Dayton Ultimax 12 Build

[MrBoat]

Nothing really exciting. Going to make it match the Tempests if it sounds good. 2.0 cu ft sealed. Music only.

I have all the sides cut. The inner brace is roughed out. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. Didn't bother using the table saw. Circular saw and a straight edge.

This is the circular saw in mention. There's a story behind it. When I was building the boat, some doper broke in while I was at work and liberated all of my power tools, air compressor/tools and my best fishing rods. That left me with a Japanese Ryoba saw. I was so pissed off, plus having momentum with the boat build relying on those tools as well, I decided to finish the boat with the few hand tools I had left. I'm pretty convinced you could build a whole house with a ryoba saw and a few sharp chisels, and rather efficiently at that. They're very fast and accurate. On the brighter side, building at night in the back yard, it didn't wake the neighbors up.

Which brings me back to this old Monkey Ward saw. My two sons, who were 8 and 12 years old at the time, felt bad (plus they wanted me to finish 'their' boat) about my tools being stolen, pooled their money together and bought me this at a yard sale for 15 dollars on their own. They were really proud of it. Put a new Diablo blade in it and have used it ever since. Built a heap of projects with it. I have a newer Makita right next to it and rarely use it.

A little layout work for the braces.

They actually fit first try. I'll sand the innards and round them over maybe. No rabbets on the cases. Just butts, glue and brads, maybe a few screws. Getting covered with veneer most likely and a full size faceplate. Luckily they didn't take the bandsaw.

 

[lovinthehd]

Just curious, why the 2cft box? Is that gross or net? I went with a nice little used bench saw setup altho I do have straight edges for my circular saw but I am positive my skills with any of the tools don't come close to approaching yours.

 

[MrBoat]

Just curious, why the 2cft box? Is that gross or net? I went with a nice little used bench saw setup altho I do have straight edges for my circular saw but I am positive my skills with any of the tools don't come close to approaching yours.

It's what size the box is at parts express, made by the same ppl that make the tempest. Box is, 16"W x 19"H x 20"L.

 

[MrBoat]

Just curious, why the 2cft box? Is that gross or net? I went with a nice little used bench saw setup altho I do have straight edges for my circular saw but I am positive my skills with any of the tools don't come close to approaching yours.

That's what is good about that old saw and why I like it. It doesn't have so much torque that it jumps around. Easy to keep on the straight edge. and most of the dust misses the path so dust doesn't get between the shoe and the straightedge either.

 

[MrBoat]

This lifted from the Dayton website.

Cabinet recommendations:
• Sealed 2.0 cubic ft. (net internal) with 1 lbs. of Acousta-Stuf polyfill, f3 of 36 Hz with a 0.707 Qtc alignment
• Vented 4.0 cubic ft. (net internal, not including driver or port volume) tuned to 20 Hz with a 10" wide by 1.5" high slot port that is 25" long, which yields an f3 of 19 Hz

http://www.daytonaudio.com/index.php/um12-22-12-ultimax-dvc-subwoofer-2-ohm-per-coil.html

 

[MrBoat]

A little dry fit-up with a couple temporary brads just to see how my measuring turned out. I had forgotten that the actual dimensional size of plywood isn't accurate. 3/4" is not 3/4". I knew better. It's been that way for a long time now. My tape measure and rulers do not know this.

Anyway, I pretty much nailed it. I did allow some 'slight' wiggle room for glue. The flat packs often don't. The overall sizes tend to change after that fact with regard to things assembling perfectly flush.

The brace is just sitting in there however it will.

 

[MrBoat]

The main carcass is put together. Everything fit. In spite of my crude attack, I managed it to within 1/32" of being perfectly square. Heck, a half dull pencil can cumulatively add up to that in just a couple moves.

The main baffle isn't glued in yet, nor are the cabinet sides sanded flush. Started running out of daylight and with a few sprinkles. I'm going to shave the ends of the braces a bit so that the baffle sits truer. Also so I can have a little to sand of the sides to meet it. Used a router with a jig for this hole and the terminal hole. Speaker fits nicely. The spec calls for 11.22" I made the hole 11.25. Fits nicely without much wiggle room.

Still need to make the faceplate next.

 

[MrBoat]

The terminal hole is done. It's a scrap of 7 ply 9mm Meranti marine plywood leftover from the boat. Even the tiniest scraps of such is a gem.

Thousands of years from now, when they are excavating our ruins, they will find a bunch of dust, plastic bits, and this little wooden cookie, still mint.

 

[panteragstk]

Very nice work.

 

[MrBoat]

I did actually round over all the inside edges of the braces. Even though they will rarely be seen, perhaps some years from now after I am gone and my kids have to take it apart, they'll reminisce and have a laugh about their ol' man's OCD.

Same with the boat. All the framing under decks is Honduras Mahogany finished clear and I only see it when I lift the hatches to clean the bilge.

 

[MrBoat]

Got everything done. Now I wait for a couple cables. 2 of which have been sitting in Ft. Lauderdale since the 17th, after they were already in Tampa. Ordered another set from ebay once I saw the others ending up elsewhere. Those should be here Monday. The original ones? I just know by the time I get it sorted out, I could have wrought and spun the wire myself from scratch.

Got the face baffle cut and the hole out with my fancy jig.

Came out very nice. Trimmed all the fuzz with a utility knife.

Perfect fit. Maybe 1/64" of slack all around. Will give the face baffle the epoxy resin treatment to get rid of the ply edges at the round-overs, and to seal and lock down the grain of the surface. The epoxy also serves as a primer/surfacer.

 

[MrBoat]

Epoxied the face. Thinned laminating resin about 20% with denatured alcohol. Keep applying it every few mins until it won't take any more. Will sand the flats with the DA, and give the round-overs a once-over tune-up with the long board.

 

[djreef]

Damn!

Nice work.

Power tools scare the sh it outta me.

DJ

 

[MrBoat]

Got the polyfil installed. Somehow, spray adhesive and hair seemed more like hope and a prayer approach so I used tulle fabric and staples to upholster it in there. I tacked it in such a way so I could add or remove stuffing if need be. It's still a little loose around the binding posts but I will tidy that up once I get the wires in.

 

[MrBoat]

Well. . . .it works. Good grief, man. You folks with the 15" and up subs have to be slightly. . . . insane.

I am glad I built the sealed version for music because it's more than enough, and that with just the first level light on the Inuke 3000 lit up. I have to admit, the bass is very clean and there is no overlapping echo bouncing around the house, which is weird because when we get a thunder storm, it will resonate in here sometimes.

I honestly don't know how I could have done any better with a store bought sub. This thing is potent as all get out and it sure blends well with the Tempests and so far, is coming across as a perfect match for music.

I was hesitant to get into this tonight, but before work this am, I sanded the front baffle anyway just in case so I could dry fit the whole works together for a trial run. It was the AVR and amp settings I wasn't sure if I wanted to mess with more than anything else, plus I didn't have the cables made up yet.

I have to hand it to you folks with all the help you have given me. In next to no time at all, I ended up with one hell of a potent audio setup and saved a ton of $ doing it. I really haven't suffered any economic/quality compromises, especially considering the value of the DIY/achievement aspect.

Thank you, everybody.

 

[slipperybidness]

Well. . . .it works. Good grief, man. You folks with the 15" and up subs have to be slightly. . . . insane.

I am glad I built the sealed version for music because it's more than enough, and that with just the first level light on the Inuke 3000 lit up. I have to admit, the bass is very clean and there is no overlapping echo bouncing around the house, which is weird because when we get a thunder storm, it will resonate in here sometimes.

I honestly don't know how I could have done any better with a store bought sub. This thing is potent as all get out and it sure blends well with the Tempests and so far, is coming across as a perfect match for music.

I was hesitant to get into this tonight, but before work this am, I sanded the front baffle anyway just in case so I could dry fit the whole works together for a trial run. It was the AVR and amp settings I wasn't sure if I wanted to mess with more than anything else, plus I didn't have the cables made up yet.

I have to hand it to you folks with all the help you have given me. In next to no time at all, I ended up with one hell of a potent audio setup and saved a ton of $ doing it. I really haven't suffered any economic/quality compromises, especially considering the value of the DIY/achievement aspect.

Thank you, everybody.

It's really great to have another DIY guy on here! This really isn't the forum for the DIY group, but there are a handful on here. You really just can't beat the value proposition for DIY, and you get to learn something along the way here too!

Another item that is refreshing--You came in as the new guy asking for advice, and you ACTUALLY followed the advice! Many newbs will come to this site with their own ideas, just looking for validation, then they get butt-hurt when they are told "that's a bad idea and you need to learn more before you proceed on this".

I'm not a woodworker so I haven't done any speaker builds myself, though the kits make that a poor excuse. Personally, I've really been wanting a set of the ER18s or the JB Solstice (same designer as your tempest, using all Morel drivers in a TL cab".

I'm more on the electronics side of DIY, and I have several non-audio DIY projects too. I have several threads on here that document my work, but it seems like some of my pics aren't posting anymore. Dunno what happened there.

 

[djreef]

Well. . . .it works. Good grief, man. You folks with the 15" and up subs have to be slightly. . . . insane.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

DJ

 

[slipperybidness]

Well. . . .it works. Good grief, man. You folks with the 15" and up subs have to be slightly. . . . insane.

I am glad I built the sealed version for music because it's more than enough, and that with just the first level light on the Inuke 3000 lit up. I have to admit, the bass is very clean and there is no overlapping echo bouncing around the house, which is weird because when we get a thunder storm, it will resonate in here sometimes.

I honestly don't know how I could have done any better with a store bought sub. This thing is potent as all get out and it sure blends well with the Tempests and so far, is coming across as a perfect match for music.

I was hesitant to get into this tonight, but before work this am, I sanded the front baffle anyway just in case so I could dry fit the whole works together for a trial run. It was the AVR and amp settings I wasn't sure if I wanted to mess with more than anything else, plus I didn't have the cables made up yet.

I have to hand it to you folks with all the help you have given me. In next to no time at all, I ended up with one hell of a potent audio setup and saved a ton of $ doing it. I really haven't suffered any economic/quality compromises, especially considering the value of the DIY/achievement aspect.

Thank you, everybody.

I'm running GE T2 (built in "subs" and amps) along with a Rythmik F15HP.
http://rythmikaudio.com/F15HP_specs.html

 

[MrBoat]

I was really starting to wonder about you folks when the size of this 'little' cube started to become apparent with relation to my house. There is something ultimately and excessively 'American' about it. Kind of like my granddad's Pontiac Catalina or my father's Buick Electra 225, with this essentially the small block version family gas guzzler. This audio trend, where main speakers have gotten tiny, and the bass implements have grown to epidemic, exponential proportion, is comical. Like cartoon comical. Then there's the seeming, ever present misnomer that revolves around the often mentioned "WAF."

 

[lovinthehd]

I don't think having a small handful of 18"s makes me insane at all compared to some who have 16 or more of them. A single 12 just won't cut it in my rooms