My full sized Statements II build

[sawdust]

I actually used waxed shellac by mistake, prior to finding out you shouldn't with a topcoat and I've had no issues with my oil based wipe on poly topcoat. The poly I used was thin enough that I applied it with circular motions and it worked out fine. Again I would experiment, but wipe on poly is a whole lot easier than applying shellac as shellac dries so darn fast. If you're happy with the shellac part the last step is easy. Easy that is with a lint free cloth! BTW, they look great! :T

Thanks Jim and 5th Element.

My plan at this stage is to add hopefully one more slightly thicker coat of Shellac after lightly sanding it. This should make them nice and pretty so they can take pride of place in the living room while I work on the poly technique.

Although the plan was always for a nice glossy finish, I actually quite like the look of the wood grain coming through.

Hmmmmm decisions

Has anyone actually applied a top coat over waxed shellac? How did you do it? I understand simply adding a layer of dewaxed over top first will work as a good base for poly and cancel out the waxed shellac. Naturally Ill be testing this first!

Thanks for everyones great advice!

[Hank]

Spleen21: Great job on your planning and execution - beautiful result. I like your Jarrah choice. My finish of choice has always been hand-rubbed Danish oil. Starting with 400 0r 600 grit Wet-Or-Dry paper and lots of oil, up to 1200 grit, you'll get a finish that is so glossy that many will think you polyurethaned the veneer. But oil, IMO, makes grain pop like nothing else - look what French polish does for grain pop. The caveat with oil of course is that it's the least protective finish. Don't let your mates set their sweating cold cans of beer on top of your speakers.
Enjoy the fruits of your labor:T

[spleen21]

Thanks Hank,

I tried danish oils during my testing and I agree, It looks fantastic! Unfortunately it completely destroyed the contact cement under the veneer causing it to bubble and separate
I do have some jarrah timber I was going to use for the front baffles but eventually decided against. I have a couple of other small project ideas in mind for that timber and I may just give the danish oil a try on those!

[spleen21]

A quick photo showing a jar of 1 lb cut waxed shellac i mixed up for the second speaker box. I let it sit undisturbed in a dark closet for two days. You can clearly see the wax settled on the bottom of the jar.

Theoretically, the shellac liquid sitting on top...... is now de-waxed

[5th element]

Hmm the wax free shellac that we've always used has been clear, I guess it's just different stuff.

[spleen21]

Clear you say? Hmmmmmm, interesting. :/

[5th element]

Yeah, like completely clear. I'm assuming that what you dissolved it in was clear?

We always made ours up with really pure ethanol though, so perhaps that's making a difference. Once it evaporates though, what's left behind should be the same. I'm just wondering if the waxed version actually has stuff still in suspension rather than having it all collect at the bottom?

I am assuming that the stuff without wax will stick to the stuff with wax. The problem with putting poly on top, I am assuming again, with the waxed stuff is that the finish just doesn't stick. If you were to put one final layer of dewaxed shellac on before you go at it with the poly, then that might get around it.

[spleen21]

I used clear methylated spirits I bought from an automotive paint supply shop. Its what was reccomended by the furniture restorers I bought the shellac flakes from.

I did read that the commercially dewaxed shellac is dewaxed through a chemical process. Since my shellac hasnt been through this process perhaps thats the difference?

Im still really happy with how my DIY dewaxed shellac looks and will do some more tests before applying any poly.

Could potentially put a commercially available dewaxed shellac on last before the poly if need be

[deewan]

Great design. And thank you for posting the files. If/when i decide to build the Statements again, they will be used and I will gladly post pictures and refer back to you.

[Jim Holtz]

Great design. And thank you for posting the files. If/when i decide to build the Statements again, they will be used and I will gladly post pictures and refer back to you.

Hi Deewan,

If you ever get to Des Moines, you're welcome to listen to my Statements II, Finalists and we can demo HT with the Statements II.

You're always welcome to rejoin the family.

Jim

[spleen21]

Thanks Deewan. I've learnt alot from these forums. I feel like this is my small way of giving something back! I look forward to seeing them

[Hank]

Unfortunately it completely destroyed the contact cement under the veneer causing it to bubble and separate

surprising - I've always used contact cement and have never had it react adversely to my Danish oil regimine. What backing is on your veneer?
I've never used dewaxed shellac, but have seen photos in which it appeared slightly cloudy, but not colored.

[spleen21]

Its raw veneer with no backing. Its surprisingly hard to find someone who will sell veneer to the home diy'er here in New Zealand, so that was all I could get. Wouldnt you know it, I later found a supplier in Australia who will gladly ship to New Zealand. Ill be using them next time.

Yeah It was the worst reaction ive had to the contact cement yet. So bad that I rolled some more cement on to a blank piece of scrap wood and let it dry. I wiped some danish oil directly onto the glue and left it a couple of minutes, just to see what would happen. When I wiped it with a rag, the glue came right off. Didnt even put up a fight haha!

Oh well, all part of the fun

[deewan]

Hi Deewan,

If you ever get to Des Moines, you're welcome to listen to my Statements II, Finalists and we can demo HT with the Statements II.

You're always welcome to rejoin the family.

Jim

Thanks Jim. I'm over in the area a few times a year for golf or Home theater meets. So I may take you up on your offer. I miss the sound of my Statements, but the wife doesn't miss their size.

[spleen21]

So its about time for a post!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do much work on the speakers for a few weeks due to work. Once that died down though i got back into it.

I tried a number of test panels but ultimately found that no matter what i tried, i couldn't get anything to stick to the waxed shellac. It would seem that my "home de-waxing" didn't work . I tried all sorts of combinations of polyurethane and commercially de-waxed shellacs on top but nothing worked and it would ultimately end up peeling away. So i've settled on doing multiple layers of my waxy shellac which still looks great

So on to the next part of the build. Foam, and wiring!

The foam was relatively straight forward. I used 2" wedge foam inside the woofer chambers with a kind of spray on contact cement. You can see how it turned out in some of the photos below.
I then used some 1" "egg crate" foam in the mid tunnels. I wanted to use flat foam but all i could find was designed for filters which was ridiculously expensive. Its not glued in just yet as i want to paint the tunnels black again before gluing it in.



Since i started my build, i haven't found much info on how people have wired their speakers up. I wasn't too concerned about this part but i was still curious how others wired theirs. So i thought i'd post some info and pics of how i've wired mine.

If iv'e made any serious whoopsies with how i've done the wiring or crossovers please speak up! Any suggestions will be gratefully received!

One thing i wasn't sure of was how to wire 5 drivers in to one crossover. After much thought i decided i wanted to use as little wire as possible. For this reason i've used a common ground wire running up the box from the crossover in the base plus one positive wire for the woofers, one for the mids and one for the tweeter. This means only four wires running up inside the box. These all run to a screw terminal mounted behind the tweeter and split into two for the woofers and two for the mids. I figure this will keep the signal path to each driver the same length. I don't know if having different lengths would affect the sound of the speakers but it helps me to sleep at night :lol:

This screw terminal is also where i reversed the polarity to the mids as per Curts crossover design.



The wires are all secured inside the box with cable ties

This photo is looking up through the bottom woofer hole.


All speaker wires are connected with crimp terminals colour coded (+ & -) with red and black heat shrink.
The signal wires come down through the box to the crossover with the ground wire connecting to the negative binding post on its way down to the crossover. There is also one short signal wire from the positive binding post to the input of the crossover.



I also re built the crossovers onto the bases and i'm far happier with them now than i was when i originally built them on to hard board. They don't take up too much room but i trimmed the wedge foam around the base just in case the resistors get hot. I also left a bit of room between each resistor for heat dissipation. All components are secured with copious amounts of hot glue and the inductors are all mounted 90 degrees out of phase to each other.

Being mounted to the base also means they are easily removable should i need to do anything with them further down the line.



The only disadvantages i've found so far with doing the wiring like this is firstly, you have to be careful not to pinch the signal wires between the base and its mount as you install the base. Secondly, i'll wrap the wires in some thin foam or something so they don't rattle against the bass port. I'm not sure if they even make contact with the bass port but it can't hurt to do it anyway.

All in all i was really happy with the wiring and crossover layout.

So thats pretty much it. I've had them both up and running all weekend and couldn't be happier with how they sound! I deliberately haven't posted pics of them just yet as i still have to paint one base black as well as painting behind all the drivers black. These are minor finishing touches but I will get this done in the next couple of days and post pics of the completed speakers then.

I think it's finally time to get a good 20 hrs of running-in time into them! I can't wait to test them out properly. I've got a good stash of music, movies and playstation games all just dying for a go on the statements.

My poor neighbours! :T

[Jim Holtz]

Beautiful! Excellent build! :T

Jim

[spleen21]

Thanks Jim! Im really happy with them!

[deewan]

I have to add to Jim's comment, these are great looking speakers and excellent craftsmanship! Well done sir!

[spleen21]

Thanks Deewan. They took alot longer than i originally thought. 9 months from start to finish. Im actually a bit sad the build is over.
Im now thinking about designing a statement II center in google sketchup and perhaps something to use for surrounds. Finalists perhaps? Maybe statement monitors? Hmmmmmm

Any suggestions anyone? What would nicely complement the statement II's?

[JonMarsh]

Very nice looking build, congratulations on your results! :T And nine months is pretty quick for a big DIY build- heck, even doing a rework of a past design and having some Canadian guys do a lot of the cabinet work for me, I'm already creeping up on 10 months, and only one cab is complete, the other needs to be stuffed, loaded, and the crossover finished! You're doing fine! :T

[Carl V]

Thanks Deewan. They took alot longer than i originally thought. 9 months from start to finish. Im actually a bit sad the build is over.
Im now thinking about designing a statement II center in google sketchup and perhaps something to use for surrounds. Finalists perhaps? Maybe statement monitors? Hmmmmmm

Any suggestions anyone? What would nicely complement the statement II's?

https://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php?42089-Sealed-Statement-2-LCR-question&p=593337#post593337

it appears as though they have such a beast just for you.

Oh and fine work...slow work takes time or so I've read.8)

[spleen21]

Thanks JonMarsh. Thats just setting the fire burning in me for another build! I should really hurry up and buy a house to put these in! Not that my flatmate minds having the statements hooked into his system for the time being!

Thankyou Carl V! Ive been searching all over the interwebs trying to find the statement II center plans! I Thought i'd missed something and was going to have to ask a glaringly obvious question on where to find them haha!

Ill get the plans soon and start designing. Ive recently come across a workmates brother who may CNC my next parts for a box of beer!

Just the right price!

[kevinm]

I attached them to this thread (Post 23):

https://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php?41930-New-center-channels-for-the-Statements-II-and-The-Finalists

[Jim Holtz]

Perfect! Thank you! I'd forgotten that everything was in the center channel thread.

Jim

[spleen21]

Thats great! Thanks guys!

[ttan98]

Spleen21,

Excellent workmanship(BTW I don't have your skill and patience), if you count the number of man hours you spent on building the cabinet and put a meagre $10/hr you would be very surprised how much your speakers would cost. Most likely more than the total cost of the drivers plus x-over.

Anyway you can enjoy them at the end of your build. Cheers.

[bostonmurf]

some of the most beautiful speakers I've ever seen. you must be over the moon with the outcome. well done sir!

[spleen21]

Ttan98. I hadnt thought of it like that! Kind of puts it in perspective!

Thanks bostonmurf. Very happy indeed!

Ive been bitten by the bug!

Anyone know if curving the sides of some finalists.........to match the statements......... would be possible without affecting sound? They seem like the perfect match as surrounds acousticly, would love them to match asthetically also!

[spleen21]

As promised, a final build post with the second base painted and all foam glued in. The speaker positioning is awful but it will have to do while i live at my friends place. Im looking to buy my first house and needless to say, a decent TV/speaker room is pretty high on the requirement list.

It gives me plenty of time to plan my statement II center and finalist surrounds :lol:

[kevinm]

Those look sharp. Congratulations!

[WLDock]

Great build...thanks for sharing!

[Philzeemon]

spleen21..Your statements build looks grand...In post 37 you've indicated using black button head machine screws to secure the drivers...What size and type of female fasteners did you use..were they t-nuts, hurricaine nuts?... It would seem to me the RS-225's would need a heavier fastener, than the peerless/vifa mids or the Neo CD3 tweeter. I'm also curious about if you had made grill covers to mate with those magnets. Again those are one awesome looking set of speakers, Thanks, Phil

[TEK]

Anyone know if curving the sides of some finalists.........to match the statements......... would be possible without affecting sound? They seem like the perfect match as surrounds acousticly, would love them to match asthetically also!

As long as you keep the baffel width and internal volume the same you should be just fine - I think...

Greate build btw - congrats!

[spleen21]

Hi Philzeemon,

I used M5 screws for the rs225's and M4 for the Vifa mids and tweeters. From memory they were all 15mm long. I secured them with matching, knock in threaded inserts which i epoxied into their pre-drilled holes. The woofers are safe as houses and won't budge. The mounting holes are only 5.3mm anyway so won't take a screw much larger than that.
I haven't built grills for them yet as i'm still living at my friends house and the speakers havent moved from the "finished" photos i posted. However, i have just bought my first home and move in next month so will finally be able to set them up properly and will look to build grills for them then. The room is still a bit small for speakers the size of the statements but fortunately for me, the girlfriend loves them and can't wait to set them up properly! Anyone jealous?

Thanks TEK,

I thought that might be the case. With the new house i may look at starting some finalists or something else. The house has a nice sunny area where i'd like to set up my turntable and vinyl collection and would like some nice listening speakers. Obviously the couch would be in the sun.....not the turntable or vinyl 8O

Any suggestions for music only speakers? Naturally i'll have to look at a statement centre at some point too!

[danwee12345]

So its about time for a post!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do much work on the speakers for a few weeks due to work. Once that died down though i got back into it.

I tried a number of test panels but ultimately found that no matter what i tried, i couldn't get anything to stick to the waxed shellac. It would seem that my "home de-waxing" didn't work . I tried all sorts of combinations of polyurethane and commercially de-waxed shellacs on top but nothing worked and it would ultimately end up peeling away. So i've settled on doing multiple layers of my waxy shellac which still looks great

So on to the next part of the build. Foam, and wiring!

The foam was relatively straight forward. I used 2" wedge foam inside the woofer chambers with a kind of spray on contact cement. You can see how it turned out in some of the photos below.
I then used some 1" "egg crate" foam in the mid tunnels. I wanted to use flat foam but all i could find was designed for filters which was ridiculously expensive. Its not glued in just yet as i want to paint the tunnels black again before gluing it in.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23506[/ATTACH]

Since i started my build, i haven't found much info on how people have wired their speakers up. I wasn't too concerned about this part but i was still curious how others wired theirs. So i thought i'd post some info and pics of how i've wired mine.

If iv'e made any serious whoopsies with how i've done the wiring or crossovers please speak up! Any suggestions will be gratefully received!

One thing i wasn't sure of was how to wire 5 drivers in to one crossover. After much thought i decided i wanted to use as little wire as possible. For this reason i've used a common ground wire running up the box from the crossover in the base plus one positive wire for the woofers, one for the mids and one for the tweeter. This means only four wires running up inside the box. These all run to a screw terminal mounted behind the tweeter and split into two for the woofers and two for the mids. I figure this will keep the signal path to each driver the same length. I don't know if having different lengths would affect the sound of the speakers but it helps me to sleep at night :lol:

This screw terminal is also where i reversed the polarity to the mids as per Curts crossover design.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23507[/ATTACH]

The wires are all secured inside the box with cable ties

This photo is looking up through the bottom woofer hole.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]23508[/ATTACH]

All speaker wires are connected with crimp terminals colour coded (+ & -) with red and black heat shrink.
The signal wires come down through the box to the crossover with the ground wire connecting to the negative binding post on its way down to the crossover. There is also one short signal wire from the positive binding post to the input of the crossover.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23510[/ATTACH]

I also re built the crossovers onto the bases and i'm far happier with them now than i was when i originally built them on to hard board. They don't take up too much room but i trimmed the wedge foam around the base just in case the resistors get hot. I also left a bit of room between each resistor for heat dissipation. All components are secured with copious amounts of hot glue and the inductors are all mounted 90 degrees out of phase to each other.

Being mounted to the base also means they are easily removable should i need to do anything with them further down the line.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23509[/ATTACH]

The only disadvantages i've found so far with doing the wiring like this is firstly, you have to be careful not to pinch the signal wires between the base and its mount as you install the base. Secondly, i'll wrap the wires in some thin foam or something so they don't rattle against the bass port. I'm not sure if they even make contact with the bass port but it can't hurt to do it anyway.

All in all i was really happy with the wiring and crossover layout.

So thats pretty much it. I've had them both up and running all weekend and couldn't be happier with how they sound! I deliberately haven't posted pics of them just yet as i still have to paint one base black as well as painting behind all the drivers black. These are minor finishing touches but I will get this done in the next couple of days and post pics of the completed speakers then.

I think it's finally time to get a good 20 hrs of running-in time into them! I can't wait to test them out properly. I've got a good stash of music, movies and playstation games all just dying for a go on the statements.

My poor neighbours! :T

I have a question about the bases.
You said somewhere you made some temporary bases. They are no longer of use after the completion of the speakers? And if I'm not mistaken, the bottom plate (the piece with the port attached) is not glued, but screwed to the bottom brace? Isn't that a problem that there are gaps around the bottom piece because it's not glued?

Thanks, and sorry for lots of questions.

[spleen21]

Hi Danwee. No problem at all. I asked lots of questions while building mine as well.

The pictures in post #5 kind of show the bases. If i get a chance ill try and take a couple of better photos for you today. They were meant to be temporary but with a lick of black spray paint, i actually quite like them!

The black parts with the wheels are all one piece and the part with the bass tube and crossovers attached is a seperate piece that slots into the bottom of the speaker. It sits up inside the bottom of the speaker and is flush with the bottom edge. The black wheely parts then attach to the bottom. They do not fit in to anything and essentially just sit there, held in by the 6 bolts. There are no gaps anyway and in fact, it is a very tight fit and they can be difficult to get apart.

I hope this explanation helps. Ill try to get some photos for you.

[danwee12345]

Hi Danwee. No problem at all. I asked lots of questions while building mine as well.

The pictures in post #5 kind of show the bases. If i get a chance ill try and take a couple of better photos for you today. They were meant to be temporary but with a lick of black spray paint, i actually quite like them!

The black parts with the wheels are all one piece and the part with the bass tube and crossovers attached is a seperate piece that slots into the bottom of the speaker. It sits up inside the bottom of the speaker and is flush with the bottom edge. The black wheely parts then attach to the bottom. They do not fit in to anything and essentially just sit there, held in by the 6 bolts. There are no gaps anyway and in fact, it is a very tight fit and they can be difficult to get apart.

I hope this explanation helps. Ill try to get some photos for you.

Thanks Spleen21 for the explanation.

//the part with the bass tube and crossovers attached is a separate piece that slots into the bottom of the speaker. //
The bottom photo on the post #60 show only piece with the bass tube? or the bass tube piece sitting on the base?
So you're saying to attach both the base and the bottom piece (with the bass tube) to the cabinet you using 6 bolts, which will tighten them to the 6 insert nuts on the bottom brace? No gluing at all.
Yes . The photos would be helpful if it's not too much trouble. Especially the piece with the bass tube.

[spleen21]

Apologies for the delay Danwee.

The photo in post #60 shows just the piece with the bass port attached. The actual base itself is not in the photo. Hopefully these pics will clear things up a bit.

Below is the order in which the pieces are bolted together.



Next photo is the bass port/crossover piece sitting flush with the bottom of the speaker.
Ive only painted the bottom face of this piece black as it may show once assembled. The top, with the crossover glued on, is still MDF yellow as in post #60.



The base is bolted on last.
I still haven't got around to painting the bottom of this part yet and the wheels are proving to be very useful :P

I hope this helps

[danwee12345]

Apologies for the delay Danwee.

The photo in post #60 shows just the piece with the bass port attached. The actual base itself is not in the photo. Hopefully these pics will clear things up a bit.

Below is the order in which the pieces are bolted together.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]24536[/ATTACH]

Next photo is the bass port/crossover piece sitting flush with the bottom of the speaker.
Ive only painted the bottom face of this piece black as it may show once assembled. The top, with the crossover glued on, is still MDF yellow as in post #60.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]24537[/ATTACH]

The base is bolted on last.
I still haven't got around to painting the bottom of this part yet and the wheels are proving to be very useful :P

I hope this helps

[ATTACH=CONFIG]24538[/ATTACH]

Thank you very much. Sorry for the trouble caused by my question.

[spleen21]

No trouble at all. It hope it helps with your build also!

[JoeAngelicchio]

I know I'm bringing up an older post but going through some Statement threads, I still can't get over the cabinets on these speakers!!!

[spleen21]

Thanks Joe. They were a lot of fun to build and i use them every day!

[kennijay]

I know this is an old thread but I am in the research and learning phase of building a set of statement IIs and just had a question about the cnc files. Are the inner parts cnc'ed with the curve and you will have to curve the sides yourself. I have never did a curved anything an DIY speakers and not sure how to do that.
This will be my most expensive DIY build I have ever undertaken and don't want any costly mistakes on expensive 3/4" MDF. Which is why I plan on having all the wood cnc'ed at a company local to me. This will be my fifth diy speaker build having built a set of BFM SLA Pro's (full size and short versions), a BFM Tuba HT Slim, A set of Transmisson Line towers I'm still slowly putting the finishing touches on, and a home theater sub based of the Shiva box design. This one looks intimidating, but I beleive I can pull it off. Will be buying all the parts slowly as I have disposal funds available. Will start a build thread the day I start building.

[spleen21]

Hi Kennijay,

Sounds like you're a pro at speaker building. The curved statements are intimidating but shouldnt be too much trouble for someone like yourself with a bit of experience.
My cnc files (hopefully the dropbox link still works) include all the internal pieces and the front and rear baffles. The internal frame pieces do have the curve but the walls are not included in the file.
Ive detailed in my build blog how i did the side walls by laminating 6, 3mm (1/8" in old timey speak) pieces of mdf together. Don't skimp on the ratchet clamps. I broke many cheap ones while doing the laminations. It wouldve been cheaper to just buy the decent ones for a start.
The curving technique was very time consuming and a fairly physical process as the boxes get heavier, but ultimately turned out really nice. I was really happy the curved walls.
I hope this helps. Feel free to ask questions. Ill help as best as i can.
Good luck and id love to see some photos of your build!

[kennijay]

Thanks for replying spleen21. the DropBox link does still work and I was able to download the files. Is there any thing that I need to do to the cnc file before I take to the CNC factory for cutting?
Also I do believe now that those sidewalls may not be as bad as I thought. I'm just a little short on clamps and straps right now, but should have those soon.