Finished top of my (Roy Rogers Wagon Wheel) Sonotube (1 Viewer)

[Mike Keith]

I don't have a working web page so I'll have to post this at AR, since they have got with the program and have added pic hosting (don't know why this board hasn't yet). Anyway, this is the top of one of my sonotubes, which I'll have mostly finished this week, hope to get my Port Plug/Flow Guide turned this week also. BTW these Maelstroms are house wreckers, amazing amount of bass and very musical too, I'm very pleased with these drivers, can't imagine the Tempest being any better.

Link to pic of finished Top and covered Tube.
http://forums14.consumerreview.com/[email protected]

Can't tell I'm from Texas by this pic, can ya.

 

[Brian Fellmeth]

Stunning, as usuaul. What is that finish ? Perfect choice for that wood.

 

[Mike Keith]

Thanks for the compliment:

The finish is "Bleached Stone" Textured paint; a real pain to make good clean edges near the inlays but it looks good. If I hadn’t already used this on my mains I would never do this again, it takes several days and a lot of tedious detailing to make this transition from rough textured paint into the smooth inlays.

 

[JoelTW]

Wow, that's pretty cool... Looks hard to do

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Mike - that is different and it is cool! Good job! I also used that textured ston spray paint on my Tempest sonosub top.

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

I think hank beat me to the my exact words "that is different and it is cool!"

 

[Mike Keith]

This is so frustrating that I cant post any pictures here, I have so many good pics and when I’m finished there will be many more. This is the pinnacle of DIY Sonotube and sub forums on the entire Internet IMO. I trust and admire the comments from the regulars here more than any other forums because of the true passion and vast experience for DIY subs and Sonotube projects, this place is the reason I am building a Pair Sonotube subs. I think a picture is by far the best way to communicate the ideas of our DIY projects to others, and these specialty forums are a Godsend for us fanatics, but only if there is a Picture to accompany the words. I love to see pictures of everybody’s projects it truly awakens my imagination, and gives me inspiration.

So why can’t this site which is probably the most heavily trafficked DIY site on the Internet, (and surly one of the most lucrative judging from the sponsorship advertisements) have a picture hosting program like so many others that have not even half the traffic?

OK enough complaining, I’ll just have to find an alternative to the crappy bandwidth limited free hosting sites, I was hoping that with my overpriced SBC Yahoo DSL service they would give me at least one page for free, but no, $50 a month isn’t enough I guss.


Thanks for the comments guys, I value your opinions very much.

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

Mike, email me the pics (each email

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Mike, I too am extremely frustrated with not being able to post hi-rez pics. I've felt bad for over a year abouthe pic quality on my Geocities web site. I don't understand the ins and outs of transferring scanned or digital pics and have them appear sharp and clear. Also I don't understand how folks can post good pics right in a thread post. Look at the poor quality of the pics - you can't tell if it's real wood or vinyl for goodness sake!:
http://www.geocities.com/hankbond1/index[/url]
I recently went with Earthlink cable modem (it's actually Roadrunner service), so I'll see what web space comes with it and try to move my pics to it, or transfer them from my hard drive.
Good luck to you, and yes, that's an interesting point about this forum and picture hosting. I wasn't aware that other forums provide that service.

 

[Mike Keith]

Beautiful work Hank:

I've seen your site before but some how missed those 72" tower cabinets you made for Danny Richie, GR Research, great finish and detail.

How do they sound, I'm getting some ideas.

 

[Ronnie Ferrell]

It is probably because of the heavy usage that this forum gets that keeps it from having a hi-res gallery! Photos/images suck up your bandwidth really quick when being served all through the same pipe!

If the images reside on different servers at different locations, it does not take away from HTFs bandwidth because your computer pulls the images and code from different locations.

You can post your images to another forums gallery or most any Internet gallery and then link them with the IMG button when your posting, like so:









Let me know if this is against the rules here.



rf

 

[Mike Keith]

Thanks Ronnie, and thanks Anthony for posting my pictures, I hope to have some finished Pics within the week.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

Wow, There's a sub you don't see every day. The craftsmanship with the cutting/painting looks machined. You say you did your sub this way to match your mains, I'm curious as to how your mains look.

 

[Ronnie Ferrell]

Oh come on Chris, I bet you have seen his mains before but just don't remember who built them. I was the same way! Click his "www" button in his post header for a refresher. I think Mike is more anal retentive than me! All of his work looks CNC milled! Those subs will look great with the rest of his system!


rf

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Mike: Thanks! When we cranked up the GR Alpha LS towers, they initially sounded very good but needed some LF tweaking. Danny had not hashed out his final crossover, so when he took them back to Wichita Falls, he did tweak the crossover and they supposedly sound great, but I have not heard them.

 

[Andrew Testa]

Mike,

Could you elaborate a bit on the masking methods you used for painting the SST8 and the sub? I have plans to paint my speakers with a two tone pattern using spray paint. I'm leery of using standard blue masking tape because I've had the adhesive bond to my first coat in other projects. I'll be using the spray on hammer-finish gold and silver paint, which needs a relatively thick second coat to really bring out the texture finish. So, how exactly did you mask for painting, if you don't mind?

obligatory ego stroke: If mine turn out half as good as yours, I'd charge admission to see them. Very impressive!

Andy

 

[Mike Keith]

Andrew:

The Blue or Green Masking Tape should not be a problem, unless you don’t allow for proper curing time, which is Paint, Temperature and Humidity dependant. I always shoot a small scrap piece at the same time I paint the finished piece, then practice any method of masking or top coating on the scrap first. Patience usually prevails.

On both of my last products I didn't use any masking tape on the textured finish because its just to delicate, sometimes it will pull up a big spot of texture and sometimes it wont, most textured paint will not completely cure for a week or more and they rely on a top coat of clear to fully protect it. There is also Liquid masking solution available at some specialty paint stores, but its hard to get a fine straight line.

 

[Andrew Testa]

Thanks, Mike.

I'll try the approach of using some scrap. I always seem to have the problem of pulling up the mask after the paint gets too stiff, and it actually peels the paint off the work instead of separating along the mask line. I guess I just need to pull up the mask while the piant is still tacky.

Andy

 

[Mike Keith]

Andrew:

It's been my experience that anytime the paint comes of the surface too easily, then the surface was not prepped properly, pay close attention to bonding the Primer paint to the clean oil free surface, if the Primer wont stick, then neither will the color coat. That's why you sand lightly between primer coats and apply at least 2 coats of primer. If the primer is allowed to cure properly and the surface has been thoroughly cleaned (tack rag) then the primer will actually soak into the wood or metal, and the top (color) coat will bond to the primer just like contact adhesive, in other words it sticks to itself.

Remember the primer base must be the same base as the color coat (enamel to enamel, lacquer to lacquer, and Poly to Poly). try this on a test piece and don’t forget to wipe it down with a tack cloth between all coats, also don't paint when it's humid.

 

[Andrew Testa]

Thanks for the good advice Mike. I'll keep that in mind. The only thing I can't help is humidity: I'm right on Galveston Bay and my workshop is my backyard patio. There are maybe 18 days out of the year where the humidity is less than 85%, and they expired past week.

Andy