[F-100]

After 5 years of service, one of the Shiva driver from my custom Dymaxion sub went out of service so I decided to upgrade with the new Shiva-X driver.  The new driver, great price by the way (Thanks Kevin  ), arrived couple weeks ago and I finally got some free time yesterday to work on the project. In case somebody is interested, I like to share my experience so let the fun begin.

Custom Dymaxiom sub before the surgery.



Old picture of the original Shiva driver from Adireaudio.com with the Dymaxiom sub.



New Shiva-X from DIYcable.com. This driver is very heavy, built like a tank and I'm not exaggerated here.

[F-100]

Dymaxion sub sans driver and ready to accept new Shiva-X.




Shiva-X with all the wires hooked up and prepares to dock with Dymaxion sub. A very good use of shoe laces as a tool to lift and drop in the driver into the sub to prevent any damage to the driver and the sub. 



Houston, we have a problem.
The new Shiva-X driver is bigger than the original one and it's not direct placement as I've thought.
Well, this is where I'm stuck and appreciate if Kevin, Christof and anybody can give me some kind of advice on how to work around with this problem.



Pictures of both subs with old and new Shiva driver, side by side for comparison.




I'm not an expert with wood working so widing the cutout hole on the sub is probably not what I want to do. So any advice, guidance, suggestion are welcomed.

TIA,
Derrick

[F-100]

Thanks for the suggestion, Marble. But I'm not sure if I can trust those high school kids with a router. 

[dyohn]

I don't know if the rubber gasket comes off the frame because I never tried to take mine off, but if it does the diameter of the frame is smaller than the rubber.  Best bet, though, is a router...

[NEO Dan]

It will come off easily, grab it by the bottom edge, and pull it across the top to the other side.

the basket may be too big for the hole though

Nice looking sub cabinet BTW

[Kevin Haskins]

No way around it.   Take it to a cabinet shop and they should be able to get it worked out for you.

[F-100]

I removed the rubber gasket and it's still to big.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll post some more pics after I find someone to enlarge the hole.

[ShinOBIWAN]

Its a very simple job to this yourself.

What you need is a piece of wood passed through the driver cut out and attached to the inside of the cabinet with the piece roughly centred in the cut out. From here you attach another piece of material to the one you already fixed and make sure its the same thickness material as the baffle. Then mark out the center of the existing hole on this piece by drawing intersecting lines from the 4 quadrants of the circle. Place your router with circle jig or attach a bit of MDF to the router base and use as a make shift jig then simply set the new diameter and do a quick pass.

That's all there is to it. If you need any elaboration then ask away.

[Christof]

Oh crap captain, now they are boat anchors. 

No, really this should not be too big of deal to fix.  A rabbet bit will be to small to use at this point so I will make a circle template for you with one big hole for the driver and 4 small mounting holes - you will need to attach the template to the enclosure with 4 screws which will thread into the spike holes and be flush with the top of the template so a router can slide across the top and follow the the big cutout.  Kevin will need to provide the exact cutout dimensions for this driver so the template can be created for you.  In the mean time you will need to source a router if possible or I can send you one to use.  This will be a quick and relatively painless procedure, it's time for you to become a woodworker, Derrick

[F-100]

Hi Chris,
At first, I thought that I've to use free hand to widen the circle. That would be nearly impossible for me to accomplish and I definitely don't want to take a risk on ruining the enclosure.  With your template, that sound like a doable task for me and I have Bosch plunge router somewhere in the garage. I've done this before in the old DIY days, using a template to cut out the hole so I'm confident that I can do this.

Let me know if you need any additional measurements.
Thanks,
Derrick

[F-100]

ShinOBIWAN,
   Thanks very much for your input.

[Christof]

Get me the driver diameter and I'll work on a circle template for you.

[arv]

Were you able to enlarge the outer diameter? I had to do the same thing with my Shiva to Shiva-X upgrade. I didn't use a template. Instead I used scrap pcs of wood that I screwed on the the baffle to make it even with the baffle then found the center of the circle by using simple geometry. I'll give you the details if you want to go this route. Hopefully you have a circle jig and router handy.

Arv

[F-100]

Arc,
  Thanks for asking. I received the plexiglass template from Christof last week and was able to complete one of the sub. With the template, widening the hole was an easy task even for a beginner like me.


Derrick

[Christof]

Derrick

What do you think of the new Shiva-X drivers?  Did you have an opportunity to hear the new and old in a side-by-side comparison?

c.