I very much like your thinking…
1 Like
OK, made a test piece out of an old pine shelf over the weekend:
Worked basically fine, got a couple of pointers from it for the real thing. The ball bearing arrangement seemed good.
Then roughly cut off about 350mm from either end of the main piece, ready to cut to size on the bandsaw:
Managed to get some time today, luckily, so here are the pieces cut to size with a bandsaw, chamfered on a belt sander, one coat of Danish Oil and holes drilled for the spikes. This is the underside, showing the spikes fitted:
Here’s the top face, showing the access holes for levelling the spikes and the BB arrangement:
Tested the levelling procedure from above with a screwdriver and it works like a dream:
Final jobs are to drill all the countersunk holes for the BBs and give it another coat of oil.
5 Likes
Having marked exactly where the remaining BB indentations were needed, I drilled them all today. A quick and light sanding, one more coat of oil and they’re in fine shape:
I think the redwood colour really complements the light wood of the Arivas. I understand all the comments about using artificial materials, but I’m delighted with the real wood.
And the acid test? The bass - which was previously plentiful but rather lumpy and overbearing - is now proportionate and tighter. Stereo imaging seems a lot better too.
All in all, a great fun project, a real improvement, good looking and total cost around £70 - much less than the amount I saved on the cost of the speakers in the first place. Hurrah!
Mark
8 Likes
Did you put the 8 60mm holes in them?
No - what’s above is an accurate and complete description of everything I’ve done!
To do the holes, I would have had to buy at least one 60mm forstner drill bit, and probably more, since drilling 16 holes through 50mm of solid timber is not a trivial undertaking. In this case, I wasn’t convinced the potential advantages outweighed the probable downsides.
Mark
2 Likes
They look great, I can’t remember what the advantage of the holes was supposed to be. Maybe it was to reduce weight. You have got me thinking about alternative plinths for mine now.
1 Like
I haven’t seen any real justification for them, which didn’t help convince me it was worth my time and effort drilling the damn things. As you suggest, I suspect it was probably a way of reducing mass whilst maintaining stiffness.
Since the sequoia wood isn’t very dense compared to MDF, I felt mine probably wouldn’t benefit enormously from the holes. I may be wrong, but I’m very happy with my solution as it stands.
Mark
2 Likes
Follow-up:
With a good metre or so of that beautiful piece of sequoia left from making the platforms, I decided to make a table because why not?
So, I cut off a slightly ugly knot and have given it two coats of satin varnish. For legs, I’ve got some 22mm copper water pipe and I’ve been doing some bending. Here’s how it’s looking so far:
One more coat of varnish to go, then cut the legs to size and fit them. More photos to come…
Mark
4 Likes
…and here’s the finished thing, sitting next to my system for no particular reason:
I’m pleased (and a little surprised) to report that the copper tubing and tees are being held firmly in place just under their own tension and friction. I might glue them in the long term, but they seem good for now.
My spirit level tells me it’s spot on too!
Mark
3 Likes
That looks really good. How do you keep the copper shiny, won’t it oxidise over time?
Thank you @Ravvie.
The original plan was to spray lacquer the copper to keep it looking immaculate. What put me off is if the lacquer gets scratched, you can’t fill it in but have to sand it back to bare metal and start again. Instead, I’ve just given it a wipe with some beeswax furniture polish to keep the air away. Not a perfect solution, but we’ll see how it gets on. If it all goes Pete Tong, it’ll be minimal effort to polish it back up and try another solution.
Alternatively, I might like the effect of it tarnishing naturally over time and do nothing to it!
Mark
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.