#and yes. it should be able to fit diagonally on the build plate

[nonbinary-octopus]

help I was trying to sleep but my brain decided to start puzzling out the mechanics of a project I haven't thought about in over a year and it's been an hour and a half and I'm still not asleep

[betweensceneswriter]

Jimjeran-Chapter 12 : Scar Stories

Sometimes you're not just scarred by physical injuries.

Click Here to Hop to the Table of Contents

     I was pretty giddy when we arrived back at the apartment, as I had caught three more fish. Rupert and Angus kindly admired my catch, though two of the fish were small and slightly mangled.

     I hadn’t done much swimming in ocean water, but my experience had been that salt water leaves a residue on your skin.  By the time we got back to their house I was feeling kind of ratty-haired and sticky.

      “I think I should go back home to shower and get changed,” I said. “I feel kind of salty and gross.”

      “No, you’ll use our shower,” insisted Angus. “You dinna want to have to walk an extra two miles just to be cleaned up for dinner.”

      That made a lot of sense, so I grabbed my towel and dress, with the distressing thought that I hadn’t brought along any extra underwear. While I figured I could put my swimsuit back on, I didn’t like the idea of walking around in wet clothes.

       “Can I pop in your room for a minute, Jamie?” I asked.

       “Sure,” he answered from the kitchen where he was punching down the dough. When I entered his room, I quickly took an assessment. Gingerly closing the door behind myself, I tiptoed over to his dresser. Opening the top drawer, I found a variety of briefs and boxers and finally chose a pair of black boxer briefs without a strange front hole.

      Attempting a breezy greeting as I passed the kitchen, I headed out to their shower. There was already a full bucket of water, which was nice, and they had some basic hair products there, so I had everything I needed. When I got dressed after my shower, it felt a little strange to put on Jamie‘s underwear, but it was better than the alternative.

      As I headed back to their apartment, I saw Angus outside, slicing each fish up the belly with a sharp knife and scooping out the innards.  Meanwhile, Rupert had been gathering sticks and building a fire in a little fire pit. When I looked at him curiously, he said, “Fish taste best barbecued over a fire.” It looked like he had a small metal grate with him, and a bottle of soy sauce.

      Back inside, I went into the kitchen to watch the chef at work.  Jamie was spreading tomato sauce and some thinly sliced pepperoni sticks over the pizza dough, which he’d rolled out to fit a rectangular pan.  That finished, he sprinkled it generously with Parmesan cheese and Italian herbs, and then stuck it in the oven. 

       “Barbecue time,” he said, smiling as he grabbed plates and headed outside.

      Just in front of the building, their apartment had a small shaded patio.  There were a couple of plastic chairs under the porch roof, and Jamie grabbed one to sit on by the fire.  Looking around, on the far side of their yard by the fire pit I saw a funny sling-like hanging chair, supported by a thick rope tied to a huge tree.  Settling myself in the swing, I watched as Rupert turned the fish over on the grate, their skins looking brown and blistered, splitting to reveal white flesh inside.

      I was staring up at the tree curiously when Rupert said, “Breadfruit.”  He pointed up through the branches to the bumpy green balls up in the tree. 

       “What does it taste like?” I asked, still leaning back in the swing, from which I could see the tall branches, large leaves, and numerous fruit.

       “They say it tastes like potatoes,” said Angus, who was squatting by the fire, “But I dinna agree.  I know better how potatoes taste.”

       “Well, I’ll have to try it sometime to decide for myself,” I said.  “How in the world do you pick them? They’re so high up!”

       “A rock and slingshot,” said Jamie, grinning.  “And quite a bit of skill.  That’s one thing I’ve yet to master; it’s quite impressive to see the locals take down a breadfruit with a single shot.”

      Rupert used a fork to put a few of the perfectly-cooked fish on each plate.  I inspected my first course with interest.  Still whole, pretty colors blistered and blackened, the fish had diagonal knife cuts along each side through which I could see flaky white meat. 

      Watching other people had turned out to be an important social skill on Arno; by observing the boys I saw that they were pinching hot pieces off with their fingers to eat. My fish stared at me blankly as I grabbed my first bite.  “Hey, thanks, buddy,” I said apologetically. 

      My little friend was delicious, fresh, with a mild flavor accentuated by the salty tang of soy sauce.  I began to feel less guilty for eating Dory and Nemo’s friend, though I could have done without his eye staring at me accusingly.

      With the coming of dusk, the mosquitoes arrived in force as well, so we retreated into the apartment, just in time to eat Jamie’s perfect pizza fresh from the oven.  The boys were right; lack of mozzarella didn’t detract at all.

      As we settled on their couches after finishing dinner, I looked down at my stomach. “I’ve got a food baby,” I groaned, looking down at the little bulge on my stomach.  Jamie had grabbed the seat next to me, and he reached over and patted my belly, taking me completely by surprise. 

       “We’ll name her Peshay,” he said.  At my confused expression he said, “P-E-S-C-E.  That’s Italian for fish. . .”

       “Aren’t you clever?” I laughed, scraping his hand off my stomach as subtly as I could.  His thumb was dangerously close to my braless breasts, and I was already feeling a little too much just sitting next to him. 

      It didn’t get any easier as the evening progressed.  Angus started spouting off about how Arno was traditionally known to have a “love school.” 

       “They would have girls lie in a canoe on the sea and feel the rocking of the waves.  That’s all the sexual education they would need to please a man,” Angus explained happily.

       “Seems to me I know a few things that lying in a canoe would not have taught me,” I said, skeptically.  When all three guys turned and stared at me with intense interest, I groaned and covered my face in embarrassment.  “I’m sorry.  You guys talk dirty, and it’s rubbing off on me.”

       “I’d be happy to rub off on you,” said Rupert.  Jamie reached over and punched him.  “Ow,” said Rupert, rubbing his shoulder in surprise.

       “So let’s not be sexist here,” I said.  “What happens if a man lies in a canoe?  Does he learn anything valuable?”

       “If it’s Jamie, he gets seasick and starts heavering!” Rupert said, glaring at Jamie.  “And he wouldna have much opportunity to practice what he learned anyway.”

      Jamie decided it was time to change the subject.  “So, Miss Beauchamp, you said you’d tell me about one of your scars,” he said.  “Have you decided which one?”

      I held out my leg and pointed at a small spot on my ankle.  “Five years old, riding on the handlebars of my dad’s bike.  My foot slipped between the spokes, mangled my ankle, and crashed his bike.  It hurt, and I remember my dad crying because he felt so bad, and that I got orange juice.  We didn’t have juice very often in my family,” I explained, when they seemed surprised at my memory of such an insignificant thing.  “Your turn, Angus.”

      He opened his lips and indicated his teeth.  “Two fake front teeth.  Summer camp counseling,” he said.

      That one took me by surprise and I laughed.  “One of your campers punch you in the mouth?”

       “No, just broke them out going down the waterslide headfirst.  Wouldna recommend it.”

       “Rupert?” I said.

      He pulled his shirt up and then his shorts downward.  When I looked away in surprise, he said, “Appendectomy.  Twelve years old.  Almost died.”

       “Thought you’d just muscle through the pain?” I asked.

       “Real men don’t need hospitals,” he joked.

       “Jamie?” said Angus.

       “This all started because I told Claire it wasna fair she was so familiar with the scar on my bum.”

       “I havena seen it,” said Angus.

       “Neither have I,” agreed Rupert.

       “Go for it,” I said, averting my eyes, as Jamie stood and unbuttoned his shorts, dropping the back down so Angus and Rupert could see it.  Both guys took a sharp intake of breath.

       “I didna realize how big it was,” Angus gasped.  “Yer arse, I mean.  That’s just a baby scrape.”

       “Good work, Miss Peach,” exclaimed Rupert, acknowledging the severity of the injury.  “It willna disfigure him for the rest of his life as I feared.  He might still be able to find himself a wife.”

      Jamie did his shorts back up, but when he sat down, he sat about a foot closer to me.  It didn’t escape Rupert’s notice.  He looked at us thoughtfully for a moment, then spoke.  “You know, there are rumors going around about you guys.”

       “What kind of rumors?” I asked, already knowing what the answer was going to be.

       “That the two of you have been hanging out alone, at night, in your apartment,” said Angus. Jamie and I exchanged an awkward glance.

       “Jamie has never been inside my apartment at night,” I said, realizing with chagrin as Jamie raised his eyebrows at me that wasn’t completely true.  The first time he walked me home he had come in, had sat on my bed, held me on his lap…and needed a moment to recover before leaving. “Rupert has, though,” I said to change the subject.

       “Rupert’s been in your apartment?” complained Angus. “You never let me in!”

       “Just to show me how see-through my curtains were when I was changing with the lights on inside.”

      Angus glared at Rupert.  “Ye told her?”

       “We never peeked at Miss Lynch, but after what I saw I thought I should let her know.”

       “Not fair at all,” grumped Angus, and Jamie gave me an impenetrable sidelong glance.

       “Well, on that note, I think it’s time for me to go home,” I said.  I gathered up my swimsuit, towel, and snorkel gear and put them in my bag.  When I got to the front door, Angus was there, tennis shoes on.

      I felt a slight sense of disappointment that it wasn’t Jamie.  I felt like I should talk to him.  But I couldn’t exactly express that, so I wished Rupert and Jamie good night.  As Angus and I walked down the road, I kept my distance from him, afraid he might try to make a move on me.  Finally he stopped me.

       “I can tell ye’re scared of me, Miss Peach.  What kind of guy do you think I am?” Angus asked.  “I may joke a lot, but ye can trust me not to lay a hand on ye.”

      We walked in silence for a time, and finally Angus spoke up.  “In all seriousness, Claire, ye do need to be careful.  Jamie got in enough trouble back in Scotland that he can’t currently go back there.  This is a safe place for him to be, he loves it here, and he’s grown up a lot in the past four years.  For you this might just be a harmless fling, and you’ve got something to go back to if it falls apart, but if the two of ye get in trouble, Jamie’s got nothing to fall back on.”

       “What should I do then?”

       “Make yerself scarce.  Visit with the locals.  As much as I hate to say it, don’t bring us food.  And Rupert and I will try not to pull you in with us for a while.  Jamie could find a nice local girl to marry and just stay here forever.  Somehow I can’t see you settling down in a place like this.  It’s a low-tech vacation for you.  It’s not that for Jamie.”

      I felt nauseated when I got back to my house.  I said goodnight to Angus and went inside, where I sat in the darkness in my room.

      What the fuck are you thinking, Beauchamp? I asked myself.  You are engaged to Frank Randall, and here you are playing girlfriend to a young virgin.  What is wrong with you?

      We were playing with fire.  With the increased intimacy of taking care of him and seeing him undressed; the silliness of sharing clothing (I realized I was still wearing his underwear); the emotional intimacy of Jamie listening to me and the physical intimacy of hugging; as well as my complete awareness of his erections…this wasn’t how you started a platonic friendship. And it wasn’t the way to stay faithful to Frank.

      I felt sick and devastated.  I wasn’t going to lose just a boyfriend; I was losing my best friend.

      Jamie and I were in two separate canoes, tied together on the open sea.

     “Have you learned enough?” I asked him.

     I’m ready when you are,” he said.

     “Well, this is how you lose your virginity,” I told him.

     Suddenly we were in a middle school hallway.  I reached down and grabbed his hand and we walked down the hallway, kids turning and looking at us, pointing at our hands, and then giggling and whispering as they turned away.

     Then we were at a high school dance, our arms around each other.  I was wearing a wrist corsage; he looked overdressed in a tuxedo.  He leaned down and kissed me, our noses bumping awkwardly because we hadn’t learned to tilt our heads yet.

     Next we were in the backseat of a car with steamed up windows.  He had his hand up under my cheerleading uniform shirt, clumsily squeezing my breast while we awkwardly french-kissed, slobbering all over each other.

     I saw my floral print bedspread in my room at home with the door halfway closed, his back to the door and his pants around his ankles, and me on my knees in front of him.  I looked up at him and his head was dropped back, looking half-pained while I inexpertly tried to make myself and him feel good, gagging too easily and feeling ashamed afterward.

     And then in a dorm room, lights off, with my roommate on the top bunk wearing headphones, I gasped through his first touches, astonished by the feel of his hand between my legs.  And when I’d seen heaven during my first, shuddering orgasm, I generously told him, “Okay, just the tip,” and he managed to be satisfied with partial measures.

     Finally, we were out on a date—the third one—to a nice Italian restaurant.  We’d eaten, and walked, and talked, and laughed, and then we went back to his apartment (because he had one), and after looking at each other with a question and answer in our eyes, we tore each others’ clothes off, and in a queen-sized bed were completely naked together.  And when I bled, he was compassionate, and went to get a washcloth for me from the bathroom.  And he drove me back to the dorm with toilet paper stuck into my panties since I didn’t have a panty liner.  Then he kissed me goodnight gently, saying, “That was wonderful, Claire. Thank you for giving me that gift.”

     "Goodnight, Frank,” I said, blushingly smiling as I watched him walk down the sidewalk away from me.

I woke up sweaty and despondent, and cried myself back to sleep.

On to Chapter 13 : The Break Up

Breaking up is hard to do...

[platonicfox]

timbledum fEarful 156 adventure (New Zealand)

Useful link: a metric dimensions conversion spreadsheet with dynamic thickness.

Full gallery here.

If you are interested in the budget, this thing cost me NZD$1,100. You can find a breakdown here.

I got the plywood supplier to cut the sheet into two 1200x1200mm squares for transport home. My cut plan based on this is here (or here for the svg version.)

My aspirational post on fEarfuls written around ~6 years ago is here – good to see that I finally followed through!

Background

This is a low tool build with some substitutions due to living in middle earth.

So I have been wanting to build a fEarful cab for quite some time now. However, the timing has never been right… until now!

Initially I was simply too poor to afford to build one as a student/graduate accountant, and I had a secondhand Sunn 410 that I was using in my punk and alt-rock bands (consecutive not simultaneous) so the demand wasn't urgent. I then temporarily stopped playing the bass to focus on my professional accounting exams for about two years.

I have been back playing bass sans-rig for maybe the last two years but have been getting sick of playing on borrowed gear and through PAs. I am also now getting a decent salary, and am pre-kids (just!).

I had not really planned the whole build at the beginning, as there were a lot of problems to solve and a lot of things to learn! Pretty overwhelming! So I just took the build one step at a time. I am pretty green with this kinda stuff, so this was all very exciting!

Step 1 – Buy the plywood

This is a very confusing part of the process, as the world of plywood is so varied and wide! Unfortunately we cannot get Baltic Birch here (the standard it seems), so it seems that the next best thing is some sort of marine grade plywood, such as hoop pine.

After ringing some places and having no real luck, I decided to go to Plyman in Henderson and just have a look around. Prior to leaving, I carefully calcuated that I would be able to fit a sheet of 2400x1200mm in the Nissan Wingroad if I got them to cut it in half (two squares), and tested this with a cheap scrap piece I had lying around – the end of the scrap was still at factory dimensions.

I got to the place and they had a super friendly guy at the counter – much recommended. I mentioned marine grade and Baltic Birch to him. He didn't know anything about Baltic Birch so he steared me to the Euro Birch which looked great! I also looked at the marine Gaboon stuff, but it had a pinky colour that I didn't really like.

So I went with the Euro Birch for about $115 all up, and the guy cut it in half for me for free, and we went to get it into the back of the wagon. It was a friggen mission! We ended up getting it diagonal and just pushing (hard) into the boot! They finally slid in one after the other.

It was even harder getting them out on the other side. My flatmate and I spend a good ten minutes figuring out how to get them out. We ended up having to push hard against the framing of the boot to get the plywood over the lip, and then squeezing the plywood through the plastic framing – we left permanent lines as reminder of the plywood for all time.

It turns out the plywood was actually 2440X1220 – the 2 extra cm squeezing through the boot was all the difference! Gahhhh!

Also turns out that I realised when we got it home that the outer birch vaneer is super thin – not like Baltic Birch at all! The main advantage of BB is apparently that all the plys are equal fitness, which gives it a lot of structural integrity and makes it easy to work with (you don't have to worry about sanding through the veneer).Pretty disappointed about that, but we'll see how we go!

I also hit up Bunnings on the way home and grabbed some misc supplies, including the Sika Supa Grip glue substitute recommended [here](Sika Supa Grip 30min Adhesive per http://greenboy.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1106&p=42527#p42527).

Step 2 – Cut the plywood

On the way out from Plyman, I grabbed a long thin offcut which I thought I could use for making a straight-cut jig for the circular saw. I mounted this onto a shorter sheet of crappy plywood that I had left over (trying out the Supa Grip glue – worked great!), and made a cut with the circular saw leaving a straight edge that I could rely on for making all of my cuts accurately.

More or less – it turns out there was a 1-2 mm bow in the "straight-edge" over the metre or two of length. This did mean that I later had to do some sanding to fit. To do this, I glued some ~40 grit sandpaper to a ~300mm long piece of plywood as a makeshift plane, which took some elbow grease but worked fairly well

Cutting the plywood was nerve-racking for me, as I had no experience with this kind of thing, and I was paranoid in ruining the investment in the plywood I had purchased. I used painter's tape for most cuts to ensure a clean cut. I also bought a higher tooth blade which seemed to work quite well. I probably veered on too long for most cuts, which resulted in more sanding down the line. There also ended up being a bit of bow in the old painting (thanks wife) worktable that I was using – this made it tricky to get a clean cut and required a bit of downward force throughout the cuts.

I did most of the big cuts during a solid Saturday afternoon of cutting, and finished off the rest on another day. The bracing (although fiddly), wasn't as bad as expected, as I essentially cut a bunch of planks with uniform width, then cut to length with a hand-saw – I found it more accurate this way. There was, again, sanding down the line to get these all to fit correctly.

Laying out (ruler and pencil) was a lot more time consuming than I expected, partly as I was paranoid! I measured everything multiple times, but even then it took me a while to get used to which side of the line to cut, how to get the lines square, etc. Not easy! I have definitely learnt the value in good quality layout tools, and this was the first project that I have used a square (shocking I know). I was pretty happy with my make-shift compass for laying out the speaker holes.

I had an old very cheap jigsaw which was ~$20 from Bunnings (maybe my memory is exaggerating). However, after a test cut, I determined that it cut the circles great! The bottom of the mid-box which is a bit of a weird shape was also cut partially with the jigsaw. I judged that precision was not a necessity here.

I did later make a layout error with the handle holes – I carefully calculated where my handles should go (based on guesstimate), and jigsawed/rasped/sanded the hole to accept my first handle. I laid out and triple checked the second hole, and drilled the hole for the jigsaw to start, before (on a whim) checking it visually against the other side. It didn't match! It turns out I was measuring from the bottom rather than the top, so the two sides were mis-matched.

Fortunately, I had only done the drill-hole, so I was able to fashion a plug from plywood with a coping saw. After cutting the rough shape, I hammered a nail into the plug, mounted onto my drill, and rounded the plug on a piece of wood that I had glued some rough 40 grit sandpaper onto. I was then able to plug this into the hole with more Sika! Thankfully, this plug blended fairly well, and ended up being half-covered by the handle anyway. Phew! Every cut is so high stakes!

As I do not plan to combine this box with a second cab, and most commercial cabs have two inputs/outputs for daisy chaining, I decided to leave this cab with just the one speakon connector. I did not bother with a connector plate, opting to mount the connector directly onto the plywood. Yes, it protrudes a little bit, but it does the job, and is a very simple, clean solution. I drilled a hole for the connector, then used a rasp to enlarge it to accept the round connector more or less perfectly. I also made sure to use the gasket tape when installing to make a nice clean seal. You can see a shot of the nubbin in the finishing section.

Step 3 – Assemble the cabinet

So I wanted a wood finish Scandinavian inspired cab, with a natural clear finish. This meant I didn't want any fasteners (screws/nails) marring the aesthetics of my beautiful creation. However, this set me up for a fairly tedious build, as each join needed to be glued up separately.

I also have no joining apparatus (such as dowel jig, biscuit joiner, pocket hole jig), and limited clamps (two smallish clamps). Getting things aligned correctly was fairly stressful with the limited set time of the Sika. Fortunately, a work colleague lent me two sash (long bar) clamps – despite their griminess, I wouldn't have been able to build the cab without them.

The glue was fantastic, but definitely had a learning curve. I was unprepared for how slippery the glue was while still setting. I also took the wrong approach for the squeeze out – I tried to rub sawdust into the wet glue, which apparently works for white PVA glue, but not for poly-based glues like the Sika. Fortunately the ugly matt smear from this only affected the port. The better approach was letting the squeeze out mostly harden, then cut off with a chisel. You can see the ugly squeeze out here:

I was also unprepared for the glue-up pressure! You really have to get things done – fairly high stress environment. One time in particular I had my wife put her head in the garage asking a question, and I had to politely tell her to please leave, I am gluing!

I did try to use a screw to attach the shelf to the port divider, which was a total disaster. Despite all my measurements and layout, the port divider hadn't been aligned perfectly in the centre, and I don't think the layout on the shelf was that flash either. This meant having to re-drill the pilot hole in the intense glue-up pressure. This epically failed, and I actually broke a tip of a drill bit, which is still somewhere in the port divider to this day.

And so I continued – glue up by glue up, each one not too onerous, but with heaps of separate glues to do. The 'clamps only' approach seemed to work out well, and I created many ingenious jigs to ensure that everything was positioned mirror less accurately and my limited supply of clamps (augmented with weights) did the business.

The wood did slightly warp, and the cuts were often a mm or two out, so there was a good bit of rasping/sanding near the end to get the last final pieces to fit. One of my best ideas was to glue some low-grit sandpaper to a scrap piece – the poor man's plane.

Step 4 – Buy and assemble the crossover/electricals

At first when I saw the price of the components, I thought it would be easier to source local component equivalents here. However, after chatting to my acoustic engineer bud, it turns out components of this size are just expensive. So I bit the bullet and paid the $100 to get everything shipped from Erse all the way down under.

This was by far the most daunting part of the project, as I have no electrical experience and had to learn everything from scratch, especially how to decipher the circuit diagram! I also had no idea how to attach everything, and finally decided after looking at other builds to base it on a terminal block.

For some reason, I decided to make a "breadboard" from a scrape piece of ply from the project by drilling a whole bunch of holes in it (I glued on some graph paper to get these more or less aligned). Although tedious, this made it much easier to cable-tie the components to the board, and hopefully provides some cooling. I put some foam pads under the four corners of the board, so there is some room for air to get underneath and rise through the components.

On one Wednesday night, with the wife out teaching an art class, it was time to do the assembling!

I couldn't find any glue sticks, and my wife had the car, so I had to cycle down to The Warehouse. They didn't have any real glue sticks, so I ended up buying a mini-glue gun and mini-glue sticks! Around $10 all up.

I used the hot glue + cable tie combo to secure the components. I was super paranoid with the two inductors, putting them at opposite ends of the board.

Here you can see my pencil schematic of how the wires actually needed to be laid out – I think it would be next to impossible to do this based on the plans, especially with the terminal to terminal connections (very confusing, but it works!) I do not foresee myself ever going through the hassle of building one of these again, so I didn't bother with the switch (although it took me a while to figure out which configuration the padded one was – turns out it is the configuration that the wiring is set in the plan.)

For wiring, I used the same cable used internally, so I had to do a lot of stripping. My solders are probably overdone, but I tested the mechanical integrity of each one so I think they were OK! Please do not judge my soldering lol. I also glued down most of the wires for extra measure.

I ended up mounting this on the shelf. It took up two thirds of the shelf and hung over the port divider by ~10mm – hopefully not a big deal!

Step 5 – Buy and install the speakers (the expensive part)

I actually did this much earlier due to excitement! I ended up buying both of them from eBay – even with shipping and customs they were much cheaper than in NZ. I think the Eminence one was actually semi second hand – they had bought two for a project but never made it, so I got a fairly good price. Pretty exciting!

Step 6 – Hardware and finishing

I bought most of the hardware from a sketchy place called Surplus Tronics – at this point one of the spring handles has already failed. However, everything was fairly cheap, and it was handy getting the corners, wiring, terminal block, feet, handles, and speaker covers from one place. One of the springs in the spring handles has already failed though, but it isn't very expensive to replace.

I took a bit of time figuring what batting to use, as we don't have denim insulation here. I almost bought some fibreglass pink batts, then changed my mind and decided to go the polyfill way. I was hoping to get away with quite cheap for this, and put out a cry for help on Facebook with no success, so I forked out the ~$20 at Spotlight to buy some 'Polyester Wadding' – a 30mm thick sheet 122cm x 150cm. This did me very nicely, with only some left over.

I used a combination of PVA glue and hot glue to attach the sheets to the plywood. I think the hot glue was more effective, at least immediately. I put down two layers on the back, with one layer most other places.

After running the internal wiring (mainly with hot glue), and gluing the batting, I could finally glue on the back of the beast!

Sanding took a lot of time. Despite my best efforts, I had a bit of overhang in some of the joins, and used a bit of pine wood filler to fill some gaps and to fillet some uneven joints. Overall, I am happy with how it turned out. A lot of the imperfections seem to be only visible to my eyes! Wood filler also helped a lot with voids in the plywood.

Once this was all done, it was time for the finish. I managed to get some satin water based polyurethane from a friend who had it left over from some flooring. It was old and had bits of crustiness in it, but it did the job. Water based is supposed to be a lot clearer (less yellow), and was very pleasant to work with – I didn't have to worry too much about it getting on my hands. It was a very strange creamy white, but dried to a silky smooth clear finish.

I made the mistake of laying down the finish way too thick on the first coat and was left with visible drips and runs all over the cab. After a good deal of sanding, I learnt my lesson and the subsequent two coats were much thinner and more successful.

I sanded up to about 160 before finishing, and sanded up to 300 between coats with an electric sander. I put down three coats, then had to do three coats on the bottom too. I spent a bit of time before finishing rounding over the corners with a rasp and sandpaper to accept the plastic corner protectors. I also slightly rounded off the edges.

I did have some issues trying to find "gasket tape" – I ended up just buying weather proofing closed cell tape in black. Was much more expensive than I hoped, but seemed to do a good job of sealing the handles, speakon plug, and 18sound speaker (the Eminence 15 already had some foam around the speaker.)

Step 7 – Trying it out!

I was super scared to try this out. The main thing was the wiring/crossover – if I stuffed something up here, I could blow drivers (I think!). I had no certainty that I hadn't made a mistake, or accidentally shorted something… let alone making errors with the box itself (air leaks, etc.)

One of my friends came around with his Markbass Little Mark II and nervously, we turned it on.

It worked! Boy this thing is sensitive! A lot louder than I expected, especially in our lounge, although it definitely keeps up with a drummer as well. I am yet to really push it though.

I am very pleased with the cleanness and transparency of the sound. It gives me great joy to hear a new level of distinction between my bass pickups (Stingray HH), let alone playing with the tonal variety of the VT bass.

Overall, this has been a very rewarding project, and my confidence in problem solving and DIY has grown exponentially. I have just learnt so flippin much over this project. I especially learnt a lot from the Greenboy official forum. Although i have not posted on the forum, I have lurked pretty hard, and the amount of helpfulness and knowledge there is outstanding, so thanks to everyone there! And a special thanks to Greenboy for making these amazing plans and resources free for us all to use!