Ikea cabs Flat packed

creeble · Post by **creeble** » Fri 12/12/08 12:12 pm

Ripstitch:

I like it a *lot* -- of course, price depending. I think I could become decent at piping & tolex, but cutting the wood I've never been good at. Box corners would be fine, but this could be an option too, I suppose.

Personally, what I'd like would be a "heritage" style 1974x combo cab, with identical or very similar routing of the edges, pre-cut kerfs for the piping, etc. And yes, instructions!

I'm currently monkeying around with cutting a logo into the baffle using a friend's water jet cutter -- complicated, but very cool if I can get the tolex to do what I want.

BTW, is it standard for the baffle to be 3/4" ply, with the rest of the cab being 1/2"?

Eric.

Snooty · Post by **Snooty** » Mon 12/15/08 5:37 pm

Woodcraft.com sells a dovetailed drawer kit that I use for head cab it is made with plantation grown cherry.

LightMeDark · Post by **LightMeDark** » Sat 12/20/08 8:03 pm

Do you have any kind of instructions on how you did that. That's awesome.

Snooty · Post by **Snooty** » Sun 12/21/08 3:18 pm

LightMeDark, were you talking to me?

The Woodcraft drawer idea has been talked about at ampgarage.com as well as 18watt. It is a custom ordered drawer made out of Cherry 5/8 thick instead of 3/4. The cost is $47.60 so very cheap. To order you need to figure the size of your chassis. In my case it was a TW style chassis 17x8x2. To order for my chassis 9 3/4Hx8 7/8Dx18 3/8W equals 9.75Hx8.875Dx18.375W. The bottom has a 1/4 dado groove for the drawer bottom so you either order over sized to cut this off or fill it in with wood like I did (mahagony) or use guitar perfling.

Snooty

mnordbye · Post by **mnordbye** » Tue 05/26/09 3:50 pm

Sorry to bring up an old topic here, but does anyone know if there's any progress to Ripstichs ikea flat packed cabs?

doctornorbert · Post by **doctornorbert** » Tue 05/26/09 9:33 pm

+1 on that.

WaZaK · Post by **WaZaK** » Wed 05/27/09 12:58 am

I wondered the same myself. Where are you Doug?

A quick search on Google for Sound Daddy LLC, Daddy Ripstich, Ripstich Sound or any other combination I could think of returned zilch ..........

Having recently researched the DIY cab business myself, it is clear that (a) the margins are rather thin and (b) the flat-pack idea, while saving a little on shipping materials, saves very little on shipping costs.

I also concluded that flat-packing jointed cabinets was a non starter from the technical point. Assembling good, well fitting joints should only be done once: dismantling tends to sprain the tails (or fingers). But the routing (rounded edges) can only be achieved AFTER assembly (and is best done after glue has set) - and removes a significant part of the joint.

But I guess real joints are NOT Ikea style. "Ikea" style is "held together with miscellaneous plastic fittings and pre threaded holes - guaranteed to go wobbly 7 days after the guarantee runs out ...... "

Maybe Ripstich is still looking for a magic compromise.

michaelcauley · Post by **michaelcauley** » Wed 05/27/09 6:59 am

Hey
Now that last post was words of wisdom,I agree wholeheartedly.
Thanx MJC

Spongebob · Post by **Spongebob** » Wed 05/27/09 7:28 am

WaZaK wrote:I wondered the same , saves very little on shipping costs.

.

National shipping is usually based on weight, so there is little advantage, but international shipping is based on package volume so you end up paying for the air space in the cabinet. A flat pack would offer a very big saving.

Regarding joints, I recently tried a test on a 12mm corner butt joint reinforced with a biscuit and glued with aliphatic resin. I couldn't get enough pressure to break it. This system also allows for the corner routing to be carried out before assembly as the biscuit keeps excellent alignment.

Just a thought....

Post by **zaphod_phil** » Wed 05/27/09 9:53 am

How does that work? And what exactly is a "biscuit", for a non-woodworking expert guy? I always thought you eat biscuits.

doctornorbert · Post by **doctornorbert** » Wed 05/27/09 10:06 am

FYI Lopo is offering cabinet kits: http://www.lopoline.com/cabinetkits.html

Spongebob · Post by **Spongebob** » Wed 05/27/09 10:36 am

zaphod_phil wrote:How does that work? And what exactly is a "biscuit", for a non-woodworking expert guy? I always thought you eat biscuits.

You wouldn't want to eat these biscuits, they're made of beech wood. What you do is use a biscuit jointing machine. which looks like a modified angle grinder, this creates a slot similar to a thin segment of orange in shape in both the parts to be joined. The wooden biscuit is glued, pushed into the slots which keeps the assembly aligned. After a short while the moisture from the glue swells the biscuit sides in both parts to make a very firm joint.

It still needs clamping, but I usually fit a couple of "wire dovetails" (staples) so I can remove the clamp and do another cabinet

I'll be showing the procedure in my Dominator gallery shortly - I've made a start on the next cabinets and will soon be posting new photos.

Spongebob

WaZaK · Post by **WaZaK** » Wed 05/27/09 11:46 am

A flat pack would offer a very big saving.

My research was with head boxes. To get a real cost I took two to Fed-Ex: an assembly and a flat pack, both packed. Although both were weighed and measured, it made little difference - and the non-ground service was a heart attack either way!

However, heads are small: a combo would be significantly smaller flat packed than assembled, and that may make a difference.

Regardless, it was shipping that effectively put the kibosh on my project (for the time being). I decided I needed to make unfinished assemblies REALLY cheap to make it viable. I see junk unfinished small heads on eBay for $127 + shipping. There is no way I'd pay that much! For only twice that I can get a finished masterpiece from Swanson!

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed 05/27/09 8:12 pm

I believe it all, while a nice idea, the flat-pack shipping helps with "oversized" packages... keeps the measurements down for say a 4x12 cab (or 4x10 cab) which will pretty much get slammed everytime with an "oversize package" surcharge. A head can possibly avoid that surcharge due to its smaller dimensions to start with.

Spongebob · Post by **Spongebob** » Sun 05/31/09 3:23 pm

zaphod_phil wrote:How does that work? And what exactly is a "biscuit", for a non-woodworking expert guy? I always thought you eat biscuits.

Zaphod_Phil

I've added the method of using biscuit joints to my photo log in the Dominator gallery - thought you might like to see. The next 3 cabs are progressing nicely, should be some more construction photo's soon.

spongebob

WaZaK · Post by **WaZaK** » Sun 05/31/09 6:05 pm

@ Spongebob
Still looking for Mickey Mouse. I thought I might see him peering through piles of sawdust ......
But wait: that is not my workshop. No dust! Is that a dust extractor I see in the background?
Some people are spoiled rotten! Lol.

(Tnx for the new pics, BTW.)

Spongebob · Post by **Spongebob** » Sun 05/31/09 7:02 pm

WaZaK wrote:@ Spongebob
No dust! Is that a dust extractor I see in the background?
Some people are spoiled rotten! Lol.

(Tnx for the new pics, BTW.)

There's plenty of dust even with the extractor! I must admit I do keep buying all my new toys - can't help myself. Now I'm retired I get plenty of chance to play with them too.

Ripstich · Post by **Ripstich** » Mon 06/01/09 8:24 pm

I had a really bad car accident on some black-ice this last Dec. If and when I can get my neck fixed this will become a reality.

WaZaK · Post by **WaZaK** » Mon 06/01/09 8:31 pm

Sorry to hear about the accident. Several of us wondered where you had gone to!
Hope you have a speedy recovery.

Donations

Links

Welcome

Ikea cabs Flat packed

Ikea style flat packed