Black Beauty Project Build - 06 Ford F-250 Super Duty **1/27/18 - New pics starting on page 41**

[scooter99]

Sunday morning I got up, did a few things, and got to work. I had originally went out to do some work on the tablet. I've figured out how to mount the actuator now, and I wanted to get the metal in there and drill the hole, and get it body worked, and all that. BUTTTTTT, I ended up getting distracted.

My workbench was cluttered with the testing equipment, amp etc, from a few weeks ago. So I started getting that all cleaned up and put together and decided to just install it and the speakers and have my shop stereo back up and running. So I spent a good part of the morning doing that.

Got my switch wired up and my volume knob just sitting there next to it.

Flip the switch and we have power to the amp. Much like an ignition switch.

Got the amp mounted and wires ran, and DD-1ed and all set up. My man cave signs etc hung too.

Also got my speaker boxes hung up under the top shelves.

There was a lot more that I did to the shop as well. I hung all of my levels on the fronts of the shelves, and my t squares hung, my straight edges hung, and I got the shelf for the refrigerator cut and that tucked back up under the bench as well. I cleaned the whole right side area so I ended up with a clean workbench as another work station. When all was said and done, I ended up with 3 completely clean workbenches, out of the 4, and some ample work space to start getting some serious stuff done.

HOWEVER, I looked at the dash, which was what I was planning to work on, and it just kept pissing me off. I don't know if it's just this tablet release thing that's got me with a bad taste in my mouth because of how much work has already gone into it, or what it is, but I decided I just wasn't going to work on it today. I just didn't want to go there.

Instead I started finishing the temporary enclosure that my daughter and I worked on a while back and never finished. This is one of the two test boxes that I'm going to use for the Ampere Audio 10 for the center console. This one is measuring around 1.15 - 1.25cu ft after displacement and tuned to approx 35hz. I know it's a bit large for a 10" sub, but I've had discussions with Andrew and a few other people and the census was to go for it. So, here we go.

First the designs were done on sketch up.

Decided I wanted to try some kerfing, so I wanted to round off this inner corner.

And some 45's in the other corners.

Now I had some scrap pieces of 3/4 birch so I wanted to make that work. In order to do that I did some laying out of these in a cut sheet.

Next, it was time to make some sawdust!!

[scooter99]

These are the pieces that I was talking about. Just left overs from other projects. Might as well use them.

Paying attention to my cut sheets.

I got all the pieces cut that I needed.

Used the chop saw to cut the 45's and the shorter pieces.

Now we're set.

Now comes the fun part. Kerfing. My chop saw has a depth stop on it, so I decided to put it to use instead of running a long piece across the tabletsaw. Thought this would not only be safer, but would yield the best results. Now, I've seen lots of videos, but never have done this. Not that I can recall anyway.

Starts with one line. LOL

Measuring them all out and trying to figure out how much i need etc.

Then made my first cuts.

[scooter99]

It seemed to work out well, but again, I don't have any experience with this so I don't know. I knew I needed to keep it in place in order to measure and figure somethings out, so I screwed some cleats to the bottom panel.

Then went ahead and screwed it to the cleats.

Looking at the radius, it looked to me like it could be a little deeper and a little closer on the cuts. Learning as we go!

I measured up the second set of cuts a little bit closer.

ANNNNDDDDD ended up with my first catastrophe. The back side broke. Like I said, learning was we go lol.

Basically I cut the break out, and made a new piece and met them in the middle.

I cut a 45 for the back side to attach them together and keep the seam strong.

[scooter99]

I glued the bottom panel on to the baffle port piece to keep it in place. I just cleated the top in place.

My daughter started gluing and screwing the rest of it together.

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Now everything is in place. Time for the fun part. GLUING THE HELL OUT OF IT!!

It took a few days for this to happen. This part took about 3 days to dry. It was cold, rainy, and my shop isn't closed off fully or insulated so it might as well be outside minus the direct elements. But, once it did get close, I smothered it all over again.

Next thing we did was paint the inside pieces of the port. I couldn't do the baffle yet, because it needed to be body worked and all kinds of stuff still. But we pained the outside panel, the back panel, and one of the 45's that would be in the direct view corner.

[scooter99]

The project kind of got shelved after that point. I started the shop shelves, and cleaning and then the dash panel project, and it just kind of got dropped on the priority list.

That brings us to a week or so ago when I was doing the body work on the dash panel. While I was doing that I had some left over rage gold, so I decided to use it on the port round.

Little sanding on the first layer.

Then I added some Rage Extreme to finish it off.

Left it smooth enough to be good for me.

Which brings me now to yesterday. So now we're officially caught up on this project.

I cut the sub hole in the first baffle. I did it with a jigsaw. I need to get a jasper jig, but I haven't yet. But I'm good with my skills using the jigsaw.

After that, I got the secondary baffle cut. Actually I messed up, which I just figured out. I couldn't figure out yesterday why I felt I needed a double baffle for a 10. I didn't. I was going to flush mount the sub. Oh well, it's done now. LOL.

Test fit. It ended up being a little tight as you can see on the edge where I had to kind of hammer it in. I used the air sander to take some off and get it to fit good.

Then I glued it.

[scooter99]

End panel went in and the 45's.

Now the port panel.

But first, I had to dress up the end of it. A router and a roundover bit will do the trick.

Then glued and nailed it in place.

Got the rear panel 45 in and filled it and the other end with glue.

[url=http://s231.photobucket.com/user/99scooter/media/F250%20Build/AA10%20Temporary%20Enclosure%20Ported/20160306_163120.jpg.html][/url

[scooter99]

After that, I decided to spray the inside of the port from the back side. Thinking it would save me some trouble later.

Glued it ready for the back panel.

Nailed it in.

That pretty much completes the enclosure. It's ready to do a test load.

It needed a little bit of sanding but not much to get the sub loaded. Don't let the 10" fool you, this thing is heavy! In hind sight I'm a little glad I ended up doubling up the hole instead of countersinking it.

Next up, dress it up. Even though it's a temporary sub enclosure, I still want it to look good. It'll be riding in the truck for some time while I get used to the sound so I want it to look decent. In order to do that, I need to fill the screw and nail holes. Out comes the Rage Gold!

I ended up getting all the sides except for the back side. I left it this way, and I'll sand it down tonight and see where it's at. I won't spend too much time on it, but I am also working on my skills. So I will detail it out a bit.

SO, that's where I left it. Tonight I'll sand it down, and probably primer it and get ready to do some painting.

Ended up not a terribly productive weekend, but it was productive none the less.

[Wicks]

How about this with your arduino:

http://www.firgelli.com/PQ12_Micro_Linear_Actuator_s/1825.htm

Has limit switches so it can be set up to not burn out.

So your tablet mount has a flexible connection at that cord? In order for you to tilt it outwards like that?

[scooter99]

How about this with your arduino:

http://www.firgelli.com/PQ12_Micro_Linear_Actuator_s/1825.htm

Has limit switches so it can be set up to not burn out.

So your tablet mount has a flexible connection at that cord? In order for you to tilt it outwards like that?

I thought about that. I saw it and seems like it would be easy enough. But how would it work with a button?

My concern about the arduino, is when I get the 15's in there. I'm a little concerned with the amount of vibration it's going to endure. Not that I'm winning any DB records with 2 15's or anything, but I'm guessing there will be a significant amount of vibration going on.

As far as flexibility, no it's in a solid spot epoxied in. Basically there's just enough angle to get it over the lip of the frame, but not too much that it hangs up on the connector. it really is smooth plugging it in. I thought about some sort of swivel mount, for that purpose, but I couldn't really come up with anything that would work.

[Wicks]

How about this with your arduino:

http://www.firgelli.com/PQ12_Micro_Linear_Actuator_s/1825.htm

Has limit switches so it can be set up to not burn out.

So your tablet mount has a flexible connection at that cord? In order for you to tilt it outwards like that?

I thought about that. I saw it and seems like it would be easy enough. But how would it work with a button?

My concern about the arduino, is when I get the 15's in there. I'm a little concerned with the amount of vibration it's going to endure. Not that I'm winning any DB records with 2 15's or anything, but I'm guessing there will be a significant amount of vibration going on.

As far as flexibility, no it's in a solid spot epoxied in. Basically there's just enough angle to get it over the lip of the frame, but not too much that it hangs up on the connector. it really is smooth plugging it in. I thought about some sort of swivel mount, for that purpose, but I couldn't really come up with anything that would work.

Write an arduino program that does the following:

When the button is pressed, move the actuator out.

Sense for the outer limit switch, when reached(fully out), stop movement and reverse.

Sense for the inner limit switch, when sensed stop movement.

Wait for another button press.

Lots of possibilities with limit switches.

I wish mine had limits because its easy to overdrive the actuator when I'm moving my rear seat too far up or down.

I'm actually more worried about the connection to the rear seat as that takes the most abuse. The actuator is fairly strong.

An arduino is all solid-state. Similar to any other electric device in your car.

It should be fine. If you're worried just make it accessible in case it needs replacing, they are cheap, as you mentioned.