[xaval]

Quote:

Nice Pineapple 

WIN!!!
 
This thread just keeps getting better an inspirational feedback guys - great looking piece of work Alchieng
 

 

[sharkz]

Quote:

Nice Pineapple 

The lucky devil lives in Florida, he likely grew it on a bush outside. Heh.
 
Al, what size hole saws did you use. Your cups have much thicker walls than I got using 2" ID and 2.5"OD saws, or at least they look like they do. I like the look of the thicker walls but am curious how you still fit the driver in its plastic housing inside. Or if the outer ring is thicker, how that fit in the gimbals. Using my sizes, my cups barely have any room to rotate in the gimbals and one wrap of the driver housing with electrical tape keeps it very firmly in place in the cup.

 

[Bilavideo]

Quote:

The lucky devil lives in Florida, he likely grew it on a bush outside. Heh.

 Originally Posted by BobSaysHi /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 

Nice Pineapple 

 
Thanks!  Living in Florida does have its advantages!

 

[Joe Presto]

Quote:

 

 

 
Love them, the 'Budget-Bila'!
 

 

[Bilavideo]

That's the spirit!  It reminds me of a guy I used to see, a few blocks from my house, tricking out Yugos.  Nobody ever mistook a Yugo for a Mercedes, but this guy would cut the tops off and make convertibles out of them, then repaint them cool colors, mag the tires and otherwise turn these Yugos into fun wagons.  There's a freedom you have, when you're working with something like poplar, to do unconventional things.  In the meantime, the same basic architecture - with upper and lower lips to double the contact surface - makes the most out of what you've got, which is why my son and I were pleasantly surprised by the mileage we were getting out of this modest material.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not abandoning my love for cocobolo, which is a superb tonewood.  I'm just thinking that there are fun and affordable ways out of plastic.  I still have Brazilian rosewood I want to run up against my cocobolos, and some lignum vitae to try out (if I can ever get it cut) but it's fun to take something overlooked and "rock it like a hurricane."  Why not?

 

[Narynan]

Hey, bila.  Have you coinsidered staining a set of those just to see.  I mean, I see so many colors there, may as well see what they look like stained.
 
 

Quote:

 
I started thinking about all those people who can't afford the exotic tonewoods, students and others who, for one reason or another, want to dump the plastic but just can't afford to grab the brass ring.  That's when it occurred to me that poplar might be a good place to start.
 

 
Popular is an inexpensive wood that skews toward the softer side.  Its light weight and light color make it an interesting alternative to the more expensive tonewoods.
 

 
While it doesn't hold a candle to mahogany, cocobolo or Brazilian rosewood, poplar is still a better choice than plastic.  What's more, because of its lower price, there's less of a need to stick to a single color pattern.  The nearly broke could still display high creativity in coming up with new looks for Grados.
 

​

 ​

These are not completely finished.  They need another three coats and some additional sanding to be anywhere close to complete, but the sound on these - while not as defined as it would be in the mahoganies, cocobolos and Brazilian rosewood - is still a step up from the original plastic.  
 

 
I'm not presenting these as the acme of woodwork.  I just think they represent some of the many possibilities waiting to be explored.
 

 

 

[Big Bill]

Will someone please remind me how best to "lift" the "crinkles" from the liberated drivers?
 
Thanks in advance, Bill.

 

[sml1226]

Will someone please remind me how best to "lift" the "crinkles" from the liberated drivers?
 
Thanks in advance, Bill.

Electrical (PVC) tape works wonders.

 

[Bilavideo]

 

Quote:

Will someone please remind me how best to "lift" the "crinkles" from the liberated drivers?
 
Thanks in advance, Bill.

Electrical (PVC) tape works wonders.

 
I agree.  I like it a lot more than, say, cellophane, which is too sticky.  You want the sticky surface of the tape to grab the Mylar but to also release it afterwards - and release it gently.  You want to lay the tape over the affected area and pull out the wrinkle, much the way someone doing bodywork on a car would "lift and pull" the dent out.  Grado has a bit of a dilemma.  Its drivers are so detailed because they have such low mass.  But thin Mylar is so flimsy that its subject to crinkling.  I've never been unable to pull these crinkles out.  It's not like the Mylar ends up stuck that way, but Mylar is also a bit coquettish.  You may find yourself teased and laughed at by your drivers as if you fix one dent - only to produce another.  It takes patience and persistence.  Be gentle.  Believe it or not, the Mylar is quite sturdy stuff.  It will tear only if you puncture it.  On the other hand, if you get too exuberant, you will pull the voice coil loose.  It's only lodged in-between the magnet and the magnet plate by a slight friction.  If you pull it out, all is not lost, but then you have to push it back in - and the only way to do that is to push on the Mylar.
 
The unforgivable sin is to mess with the thread-like wires feeding the voice coil.  Get careless there and you're back to shopping for headphones.
 
One thing I do when I use electrical tape is to loop it, with the sticky side facing out.  I pinch the ends and apply the sticky outward face.  Doing so gives me more control and more of a "sensation" regarding the amount of force I'm using.  As I mentioned before, there isn't a ding you can't pull out.  As long as you haven't created a rip or tear, you can make just about any old driver look good as new.
 

 

[sml1226]

 
 
I agree.  I like it a lot more than, say, cellophane, which is too sticky.  You want the sticky surface of the tape to grab the Mylar but to also release it afterwards - and release it gently.  You want to lay the tape over the affected area and pull out the wrinkle, much the way someone doing bodywork on a car would "lift and pull" the dent out.  Grado has a bit of a dilemma.  Its drivers are so detailed because they have such low mass.  But thin Mylar is so flimsy that its subject to crinkling.  I've never been unable to pull these crinkles out.  It's not like the Mylar ends up stuck that way, but Mylar is also a bit coquettish.  You may find yourself teased and laughed at by your drivers as if you fix one dent - only to produce another.  It takes patience and persistence.  Be gentle.  Believe it or not, the Mylar is quite sturdy stuff.  It will tear only if you puncture it.  On the other hand, if you get too exuberant, you will pull the voice coil loose.  It's only lodged in-between the magnet and the magnet plate by a slight friction.  If you pull it out, all is not lost, but then you have to push it back in - and the only way to do that is to push on the Mylar.
 
The unforgivable sin is to mess with the thread-like wires feeding the voice coil.  Get careless there and you're back to shopping for headphones.
 
One thing I do when I use electrical tape is to loop it, with the sticky side facing out.  I pinch the ends and apply the sticky outward face.  Doing so gives me more control and more of a "sensation" regarding the amount of force I'm using.  As I mentioned before, there isn't a ding you can't pull out.  As long as you haven't created a rip or tear, you can make just about any old driver look good as new.
 

One more thing about that. I've found that the standard black tape is a lot stickier than the white Duck brand stuff I found awhile back. The Scotch and 3M black is likely to pull a lot harder (I never tried that since I already had the weaker Duck tape) and it has worked flawlessly (so far). I haven't done the Grados, but the little RCAs I liberated had the center flattened and that tape worked flawlessly. And I decided to liberate some Takstar TS-411's and they're 30mm open drivers despite their complete lack of a proper vent in the shells.

 

[Danthrax]

So I', just curious has anyone ever tried contacting gradolabs to see if they can buy just the drivers?

 

[Big Bill]

 
Quote:

So I', just curious has anyone ever tried contacting gradolabs to see if they can buy just the drivers?

 
LOL!!!    

 
Well, I just tried the "electrical tape" method a few moments ago and guess what happened? That's right, the voice coil glue let go of the Mylar and as a result the driver "buzzes" as the coil "bangs" into it.

 

[maverickronin]

I tried that on a KSC-75 driver and it didn't work very well at all.  Every crinkle that was removed always caused another one.  Maybe its the titanium coating or something.  I'm guessing that it lets them make the mylar thinner, but I don't feel like ripping apart other 'phones to try and check.

 

[Big Bill]

 

[sml1226]

Anyone want to go "halfsies" on a set of 60's with me so we can "split" the drivers, or does anyone have an extra driver they would be willing to sell me???

If you want the driver only, wouldn't the iGrado be a better choice? It's supposedly the exact same driver and it's quite a bit cheaper.