New BassChat 8"Cab design

[rwillett]

45 minutes ago, nekomatic said:

 

If you're banned from even painting indoors I don't think anodising is going to be on the cards!

You can do anodising in the garage , it is affected by cold weather but you need to heat the solutions up anyway, you do have high current and the chemicals aren't fantastic, TBH they aren't very good at all,, but decent space, power, fresh air, respirator and slightly loose lids on containers make it potentially doable outside in the garage. Not that I'm looking to try it (yet). 

 

Painting with these special tough paints, especially with a roller, seems less desirable. I have to confess to using some paints and stuff sometime ago that stank to high heaven, and for some reason t'CFO isn't keen to repeat the exercise. I have no sense of smell (lost it 2014) so I have no issues which is part of the problem, she can smell it and I can't.

 

Rob

[nekomatic]

6 hours ago, rwillett said:

I have to confess to using some paints and stuff sometime ago that stank to high heaven, and for some reason t'CFO isn't keen to repeat the exercise. I have no sense of smell (lost it 2014) so I have no issues which is part of the problem, she can smell it and I can't.

Tuff Cab has very little odour, fwiw, so hopefully your equivalent one is the same. 

[rwillett]

Good to know that there may be little smell.

 

I also looked at speaker grills and spent a long time thinking through how to print one in four pieces and join it together using superglue, a special jig and all sorts of hard work until a rare bout of common sense broke out.

 

Previously people had mentioned using an 18" speaker grill and cutting it down. I've just checked the sizes for this against the 8" speaker cab and of course when you lay it out, they were right and I was surprised (and wrong).

 

The dashed straight lines show the inside of the 8" speaker cab, the large dashed circle is the cutaway for the Fane speaker and the small dashed circle is the port. The large solid circle is an 18" speaker grille and the smaller solid circle is a 300mm speaker grille. 

 

So the 18" speaker grille is pretty much a perfect fit, though it will need cutting down and flattening, though I can't see that being a major issue with a rubber hammer, a Dremel and a decent cutting wheel (or rather a few of them). 

 

For circa £10 per grille, this is a very cheap way to get a grille plus an hour or so of cutting.  

 

 

The other option is a small bit of rectangular hardboard with two large circles cut out with some speaker cloth which still might look nice.

 

This is the speaker lightly sanded with some filler and the corners checked for fit. These will actually be glued on with "No Nail" rather than screwed.  A little more sanding just to tidy up the front. You can just about see the t-nuts inside on the back for holding the Warwick Gnome on using slider rails. There are the same fittings on the top so the Warwick can be on the top or the back. There are holes on the side for grab handles. I don't use a strap for picking it up as I wanted the Warwick to have the option of top mounting as well as back mounting. 

 

Not sure I can paint it until I have worked out the speaker grille and how to fit it so I can easily take it on and off. I'm tending to think I mask off the corner piece areas before the Aracab goes on but would welcome thoughts.

 

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

On 15/12/2025 at 09:57, rwillett said:

That would look great.

 

I did look at anodising some telescope parts years ago, the theory looks quite easy, its the practise that worries me...

 

It takes some experimenting, but I've done just that. I built thus scope, Including the focuser, around an ED lens cell.

 

 

 

Won a silver medal for it

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

33 minutes ago, rwillett said:

Good to know that there may be little smell.

 

I also looked at speaker grills and spent a long time thinking through how to print one in four pieces and join it together using superglue, a special jig and all sorts of hard work until a rare bout of common sense broke out.

 

Previously people had mentioned using an 18" speaker grill and cutting it down. I've just checked the sizes for this against the 8" speaker cab and of course when you lay it out, they were right and I was surprised (and wrong).

 

The dashed straight lines show the inside of the 8" speaker cab, the large dashed circle is the cutaway for the Fane speaker and the small dashed circle is the port. The large solid circle is an 18" speaker grille and the smaller solid circle is a 300mm speaker grille. 

 

So the 18" speaker grille is pretty much a perfect fit, though it will need cutting down and flattening, though I can't see that being a major issue with a rubber hammer, a Dremel and a decent cutting wheel (or rather a few of them). 

 

For circa £10 per grille, this is a very cheap way to get a grille plus an hour or so of cutting.  

 

 

The other option is a small bit of rectangular hardboard with two large circles cut out with some speaker cloth which still might look nice.

 

This is the speaker lightly sanded with some filler and the corners checked for fit. These will actually be glued on with "No Nail" rather than screwed.  A little more sanding just to tidy up the front. You can just about see the t-nuts inside on the back for holding the Warwick Gnome on using slider rails. There are the same fittings on the top so the Warwick can be on the top or the back. There are holes on the side for grab handles. I don't use a strap for picking it up as I wanted the Warwick to have the option of top mounting as well as back mounting. 

 

Not sure I can paint it until I have worked out the speaker grille and how to fit it so I can easily take it on and off. I'm tending to think I mask off the corner piece areas before the Aracab goes on but would welcome thoughts.

 

 

 

At last we see it!

 

Well done.

[rwillett]

48 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

It takes some experimenting, but I've done just that. I built thus scope, Including the focuser, around an ED lens cell.

 

 

 

Won a silver medal for it

 

 

 

I do like that. A good old EQ6 and is that an 80mm cell? Looks like a Canon and a Zwo (?). What's the box on the Canon hidden behind the focuser? Looks like a peltier cooler or something similar. Interested to know why it's on the side, though must be a good reason.

 

Rob

[rwillett]

50 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

At last we see it!

 

Well done.

Thanks. Just noticed that one side looks like it's covered in white filler, it's not. 

 

I've filled and sanded, filled and sanded. Whilst the Armacab should hide imperfections, I'd rather not have to hide anything.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, rwillett said:

 

I do like that. A good old EQ6 and is that an 80mm cell? Looks like a Canon and a Zwo (?). What's the box on the Canon hidden behind the focuser? Looks like a peltier cooler or something similar. Interested to know why it's on the side, though must be a good reason.

 

Rob

 

Skywatcher 66ED cell. ZWO guider on one of my home-made bitsa guidescopes.

The cooler is an online design that uses a copper plate slipped between the sensor and the next circuit board.  I 3D printed a cover to help insulate it and support the peltier, heatsink and fan. Quite tricky to get right as you have to make a heater from resistance wire to go around the sensor to stop condensation and get the right balance of cooling and warming! Camerea also has the IR/UV filters stripped out. Made a huge difference, but then I got a big cooled mono ZWO and a filter wheel.

Sadly, not got up to much since 2021. I think this one is with the ED66. After this, I'd better shut up and let the thread get back to speaker cabs!

 

 

[rwillett]

30 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Skywatcher 66ED cell. ZWO guider on one of my home-made bitsa guidescopes.

The cooler is an online design that uses a copper plate slipped between the sensor and the next circuit board.  I 3D printed a cover to help insulate it and support the peltier, heatsink and fan. Quite tricky to get right as you have to make a heater from resistance wire to go around the sensor to stop condensation and get the right balance of cooling and warming! Camerea also has the IR/UV filters stripped out. Made a huge difference, but then I got a big cooled mono ZWO and a filter wheel.

Sadly, not got up to much since 2021. I think this one is with the ED66. After this, I'd better shut up and let the thread get back to speaker cabs!

 

I have a WO66 shortie which is really nice, quite easy to balance without hauling an EQ6 around. I also have a TMB 100m F8 APO. This needs an EQ6 at least and is a fabulous scope but is so large and heavy it never gets used as my two slipped discs immediately complain just looking at the scope.

 

I know what you have done with the above, the really impressive bit (thought it's all impressive) is the cooling on the Canon (at least to me), that's really difficult to get just right. Everybody has gone Zwo, apart from me.

 

Anyway back to the cab making.

 

Rob

[Bassybert]

38 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Skywatcher 66ED cell. ZWO guider on one of my home-made bitsa guidescopes.

The cooler is an online design that uses a copper plate slipped between the sensor and the next circuit board.  I 3D printed a cover to help insulate it and support the peltier, heatsink and fan. Quite tricky to get right as you have to make a heater from resistance wire to go around the sensor to stop condensation and get the right balance of cooling and warming! Camerea also has the IR/UV filters stripped out. Made a huge difference, but then I got a big cooled mono ZWO and a filter wheel.

Sadly, not got up to much since 2021. I think this one is with the ED66. After this, I'd better shut up and let the thread get back to speaker cabs!

 

 

Wow that looks incredible!

[nekomatic]

Get an observatory, you lot - this is the cab design thread!

 

😉