John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

So, I've searched around the forum, but I'm not quite finding what I'm looking for.

I'm looking to build my own speaker stands, and I want to avoid screwing up and having to do it over.

My basic idea is two or three layers of MDF sandwiched for the base (12"x12") then taking 4 1"x6" furniture grade boards (birch or maple) and gluing them into a hollow square. This would be filled with Kiln Dried sand, and then topped off with a 9"x9" square of whichever wood I ultimately choose for the sides.

Question 1: am I missing something terribly important?

Question 2: I'd like to include some sort of leveling do-dad, since my floor is a little wonky. I'm thinking of using the type of bolt that you generally find on the bottom of a desk, with a little plastic foot. Should I do something heavier? I own a bench grinder, would grinding the bolts to a point be good, or a waste of time?

OK, so question 2 turned into more than one question.

Oh, and one more question - is Liquid Nails an adequate glue, or should I be using Green Glue or the like?

Thanks
MPEDrummer

Hey fellow Pittsburgher! I moved out here to California about 10 years ago, but spent most of my life in the Pittsburgh area.

Your plans sound fine, but I would use wood glue and screws to hold it together. Liquid nails isn't really strong enough for this purpose.

Thomas

OK, slight modification in the plan.

Due to costs for furniture grade wood plus my own construction-related inadequacies, here's the new plan. In the image attached, there's two big circles. The larger of the two is 6" Schedule 40 PVC, filled with sand (after caulking the bottom so it doesn't leak!). The red dot represents 3/8" or 1/2" allthread bolting the thing together from both ends. The smaller circle is 3" schedule 40 for wiring. Both pipes will be sanded down and painted using Krylon's Fusion paint (good stuff, that).

I've done quite a bit of PVC-based construction in the past, so I'm pretty confident that I'll get a good-looking result. One big secret is to use straight joints at the ends where you meet the wood, because then it's automatically a perfect, flush edge - doesn't matter if you chip the end of the pipe when you cut it.

So, 2 questions about this now - should I do 2 wiring runs, to keep some distance between power and line level (for the active speakers)? The line level is using Canare Star-Quad, so noise has never been a problem.

The other question - do I need to be worried about resonance inside the smaller pipe? It will be open on both ends to allow the wires to go through, and be bolted to the larger pipe at the edge they touch on, probably with rubber washers between the two to prevent cracking. I'm just mildly concerned that it would turn into a Hemholtz resonator - or is that improbable with both ends open?

I need to make 4 of these - two for Event PS8's, and two for Yamaha NS10s. Should I make the NS10 pair taller to compensate for the shorter speaker height? I've found differing opinions in this forum, but I'm planning on making the tweeter centered on my ear height.

Thanks
MPEDrummer

My first (sad) attempt at Sketchup. You guys are good at this.

The speakers on top are a meager approximation of the Event PS8s. I couldn't figure out how to do an actual cone, hence the stepping to represent the woofer.

The overall dimensions are correct (LxWxH) so you should get an idea proportionally.

MPEDrummer

Event PS8 in sketchup. The secret to making a cone is pushing in the center of speaker (both circles) and then using the move tool, grab the outside edge of the large circle and pull it out to the front edge. viola! a cone... making the dome is harder and I was a bit sloppy on this one... should be to scale all around and reasonably ok to model your room in... it's already a component so you can copy and clone...

You, sir, are a scholar and a gentleman.

Thank you kindly.

You wouldn't happen to have an NS10m as well? Just asking

Thanks
MPEDrummer

as a matter of fact...

Well color me a deep shade of impressed!

Thanks!