Build Update for Fun

[bombay317]

I have been making my way through the build and I wanted to share some notes on it:

A. Some of the inductors though they said they would have a long end did not, and i had to come up with a work-around for the crossovers.
B. When you make the cables as prescribed (and there is a note in the manual) you need to use spade connectors for the incoming speaker cables.  If you have bananas coming out of your amp, you should change your 8" jumpers over to spades or bare wire if you want.
C. You have to move pretty quick once you start to glue everything, because if you are moving slowly, it will start getting sticky and will mess up your alignment.
D. It helps to have spare hands to solder on the shading caps.
E. Watch out for gaps in the panels, I deemed mine ok
F. I planned on sanding everything and used 120-220 to get it clean for the finish.
G. I am queueing up to use real Tung Oil (but they have 1 week cure times, so it will be slow going).
H. I will update with oiling, and later with sound impressions.

[bombay317]

These are after the first coat of dark tung oil (it is a 50/50 of dark tung oil and solvent).

[Leland Hankins]

Before you put two much tung oil on the top, you could glue 1/16 " birch plywood or veneer (VeneerSupplies.com) to cover up sanding through the top plywood layers.  I also like to round over the edges of the baltic birch plywood.  You need to use 320-400 or higher grit sandpaper for a better finish.

[bombay317]

I have not really done a lot of woodwork, and am learning as I am doing this.  I like the idea of topping it off with a veneer.

[bombay317]

Its a bit of a mess, but I finally got the Jager Speakers put together.  I tried all of my audio inputs and everything works.  There is a little bit of a hum in the left channel so i'll have to chase that down.  I also still need to put the felt thingies on the sides of the tweeters.

Interesting to note is that I put together the BeePre, Kaiju, and Jagers all in one go, and somehow managed to not screw it up.

[Doc B.]

The veneer looks great! Man, that is a big kitty.

[bombay317]

Yeah, that is Theda Purra (named after Theda Bara) who is a 1yo Maine Coon cat.  She is small right now but will grow for another 2 years (up until about 3).  She loves jumping on the credenza so I have had to put delicate instruments inside of the credenza.

The largest Maine Coon was something like 48.5" from the tip of their tail to the front of their front paws.  They are huge.

[Doc B.]

We have a Bengal and she looks like a cat action figure in comparison.

[HF9]

Very nice work! The veneer looks great 

[Deluk]

End result looks great but the fact that the box goes together with this degree of inaccuracy makes me think that the CNC prog needs adjustment. Possibly the position of the lock key clams (not sure of the real term but I'm familiar with them on Ikea stuff). You shouldn't have to take a sander to correct the misalignment. Other Jager builders might care to comment. Did Doc and the team actually put together a box to confirm that it went together accurately?

[kgoss]

I haven't built a pair of Jaegers but I have done quite a bit of woodworking and I suspect the alignment trouble a couple of people have had is because of the wood glue.  You have to understand that wood glue has a very short "working time" once pieces are joined.  It will "seize" once clamping pressure is applied which is both a good and bad attribute. It's good because the pieces don't move around while the glue dries even with the light clamping pressure of the cam locks.  But it's bad that you need to move quickly and precisely when gluing up a finished joint. 

Epoxy could be used which has a longer working time but it has its own set of drawbacks.  You have to mix it in small batches but the biggest drawback is cleanup on finished pieces such as speaker cabinets.  Wood glue will clean up nicely with a damp sponge while the glue is wet. 

So I would continue to use wood glue but I would lightly clamp each piece with the cam locks and quickly check for perfect alignment. A rubber mallet is a great tool to adjust things if necessary. Once alignment is perfect tighten the cam locks then check alignment again.  Some bar clamps could also be used if needed, but if you do only apply enough pressure to hold the joint.  It's easy to squeeze all the glue out with the clamps.  If possible only work on one joint at a time and let it dry before moving on.

Sorry for the rambling post but I wanted to share my woodworking experience with anyone building or planning to build the speakers.  Dan and crew have made the kits accessible to everyone to build with the engineered lumber and cam lock construction. I don't want to see anyone discouraged by a couple reported problems that could easily be unwitting builder mistakes rather than design problems with the kits.

[Doc B.]

End result looks great but the fact that the box goes together with this degree of inaccuracy makes me think that the CNC prog needs adjustment. Possibly the position of the lock key clams (not sure of the real term but I'm familiar with them on Ikea stuff). You shouldn't have to take a sander to correct the misalignment. Other Jager builders might care to comment. Did Doc and the team actually put together a box to confirm that it went together accurately?

That's kind of a silly question. Did you see pictures of the finished prototypes? I think that should answer whether or not I assembled any cabinets. I assembled cabinets from both a prototype run and the production run (which was used for the assembly manual), along with earlier prototypes.

Regarding the misalignment - it probably has to do with a panel being misaligned when being flipped or turned in the CNC process. It was only a couple of panels that had this issue to my knowledge. One customer caught it during the dry fit and we sent another panel. Not to put too fine a point on it, this was a beta run. There will obviously be some adjustments made on future runs.

[Zimmer64]

Dry fitting is key! I've built some speakers, steel string guitars, furniture etc. and I always dry fit and clamp before I apply the glue. As was said before, wood glue has a relatively short opening time. You want to make sure that the parts fit, you have all material in place and that you can put the clamps on precisely and quickly enough.

[Doc B.]

I did have a discussion with the CNC shop owner about tolerance before we went into production. It's 0.5mm (about 1/32"), i.e., there is that much misalignment allowable on fit. I saw one or two joints that had that much gap in the production cabinet we did, but no more than that. Beyond that amount is an error that is outside the nominal tolerance. So the couple of issues of misalignment we have seen are probably due to the panel shifting in the CNC process. That's out of something like 350 individual panels that were machined during the first run. This is not to make excuses, just to share more info on how the production process actually works in hopes of reducing speculation. I do intend to talk to the shop before the next run about how we might get to zero error.

[bombay317]

FWIW, the stuff I had to sand off the top was part of the DIY experience of building it yourself.  I dont do woodwork, so the amount that i had to sand was ok and it has been a learning experience for me.

I have done many a project where I have said, "I can probably build this better than they can," but end up with something that looks horrible (and usually works).  This has turned out quite the opposite, and I think that it is the most complicated DIY I have done.  I knew that I was accepting some risk, too, with it being part of the second run (though i should have checked closely).  What is great is that Bottlehead knows about it and is fixing it for the other people that catch this before gluing (or actually know what they are doing, not like me).

I also fully admit that I should not have glued this and that should have brought it up in the dry fit.  There even was a thread that was an example where OP told Bottlehead and got a replacement board.  This post is a testament to doing it the way the instructions say, and what the people in the thread post.  I'm impatient.