My 16a is from 1929 when it was installed in Pennsylvania. It was then taken down circa 1970 to storage. From that storage it found a European home back in early 2000. The 16a was only designed that way to comply to the physical constraints of multi purpose theatres. What happened is that those constraints…
Sometimes its worth just looking at these babies…
This setup isn’t completed yet but still it’s so nice to look at… This setup will have original western electric 555 drivers on the 12a horns, GIP 555w on the western electric 13a horns and GIP 597a tweeters. Upfront there will be all the necessary gear to make these babies sing…also carpets, furniture, etc….another nice…
Machining Western Electric 13a throat
No shortcuts : cast iron throat exact replica Heavy machinery needed to thread the end in which the brass insert is screwed, US thread obviously! All fun…
Casting model for 13Audio throat to travel in time?
This image was taken not in 1926 but 2018. Based on original casting models we have managed to fine tune the whole process. This takes time, devotion, patience and a few pennies. The only pursuit here is perfection. The whole casting process has been reworked. This entailed getting deep into the craft of casting methods,…
Reworking the casting models
Castings models only last so long so you sooner or later get around to making them again. Here the rear bracket and side brackets used on we12a and we15 solid wood seen in the previous article. True to original these are for cast iron made from solid wood including core boxes. Not be be confused…
Western Electric 15a “solid wood”
November 2017 : Some 70km North of Copenhagen during the ETF meeting of 2017 my good friend « B » decided to host a small lecture on Western Electric and some of their amazing technology and testing gear at Bell Laboratories. Amazing stuff indeed! During this small lecture we watched a short film in which you can…
Refined casting models
This is what it takes to get the job done, to make exact replica throats in cast iron. No shortcuts, easier to make brass, no lost wax casting..indeed juts plain and simple cast iron as all the western electric horn throats. Easier said than done! I really love this “very industriel” stage of my production…
Typical wood section for WE13a
This is a typical section from the sides of the 13a horn, one of the 120 needed to make one 13a horn. The shape is like a propeller, end is rounded to follow horn profile and the two straight edges are not parallel (that would be too easy don’t you think!). These side sections are…
Maybe it’s time
Been busy working on 12a and 13a horns and travelling around the planet to set them up correctly putting aside other plans. It’s time to act….I have been harbouring for too long now the build of another very very special western electric horn (yes….very special indeed). Over the past years it’s been about research so…
