My selected door prize from the InDIYana 2025 meet arrived today. Thanks to Mike V of Ciare/B&C for hooking a bunch of us up!!
I chose a 12 to be used in a future bass guitar cab build. Hopefully some time next year…
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I have become a “hat guy” in the past few years. My current favorite hat is a Dorfman Pacific cotton fedora I got ~15yr ago at a Meijer (it slowly grew on me). But I’ve always wanted to try a felt fedora. I got an $80 one from Australia.. But was a bit too small, and wasn’t keen to ship back, so I gave it to my father. I pulled the trigger ($15 on ebay) on a probably ~30yr old Dorfman Pacific felt fedora (back when still made in USA).
It came in pretty rough shape. The crown was smashed enough I didn’t know what the original shape would have been. I gave it a simple sink basin hand wash and reshaped it as it dried. I guessed on the shaping but I think it came out pretty well.
Only to find later that night my throat was tight and scratchy… I think I’m allergic to it. 
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Nice job on the refurb, Drew.
Is that the original band?
I too have a thing for fedora’s and own 2 in wool/Felt for foul weather and one in straw for summer walks.
It is the band that it came with, yes. It has also seen better days, but sometimes it is the scars that give character. As far as if it is truely factory original, I don’t know as I haven’t found evidence of the hat’s existence in any publication. I don’t think Dorfman Pacific currently sells or openly acknowledges they ever sold felt hats in the past.
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Finished plant rebuild #10 last Thursday, on vacation till 01 October. Thus, speaker progress. This rebuild went well until the end, where we had some issues with a new piece of equipment. Traced to shields not grounded in the panel for digital encoder outputs.
Usually, my electricians are blamed for such oopsies - however this was per drawings. Random changes in digital words are tough to trace - it didn’t happen all the time. Once or twice a day 
???
PS: anyone in industrial/manufacturing is invited to link up in Linked-In.
Cheers / Robert
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Bought a 2x4 sheet of MDF at HD. This board was very dark compared to what I had at home. Thought when I picked it up it felt heavy for a 2x4 but whatever. Started cutting it this evening and everything I used struggled and bogged down. Finally got my first finished board cut out of it and it was noticeably heavier than the boards of lighter colored MDF I’d cut.
These two boards are the exact same size. The light MDF weighs 2lbs 1.6oz. The dark board weighs 3lbs 13.8oz. Damn near twice as heavy! This is the most dense MDF I’ve ever had to work with. It’s not enjoyable.
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I’ll bet it makes for a better speaker cabinet though . . .
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I got a sheet of flame retardant mdf that was similar to what you are describing. Nasty stuff.
You also have to be careful not all things harder are better when it comes to box construction.
So true, heavier materials move the panel resonance down in frequency likely necessitating additional bracing. Tricky tradeoff.
Heavier materials tend to let out less of the sound from inside the box, but as JR stated above everything is a trade off.
It seems to me that there could be two very different methods to minimize sound transmission. Perhaps more. The high mass method, so that it cannot be easily excited, or the constrained layer approach. Materials with dissimilar acoustic properties laminated together.
High mass excites easily at lower frequencies.
Too stiff can ring like a bell. Cement in siprisingly good at ringing.
I generally go with varying thickness of panels & placing inside support(s) off center - but just a hunch.
There is a lot of math to support golden ratio bracing,it works.
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Got checked out of the hospital yesterday after a 4-day stay. Not quite operating at full speed yet, but should be there soon. Potentially still on track to have something to present at DIY Iowa, or at least be able to attend. I’ve found that workmanship suffers when you’re in a hurry on past projects. This time I’ve found that workmanship also suffers when you don’t feel great. I believe I can still make up for that. We’ll see, I guess.
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I heard you like chest thumping bass…
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A bass shaker would likely be more effective, and easier.
but no where near as cool🤣
There’s a thing called a Back Beat that in ear monitor (IEM) users can use to feel their bass guitar or drummers to feel either the bass and/or the kit.
…but again, not near as cool!!!