Magickman's studio makeover and construction thread

[Magickman]

Originally Posted by Louisvilledrum

Just amazing work and detail.

I hope to see more soon. I would love to see more detailed drawings of your work.

I will be watching this thread and your Tuning thread very closely.

Bill

Thanks, and my apologies for not updating recently. I have been just plain too busy getting the studio finished. My Grand Opening party is next Tuesday, March 1st, 2011, and I've been working 12 hour days to get things completed in time. All kinds of great stuff happening that I'll be sharing with you all shortly.

I've been doing sessions as well and have been getting rave reviews on the sound of both the live room and the control room. People have been truly thrilled with the results we're getting. All of my hard work over the past 18 months is paying huge dividends!

Anyway, between working on the studio, and working in the studio, I've had zero time to post (I've literally been working 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week for the last 2 months - ouch!!!). Once I make it past the grand opening next week, I promise to start catching up on these threads!

Thanks again for the encouragement!

-MM

[Magickman]

BTW, consider this an open invitation to anyone who is (or will be) in the area to come to the grand opening next week: Tuesday March 1st, 2011

Free Electron Studio is located in the Pioneer Square district of Seattle, WA. The festivities will kick off at 7PM and go 'till midnight or so. We'll be doing a drawing for some fabulous gifts and free recording time.

PM me if you're interested in attending.



Cheers!

-MM

[angel777]

Originally Posted by Magickman

I highly recommend using a Forstner bit: What Is a Forstner Bit?

It creates a nice clean hole. As for the drill: for these large panels (essentially whole sheets of plywood) we were forced to use a hand drill. For some smaller panels I created for the control room (don't worry, I'll get to that eventually) I was able to use a drill press. If I had access to a large CNC machine, I would have gone that route as it was a lot of holes.

The drill we used was a burly 1/2" Milwaukee model: Power Tools - Electrician's Top Tool Choices - 1/2 in. Pistol Grip Dual Torque Hammer-Drill, 0-1350/0-2500 RPM with Case

Thanks a lot!! your reply has been very helpfull!!

[Syncamorea]

Originally Posted by Magickman

BTW, consider this an open invitation to anyone who is (or will be) in the area to come to the grand opening next week: Tuesday March 1st, 2011

Wow, I wish I could make it. Have fun and enjoy the fruits of all the hard work. I look forward to the next photo update!

[Louisvilledrum]

Originally Posted by Magickman

BTW, consider this an open invitation to anyone who is (or will be) in the area to come to the grand opening next week: Tuesday March 1st, 2011

Free Electron Studio is located in the Pioneer Square district of Seattle, WA. The festivities will kick off at 7PM and go 'till midnight or so. We'll be doing a drawing for some fabulous gifts and free recording time.

PM me if you're interested in attending.

Attachment 221692 Attachment 221693

Cheers!

-MM

I hope the grand opening went well....thumbsup

I can't wait to see more progress pics and plans when you have the time. It sounds like you've been very busy. What do the clients think of the upgrades?

[Downsound]

Originally Posted by Magickman

Attachment 209315 Attachment 209316

thumbsup

I loved the Underground Tour!! I think it started right there!!

[Mordae]

Very nice stuff!

Also, I made a little something for you

[Magickman]

Originally Posted by Mordae

Also, I made a little something for you

Er, thanks. What is it? I just see a black square when I open it.

[Magickman]

BTW, the grand opening went swimmingly!

I didn't get everything finished that I wanted to prior to the opening, but certainly not for want of hard work! I worked up to the very last second trying to complete as much as possible before people arrived. I was literally hiding tools and construction debris as guests were walking through the door.

I promise to get an update or two posted this weekend.

I sure can tell you that it is a wonderful room to work in. One of the best I've ever worked in, and I've worked in some world class rooms! I might not be geared up like those multi-million dollars rooms, but the aesthetics and acoustics leave absolutely nothing to be desired!

Cheers!

-MM

[Mordae]

Originally Posted by Magickman

Er, thanks. What is it? I just see a black square when I open it.

Did you try to download the attachement?
It has transparency, so it might not work with some browsers.

[Magickman]

Originally Posted by Mordae

Did you try to download the attachement?
It has transparency, so it might not work with some browsers.

I didn't try to look at it in my browser. I downloaded it and when I open it all I see is a black square.

[Magickman]

So, once the basic cloud frames were built, the next step was adding structural pieces to mount the recessed lighting cans to. Here's the before and after shots.

Before: After:

My stock was already cut at this point, so I proceeded to measure and mark, which went something like this:

[Magickman]

The next step was to clamp, glue and screw all my cross members into the frames at my precisely measured locations. I start with the "light bar":




At this point we have something that looks like this:




Next I add the cross supports. These cross pieces are not meant to be structural, but merely to give me something to attach the the trim pieces to (you'll see what I mean later):




After the glue dries, we end up with these marvelously tight and strong joints, once again owing to the ingenious Kreg Jig™:

[Magickman]

Because I was using fairly low density rock wool to fill these clouds (Roxul AFB), I was concerned that placing the rock wool directly on top of the fabric covering the cloud would cause the fabric to "pillow" out. My solution was to line the bottom of the clouds with fiberglass screen door material. The problem was that I didn't really have anything to attach the screen material to, so my solution was to attach cleats around the inside perimeter of the cloud frame.

I found these lovely pre-cut lengths of 1x1 ash in the bargain bin at the local hardwood lumber yard (Crosscut Hardwoods). I could have made something myself for less money, but I needed a lot of them, and it would have been a considerable amount of labor. It's a shame they'll never be seen, because this wood is really lovely:



I carefully measured and cut the lengths of ash and laid them out and did a dry fit:



I wanted to keep these clouds looking super crisp and clean, and I've stretched enough fabric in the past to know that any structural elements touching the fabric will create a line in the fabric. Every other framing member in the cloud would have a corresponding piece of trim to go over the fabric, but these cleats would not. So in order to keep the cleats from creating lines in the fabric, I decided to recess them ever so slightly from the bottom of the clouds. Here's how I did it:



Here is a detail of the finished and installed cleats:



And here's a detail from the bottom showing how the cleats are ever so slightly held back from the bottom of the cloud.

[Magickman]

Next up was the task of cutting and attaching the screen material inside the cloud frames to my newly installed cleats:



Here I am, the proud papa with my babies!



I know, I'm a dork!

Next up: Stretching fabric.

[Magickman]

Now that the cloud frames were completely assembled, it was time to stretch the fabric over the frames. The fabric I chose for the clouds is a pretty standard acoustically transparent fabric manufactured by Guilford of Main: The style is FR701, and the color is #545, "Bronze".



I used (and highly recommend) a carpet stapler for the task of actually attaching the fabric to the clouds. The shear number of staples I needed to drive ruled out using a manual stapler. Even the electric versions you can buy at Home Depot that shoot standard T50 staples are not up to the task. The staples are just too wimpy, and the guns do not drive the staples reliably. Save yourself the headache and rent a carpet stapler!



The first step was to cut the fabric to size, and then lay out the fabric and cloud:



Next, I marked the corners for cutting in order to get nice clean corner wraps. I believe this is how they do upholstery corners (basically, I'm building furniture).



The angled corner clouds were a little trickier in this regard. As you can see here, it took a bit of thinking to figure out how to do it.



But after a little mental geometry, I got it squared away!



After marking the material, I went about making my cuts:



Stretching the fabric is pretty strait forward except for the corners. Because I was working by myself, I didn't really get any shots of the process of actually stretching the fabric. But basically I start in the middle on one side, and work my way out to the corners, and then wrap one side of the corner like so:



Then I do the same on the opposite side of the cloud, pulling the fabric taught, working from the middle out towards the corners. Then repeat for the other two sides. Here's 3 sides completed:



The corners look like this when completed:



The fabric wrapped cloud frames look like this when completed:



At this point, the only other detail was cutting the holes for the lighting cans. I didn't detail it, but before wrapping the cloud frames, I had cut holes in all the cross members that hold the recessed lighting cans. To insure that the fabric stayed taught and crisp, I stapled the fabric down around the perimeter of the holes, and then used a very sharp utility knife to remove the fabric around the holes. Remember, everywhere there is wood behind the fabric will be covered with a hardwood trim piece, so these staples will be covered with the maple trim pieces. It will make a lot more sense once you see how the trim goes on. And in fact in the last image you can see some of the trim in place already.



Okay, that's it for now.

Next up: Hardwood face frames.

[AnthonyRochester]

great work, very neat..

[Louisvilledrum]

Hey Magickman,

This is a phenominal build. Please don't keep us hangin. tutt

I know... Too busy playin and tweakin the new rooms...

[sineborg]

Looking nice.

Where did you get the Guildford fabric from?

[Syncamorea]

I know you've been making more progress. We're ready for the next installment of your awesome photos!

[denlig]

Originally Posted by Magickman

Let the first couple pics in that last post serve as a warning of the dangers of "crack"!

LMAO I was floored when i seen that crack LMAO

[Louisvilledrum]

Any updates? It's been a while?

[Louisvilledrum]

WOW. Since he installed all this, he must have become super busy. In one respect, it's a shame, as this is one of the better 'CONSTRUCTION' threads, with lots of great detail. I hope he does another update soon.