Looking back on this 6 years later I totally stand by my decision =)

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Finished!

After many months of love, I was finally able to breath life into these speakers! I can't believe it's been 6 years since I made these...these speakers remain one of my proudest accomplishments to date.

I cannot praise the sound enough, the mini statements were, and continue to be, an absolute dream. I had never heard high end articulation like this before and was stunned by the supremely tight, low end accuracy. Seriously life changing speakers that have astounded dozens of people to this date.

One of the big reasons I opted for the mini statements was their size, a consideration that came in extremely handy as I've transported these to 2 other apartments since construction. Here's a pic of the apartment of origin, followed by my next lair. Next week I have some new equipment arriving, finally upgrading from the HK receiver, and will take some pics of my latest pad with these stunning beauties!

My deepest thanks and respect to Jim Holtz, Curt Campbell, and Brian Walter for the concept, documentation, and support for this incredible project. You fellas are nothing short of incredible!! I can honestly say that building these speakers was one of the best decisions of my life, it was very daunting, challenging at times, but ultimately an incredibly rewarding experience that has paid MASSIVE dividends. Looking forward to my next project when I finally have a place where I can start woodworking again.

[Jim Holtz]

They look great! We're really glad to hear you're enjoying them. :T

Jim