Hi, everybody
I'm getting around (finally!) to finishing up some pesky sound installs in a few brass engines and I just mounted a bottom firing speaker in the tender floor of a B&O T-3a. The floor didn't have punched holes so I used my microlux drill press and managed to get about a dozen nicely spaced 3/32nd holes for the sound to come out.
So, what I'm wondering is, what do you call—and where do you get the "grille cloth" that I have seen used in commercial products, including DCC speakers. The stuff is black and very flat and takes glue very well and should be sonically transparent. Of course I only need about 6 square inches!
I think I saved some once from some old computer speakers but don't remember if I finally tossed it. I want to have some barrier between the cone and the outside world to keep little iron filings and such out of the speaker.
I plan to tack it to the bottom of the tender so I can remove it and blow it off if it picks up any gunk.
Thanks... Ed
I don't think you need a special cloth. Some old thin material would work. Perhaps old nylons?
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
The home theater guys use an accoustically transparant fabric from Guilford of Maine. It's pricey, but in the quantity you need it wouldn't be an issue.
Here's one source:
http://www.acousticalsolutions.com/guilford-of-maine-fabric-fr701-style-2100
If you have a local home theater store, you might be able to pick up some scraps cheap.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
When installing speakers in the fuel tank openings on Kato SD40-2's I have used bandage gause from a first aid kit to prevent picking up any metal that might make its way through the grill to the speaker face. That has seemed to work well and is very inexpensive.
Marty C
Hey, Marty
I think you may have something there!
Ruderunner's idea was good but when I went toward my wife with an Xacto knife I got hit in the head with a spike maul
Carl... I'm familiar with regular speaker grille cloth—I remember when every Allied, Lafayette, Olson, Heathkit and Radio Shack had displays of the latest style of speaker cloth (purple-paisley was my favorite!) but the stuff I'm talking about is thin, like the gauze Marty is talking about. Come to think about it... its like the thin gauze that I've seen underneath cheap furniture... black, see through and very thin.
That gives me an idea... maybe I'll flip the sofa over tomorrow and see what I can find there!
Thanks, fella's...
Ed
Here comes the maul again...
gmpullmanThat gives me an idea... maybe I'll flip the sofa over tomorrow and see what I can find there!
Yeah, the black cloth-like stuff they use to enclose the bottom of furniture should work. Cut out a square big enough for what you need and no one will notice.
Something very similar is landscape cloth. It's cheap and suitable, I believe. I use it mostly to make skirting for the layout, but it would work.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
No one will notice but the cat, who will now use the new opening to crawl up INSIDE the couch....
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Why can't you use some of that nylon fabric window screening material?
maxman:
I think window screening would be too coarse to stop the finer filings and bits of metal, IMHO.
I'm also not so sure that landscape fabric would not muffle the sound a bit, but I ain't no expert.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
These are some good ideas! Dave is right about the window screen. But you gave me an option! I have some stainless steel fine mesh (600 threads per inch) that might work if I can't find any of the black stuff.
Some of the landscape fabric is thin, like perforated drop cloth. I used some around my corn plants! I'll have to see if I can remember where I put it...
Randy, I used to have a cat that somehow clawed its way into the box spring of the mattress! By the time we knew about it he had pulled it all down (this guy weighed in at about 30 lbs.) They say it helps to have a cat around to reduce stress!!
Thanks, guys... Ed
Grab a coffee filter out of the kitchen cabinet, before making coffee. lol.
Cut out what you need. Helps keep the speaker magnet from picking up magnetic material from the roadbed. You would be surprised at what a speaker in the oil tank of a diesel can pick up.
Never needed any in a tender.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Some of these are funny (IE the spike maul part, cat in the couch part lol).
GM, i would like to toss these in for possible fabrics.....
Felt off the bottom of certain doo dads around the house that sit on nice wood.
A nice, worn out old tshirt, cut to fit. Who needs sleeves?
Headliner material out of your car. (doesnt have to be YOUR car! lol)
Filter material from a car air filter. (again, doesnt have to be YOUR car) preferrably a not used one.
The thin foam stuff (in roll form) thats used in packing material.
Certain mouse pads, cut to shape.
Some plasce mats for dining tables could be used. (again, if you fear the spike maul, it doesnt have to be YOUR table clothes!)
More for parody, but i believe some of those can be attained free of charge, with no need to get the head bashing, and they might actually work.
Cheers!
Douglas
Thanks, Douglas...
Everyone has some creative ideas here! When I Google speaker cloth or any variation of the same all sorts of stuff comes up but not exactly what I had in mind.
I have taken apart old speakers with molded plastic fronts but behind the molded plastic was a thin, yes, almost like a nylon stocking fabric. Sort of paper-like, sort of coffee filter but very much like the black "membrane" like you see under lots of furniture nowadays.
This stuff has to have a name, right? As it turns out I found some dark gray nylon material that I think will work out pretty well. I plan to make a brass wire rectangle with the cloth stretched over it that will snugly fit under the tender, out of sight, but I can pop it out if it ever needs to have the magnetic bits cleaned off (see LION's reply in the track spiking thread!)
Thanks to everyone for your input, and laughs! Ed
Carl... I'm familiar with regular speaker grille cloth—I remember when every Allied, Lafayette, Olson, Heathkit and Radio Shack had displays of the latest style of speaker cloth
Heathkit? And I thought I was old.