15" Memphis M3 Sub Build

[Purplehaze]

I bought 2 - 15" Memphis M3's recently, but at different times from different people. This was the first one I bought, I have yet to start on the second one. This one was sold the day after I finished it...

Anyway, when I got it, the bottom plate was shifted. (almost every motor I get seems to be shifted)







So in order to fix it, first Ihad to pull the bottom plate. Here is the method I came up with to do it, w/o hurting the ferrite.

I start with a putty knife, and 2 butter knifes. First I gently tap the putty knife in between the plate and magnet. Then, I gently place each butter knife on each side.



Then I remove the putty knife, but leave the butter knives.



Then, I gently tap a flat head screw driver on each butter knife, between it and the plate, so the knife keeps the magnet safe.



Once they are both in, you just pry up enough to get a piece of wood in one side.



Then you just repeat the process so you have two pieces of wood now in between the magnet and bottom plate.



At that point, separating them is easy.



Then, after cleaning the old glue, and making shims, it's time to put them back together.



Fixed





More on the way...

[Purplehaze]

But then, I got to looking, and thinking. The top plate seemed to be next to shift. So, I beat it to the punch, and pulled it, and re-set it, with new glue. (It is much easier to pull, just use long screws)



And after that, she was finally ready for some touch-up paint, and assembly.



Very tight gap means lots of motor force...






I painted the cone, to make it different than other M3's. Next time, I will use a poly cone if I'm going to add color, this was not easy, and didn't really turn out exactly how I wanted. But it wasn't bad...





Some glue on all the bolts



And now final assembly. Spiders get ca glue, surround gets rubberized glue.





Here it is finished.







And man, I've got to say, this thing was freakin loud! And sounded good too! But I was really surprised at how loud it was, and only on 600 watts at that. But one of my neighbors was also impressed. So much, that he bought it that day! I didn't even get the chance to pull ts numbers on it...
Oh well, it was a fun build, and I learned a lot. And I've got another one to do, as soon as my next load of parts makes it in.

So what do you guys think about me maybe doing the next one in blue, instead of orange? Would that be a sin? Or a cool idea? Discuss!

[IBleedMusick]

Very nice work man.

[Purplehaze]

Very nice work man.

Thanks man. I'm gonna holler at you in a lil bit about those AP's and HX2's.

[Keith77]

another sick build. Keep them coming................. BUT WE WANT VIDS!!!!

[bbeljefe]

Lookin good man!

But um... let's not be paintin the cones on da Magmas..... mmmkay?

[Purplehaze]

Lookin good man!

But um... let's not be paintin the cones on da Magmas..... mmmkay?

Thanks man, and are you sure? We could do yours in some pretty pink I already have! Lol just kiddin, I'll do what u want sir!

But yeah I didn't really care for the way this one came out, the paint on the cone that is. The trick is to use poly or fg laminated cones, this one was not. But hell they are all painted black when you get them, so if you do it right, why not? I can say this, although I didn't care for the way this turned out, I don't believe the paint will ever come off... and it is different, that's for sure. I will try it again on this next M3, but I am thinking maybe blue, instead of orange? What do you think?

And man, besides all of that, this thing is pretty damn loud. Like comparable to the DC we had in the same box.

I was super impressed by it's performance. As was my neighbor... he pulled out cash as soon as he heard it one time.

And it went straight from my box into his. I'll try to catch him and get a video of it playing sometime. Thing is freakin surprisingly loud 4 sure..

[bbeljefe]

I think blue would be fine and I really don't see anything wrong with the orange on the cone. It's a paper cone so you're not going to get a glossy smooth finish no matter what you do to it. Well, you could get it smooth but the added mass might not be desirable.

It would be really nice if there were a clear poly cone that was actually clear. That way, a driver could be mounted conventionally but you could still see the guts of it in action.

Maybe you should get to work on creating such a see through cone? :-)

I was thinking of green screen green for the Magmas, especially since I've already got the paint, but then If I use the 12 as a HT sub, that might be kinda tacky looking in teh living room. Although, they do have rubber gaskets so unless the driver was mounted inverted or in a windowed box, it wouldn't be seen.

Decisions decisions....

[thefourth]

Bad ass looking sub for sure...

[Purplehaze]

Thanks guys. Yeah I'm thinking blue, or maybe even purple on the next one.

Maybe I should do a poll?

Edit: Poll has been added. Please vote!