There is a description online here on T-wreck cabs, using mitred joints only....
I'd assume this being too weak for an amp cab?
Fingerjoints or dovetails are OK with suitable eqpt, - which I don't have -and I'd hate to handcut them.. . I won't have any visible screws either....I know reinforcing cleats in the corners could work, but that'll interfere with the chassis in the bottom part....
Any other ideas?
Get a cheap (like $40) biscuit jointer and some biscuits. You could miter them and feel secure that you have a solid frame with biscuits and glue. Add to that, you could also biscuit joint the face of the cab so you don't have any cleats interfering with the power transformer and keeping the chassis from sliding all the way into the cab.
This is all just speculation, as I've not built my hardwood cab yet...but I've obviously been planning it out for a while.
Yeah...I know about the bisquits, but around here, bisquit jointers are still a novelty, and the few I've seen are 400$++
That's really the essence of my little dilemma. Quite alot of your everyday woodworking gadgets are unavailable in my corner of the world, and what is, is up to 10-fold in price.
I just recently had a small delivery of about 10feet of 2x8 cherry delivered from down south in the trunk of a friends car - appx 5$ a boardfoot.............darn cheap for around here............
EDIT: Besides woodworking gadgets and tube transformers, my corner of the world is actually quite OK!
In guitar player mag there are pics of Brad Paisley's, it doesn't have mitered corners, they are butted, but it has mitered trim on the front (and back I believe)
IMHO...
Mitered joints are fine. You don't need biscuits.
The wood glues nowadays, such as Titebond III, are quite excellent at bonding most woods.
I work in a shop that builds hundreds of speaker cabinets a year and it's always mitered joints.
When we've drop tested cabinets 99% of the time the wood fails before the glue joint. In the rare case a joint fails it's always due to an inaccurate joint.
One caveat is oily woods. They are harder to glue and require some careful surface preparation in which case the greater surface area provided by biscuits and/or dovetails or fingerjoints... may be appropriate.
Bear in mind that the TW head is a small cabinet (not particularly heavy as compared with combo cabinet), and with 3/4" solid wood plenty strong enough to support the amp chassis.
Just make sure your 45° cuts are clean and accurate.
I routinely built heads and 2x12 cabs with mitered joints. My regularly gigging rig that's been in constant weekly use for the last 4 years has shown no signs of weakening joints. And it's been beat to hell.
Cabinet strength will be improved if you dado the front panel into the sides and top.
bigmik wrote:here are some good pics of biscuit's being used in a trainwreck cab, still cool to look at even though you can't get you hands on a jointer
Those are great shots but I'm still clueless how you get the front panel on without cleats. I had imagined that they would be biscuit joined as well and then assembled left to right, bottom to top, but that is clearly not what was done here.
Distortion! Explain please.....
The Last of the World's Great Human Beings
Seek immediate medical attention if you suddenly go either deaf or blind.
If you put the Federal Government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years time there would be a shortage of sand.
skyboltone,
Cut your front panel a 1/4" wider and 1/8" taller.
Then before gluing the cabinet together cut a dado into the top panel with a router, dado blade, etc... the correct width equal to the thickness of your front panel (actually just a hair wider.)
Locate the front panel on each side panel in its correct position and trace the profile onto each side panel. Then use a router or other similar type cutting device (I used a milling machine) and cut out the profile 1/8" deep.
Now glue up your cabinet and slide/glue the front panel into the grooves you've cut prior to gluing the top panel.
Always dry fit the cabinet together completely before gluing. Clear packing tape helps a great deal for dry fitting the cabinet.
sst4270 wrote:skyboltone,
Cut your front panel a 1/4" wider and 1/8" taller.
Then before gluing the cabinet together cut a dado into the top panel with a router, dado blade, etc... the correct width equal to the thickness of your front panel (actually just a hair wider.)
Locate the front panel on each side panel in its correct position and trace the profile onto each side panel. Then use a router or other similar type cutting device (I used a milling machine) and cut out the profile 1/8" deep.
Now glue up your cabinet and slide/glue the front panel into the grooves you've cut prior to gluing the top panel.
Always dry fit the cabinet together completely before gluing. Clear packing tape helps a great deal for dry fitting the cabinet.
Hope this explanation helps
Steve
I get how this works for the top panel but how do you cut out just the right shape for the sides with a round router bit? Seems like it wouldn't fit quite right. I've heard people say before they did it like you described but I still can't quite picture it. Also, how do you clamp if you don't use biscuit joinery? Do you use corner clamps?
bigmik wrote:here are some good pics of biscuit's being used in a trainwreck cab, still cool to look at even though you can't get you hands on a jointer
Those are great shots but I'm still clueless how you get the front panel on without cleats. I had imagined that they would be biscuit joined as well and then assembled left to right, bottom to top, but that is clearly not what was done here.
Distortion! Explain please.....
If you notice the Bob Burt cabinet which was built for the KF tribute amp does use cleats.
All of my cabinets that require mitered corners use a total of 19 biscuits. This includes 7 which hold the front panel in place.
I agree that most cabinets would be fine without biscuits, but there is no doubt biscuits will increase the rigidity and strength of the cabinet.
I prefer to add the biscuits as insurance.
Two years ago I built a replacement cabinet for an original TW Rocket. Shortly after the owner was playing a rather large show and the amp and was setting on top of a Marshall stack. Somehow the amp and cabinet were pulled off the top cabinet and it fell straight to the floor which happened to be concrete. The owner told me watching it fall made him sick to his stomach because it happened so fast there was nothing he could do. Well the amp landed on a corner first and then down on all 4 feet. I was told every tube in the amp exploded on impact and although there were a few scratched on the cab not a single joint cracked or let go.
I really have t wonder if the cabinet would have had the same outcome without biscuits.
Here is a picture showing an inside view of one of my TW style cabinets.
Which one are you using? I read the Porter Cable was the defacto go-to tool for biscuit jointing...that is if you don't have the $700 bones for the Festool ones. So I scored a refurbished Porter Cable and a 1000 count bag of biscuits for $150 shipped.
I figured, if I can't make faceplates anymore, I might as well make myself some nice cabs! And if I get them down to where I'm happy with them, I'll probably post a couple for sale here in the forums.
I just need to get my garage put together first...blah.
Fantastic looking cab interior, Distortion...that's exactly what I'm looking for...I guess I'm on the right track!
Which one are you using? I read the Porter Cable was the defacto go-to tool for biscuit jointing...that is if you don't have the $700 bones for the Festool ones. So I scored a refurbished Porter Cable and a 1000 count bag of biscuits for $150 shipped.
I figured, if I can't make faceplates anymore, I might as well make myself some nice cabs! And if I get them down to where I'm happy with them, I'll probably post a couple for sale here in the forums.
I just need to get my garage put together first...blah.
Fantastic looking cab interior, Distortion...that's exactly what I'm looking for...I guess I'm on the right track!
Haha, I beat you Eric. I paid $70 for a Freud and 150 biscuits. It's non adjutable. It does 90* and 45* corners so I can't build pentagrams and card tables. Boohoo. Still haven't lit it up yet though.
The Last of the World's Great Human Beings
Seek immediate medical attention if you suddenly go either deaf or blind.
If you put the Federal Government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years time there would be a shortage of sand.
. I won't have any visible screws either....I know reinforcing cleats in the corners could work, but that'll interfere with the chassis in the bottom part....
