Simple wooden headbox plans

[sarge]

Hi,

First a little background.

I am getting ready to convert my Mesa combo into a seperate head and cabinet.

What I find it that my amp is over 100 pounds, and at the moment I mainly play through an external cab. Having essentiall a 100+ pound amp head is quite difficult to lug around.

Anyway, in the combo, the tubes hang down were as in the head the tubes are pointed up. This being the case I have spoken with Mesa, and they will construct me a head cabinet where I can install the electronics along the top. This will cost me 450$, without shipping.

I would rather not spend that much money. So I am considering making the headcab myself.

Problem is I have never done a single woodworking project before in my life.So I think it's safe to say I would not consider dovetail joints.

I would think building a wooden box would be simple, but of course this box would be carrying about 50-60 pounds of tube amp inside. So I have to be sure I construct it well enough that it doesn't fall apart after constant lugging around.

Does anyone have a simple blueprint for essentially contructing a structurally sound head cabinet that does not use dovetail joints?

Thanks

[sarge]

Ok, I found a decent blueprint here
http://www.ampcabs.com/Head_Cab_23in.pdf.

Mine will differ, but atleast I got an idea about how they are put together.

Two questions.

1. Is it possible to do box joints with a jig saw. At the moment I do not have access to a table saw.

2. What do you recomment for wood. I know 3/4 inch birch plywood is popular. Any reason not to use 1" pine? for me that is probably more readily available.

Thanks

[vaia10]

I'll throw in my $0.02...

1. while it's definitely not impossible to do boxjoints without a table saw or router+template -- after all, they were using simple saws when they came up with kind of joint -- it's just that it's much more time consuming and probably requires a lot of experience. My first attempt was to use a jigsaw. It didn't work

2. since this is a cabinet for a head, 1" thick pine would be fine. Not terribly heavy. It would simply look, well... kind of thick. Actually I would say that 1) and 2) are related, as it's bound to be harder to do a nice boxjoint with that thick of a blank.

(I think you can buy special hand saws for box joints. Something like this: http://www.craftsmanstudio.com/html_p/A!515.htm It's true that you can buy an used table saw for that kind of money though...)

Cosmin

[stingray_65]

if you use the cleats the finger joints aren't totaly nescasary.
just use a simle lap joint and make your length and height adjustments accordingly.
use a good quality glue lke titebond II

just curious, if you don't have a table saw, how are you going to cut the wood to dimention?

a jig saw could work if you clamp a strait guide (yard stick) across your lumber and run the shoe of the jigsaw against it, remember to take into account the offset

to figure your offset, clamp your guide to a scrap and run your jig saw an inch or two into the wood. measure from the guie to the cut and that is he offset.

this works well with a circular saw too

[sarge]

if you use the cleats the finger joints aren't totaly nescasary.
just use a simle lap joint and make your length and height adjustments accordingly.
use a good quality glue lke titebond II

just curious, if you don't have a table saw, how are you going to cut the wood to dimention?

a jig saw could work if you clamp a strait guide (yard stick) across your lumber and run the shoe of the jigsaw against it, remember to take into account the offset

to figure your offset, clamp your guide to a scrap and run your jig saw an inch or two into the wood. measure from the guie to the cut and that is he offset.

this works well with a circular saw too

I was going to use a Jig saw. Thanks for the idea about using the clamps and the straight edge.

I am checking with friends to see if anyone has a table saw I can use.

[tubeswell]

What stingray65 said

I have built all my cabs that way so far and they are strong. I use 3/4" pine. Its thick enough to be strong and be routed, but not too thick that it looks clunky. For the cleats I use 1" square timber. It has to be thick enough to take the screws. You should pre-drill the cleats right through with a smaller-than-screw-diam drill, and then screw the screws into the cleat before lining it up on the panel. Have the panel lying down on a hard flat surface that you can put your weight on the screwdriver and the cleat. The cleats have to line up propelry and be screwed down tightly and squarely.

I use polyurethane glue, as it expands to fill up the gaps (when you apply it thoroughly to both sides of the joint).

The main thing is to get the panels for the sides and top cut squarely, and a table saw is best for that. Most places that sell timber have a decent bench saw for cutting timber to lengths. Try and see if the place you buy the timber can cut the panels to match evenly, and that will make it easier to build.

For extra strength I use 1/8" dowel pegs glued through the joint (I drill the holes into the side of the joint after I have clamped and glued it together, then I trim off the overhanging ends and use an orbital sander to get all the surfaces flat. Then I use a hand-router with a 1/2" radius cutter to round the edges)

[sarge]

What stingray65 said

I have built all my cabs that way so far and they are strong. I use 3/4" pine.

I did get a hold of a table saw.

I found a sheet of 3/4' pine as well. One thing that makes me a little nervous is that since I will be pulling the electronics from a combo, the means that the amp will be hanging from the roof of the cabinet rather then resting on the bottom. And a Roadking is a very big amp. 6 power tubes, 5 preamp tubes.

Do you think pine is strong enough? A roadking head from mesa is 57 pounds, so I would guess that the amp portion is "roughly" 50 pounds.

I guess I'm wondering if I should go straight for the birch, or if you guys think pine would be OK.

Thanks
for the feedback.

[tubeswell]

3/4" pine is more than sufficient strengthwise

a 5E3 combo I just built weighs 18kg (40 pounds)

a 5G9 combo I built 4 months ago weighs 22kg (49 pounds)

Both cabs are rock solid

Pine being lighter and less dense will of course be softer in most cases than birch, so it will ding more easily if left untreated. I cover mine in fabric (glued on with weldbond - which adds durability - also looks retro)

[M Fowler]

Sarge

A while back on another forum we were using a guys idea to use a cherry drawer kit as an amp cab from Wood Craft. Order to the size you need.

I was also looking at those pine ammo boxes I see in a lot of stores around town.

Mark

I might have found a cheap alternative to a "real" custom head cabinet.
I ordered a "custom built drawer" with 1/2 blind dovetail joints that comes disassembled from woodcraft.com . Solid hardwood, 5/8" thick. It should at least be something to put my 1st TW build in to transport it. I'll let you know how it works out possibly take some pictures. Including shipping the cost is less than 60 dollars, so I figured why not give it a try?

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx...oductid=140719

They're made from plantation-grown cherry. I took the TW cab plans from the files and took off 1/8" from all the outside dimensions (5/8" stock instead of 3/4") yielding a 9-3/4H x 8-7/8W x 18-3/8/D drawer. Lay the drawer on its side, and voila, you have a TW cab with half-blind dovetail jointing You have to supply the front (the easy part).
Money: Merchandise Net: $47.60
Shipping Amount: 9.25
Total Amount: $56.85

[sarge]

My Finished Results.

[dcshaw87]

Awesome!

That thing looks amazing... Great job!

[marwatt1959]

amazing cabinet!

[Groover]

how did you end up cutting your finger joints?