Guess I'm old school, I've always done one side at a time. Roll wood glue on veneer and box, j roll together, flip box over, add weight and let it dry overnight. Router off excess and repeat. Of course I'm not building speakers every fuckin weekπ
Well I'm done with the finishing steps and the CA glue trick seems to have worked... a huge "whew!" Overall thougj I'm not totally happy with how these baffles and oak veneer look (final color mostly). I'll show them to my friend and gauge his initial reaction. If thumbs up he gets them. If just "meh" or worse I'll keep them as my new garage (ie: piss of the neighbors) speakers.
JR may very well kick my butt this year in speaker building volume. I bought a new larger pool for our family so I have a ton of work to do to finish preparing the site, build a new pool deck, more DIY solar heaters, etc. I'll gladly give up my place on the list if all the pool stuff turns out great. I swear my wife and kids are part amphibian π
@PWRRYD said:
Well I'm done with the finishing steps and the CA glue trick seems to have worked... a huge "whew!" Overall thougj I'm not totally happy with how these baffles and oak veneer look (final color mostly). I'll show them to my friend and gauge his initial reaction. If thumbs up he gets them. If just "meh" or worse I'll keep them as my new garage (ie: piss of the neighbors) speakers.
JR may very well kick my butt this year in speaker building volume. I bought a new larger pool for our family so I have a ton of work to do to finish preparing the site, build a new pool deck, more DIY solar heaters, etc. I'll gladly give up my place on the list if all the pool stuff turns out great. I swear my wife and kids are part amphibian π
Hey Craig, would you be documenting your pool build? would be fun and interesting... At least i am interested!
Wow, clean and beautiful work! I can tell that's oak sides, but what wood is the baffle?
Love the contrast between the two. Also, are 4 bolts good enough for the baffle? I usually
put in another pair of screws flanking the tweeter.
But Chahly - Stahkist don't want speakers that look good, Stahkist wants speakers that sound good!
Thank you for the compliment. I was actually hoping for even more contrast, but the baffles look really good now that I have the black drivers mounted (pictures later today). These baffles are solid poplar. It was a quite strong and dense board, at least compared to some other pieces of poplar I've had. Certainly not as hard as the ash, curly maple, and hickory boards I've made baffles from, but I'd say close to a good solid oak board. The four screws seem to be plenty. I have used 6 and even 8 bolts before when the baffles were a bit larger or weaker.
To paint the inside of the ports I use a short nap, 6" long mini roller. I don't slide it all the way on the roller handle (about 1/2 way) so that it will reach all the way into the port. I also sand blast the inside of the ports before I install them so that the paint has some tooth to bite onto. One warning about sand blasting PVC, or in this case CPVC... it builds up a nasty static charge that likes to discharge itself through YOU! If I only blast for a few seconds then wait 15 seconds (rinse and repeat) the charge dissapates and I get no shock. The first time though... I was blasting away and after about 15 seconds POW. It hit my forearm like a lawn mower magneto!
They look like they are from the 90's in the best way possible. I hope to hear them some day.
Where I work we have a grounding strap in our sand blasters so that we can clip them to what we are blasting. This has all but eliminated the zapps, hope this helps.
Whew! Finally at the voicing stage. Crossovers have a few extra parts (series notch), 10 parts per side. On and off axis measurements look great. I'm down to just dialing in the padding resistor. A real shame these MCM woofers are NLA. They represent a huge bang for the buck!
Ok these aren't just pretty good, they are VERY good. I haven't taken the final distortion measurements yet but to my ears distortion is acceptably low. They are an MTM so they do sound a little different when standing up off the vertical axis. But sitting down they image great and the sound stage is deep. I had to add another resistor so the xo part count is up to 11
Sure would be nice if Mark from Meniscus could offer a 5.25" woofer with the same cone, motor, and soft parts as these MCM 55-3669 units, but with maybe a round frame. And of course a price tag under $30. Hint hint Mark π€
Sure would be nice if Mark from Meniscus could offer a 5.25" woofer with the same cone, motor, and soft parts as these MCM 55-3669 units, but with maybe a round frame. And of course a price tag under $30. Hint hint Mark π€
Sure would be nice if Mark from Meniscus could offer a 5.25" woofer with the same cone, motor, and soft parts as these MCM 55-3669 units, but with maybe a round frame. And of course a price tag under $30. Hint hint Mark π€
Gotta make a template. Same frame as the Audax junk I frequently use. There's a link to recessing non round speakers somewhere, sorry, I don't have it.
Comments
Guess I'm old school, I've always done one side at a time. Roll wood glue on veneer and box, j roll together, flip box over, add weight and let it dry overnight. Router off excess and repeat. Of course I'm not building speakers every fuckin weekπ
Well I'm done with the finishing steps and the CA glue trick seems to have worked... a huge "whew!" Overall thougj I'm not totally happy with how these baffles and oak veneer look (final color mostly). I'll show them to my friend and gauge his initial reaction. If thumbs up he gets them. If just "meh" or worse I'll keep them as my new garage (ie: piss of the neighbors) speakers.
JR may very well kick my butt this year in speaker building volume. I bought a new larger pool for our family so I have a ton of work to do to finish preparing the site, build a new pool deck, more DIY solar heaters, etc. I'll gladly give up my place on the list if all the pool stuff turns out great. I swear my wife and kids are part amphibian π
Hey Craig, would you be documenting your pool build? would be fun and interesting... At least i am interested!
I agree. Keep us posted.
A couple shots...
Absolutely no attempt to hide the seams or end grain on the rear panel... deal with it Bitches! π
Front and sides look so good its hard to hate on them, they look great.
You're killing me Craig!
You get extra points for painting the inside of the ports!
Those look great, Craig. How did you get the inside of the port tubes? Every time I try that it looks like shit.
Ancient Chinese secret...
Did you use a paint roller?...... without the handle.
Wow, clean and beautiful work! I can tell that's oak sides, but what wood is the baffle?
Love the contrast between the two. Also, are 4 bolts good enough for the baffle? I usually
put in another pair of screws flanking the tweeter.
Thank you for the compliment. I was actually hoping for even more contrast, but the baffles look really good now that I have the black drivers mounted (pictures later today). These baffles are solid poplar. It was a quite strong and dense board, at least compared to some other pieces of poplar I've had. Certainly not as hard as the ash, curly maple, and hickory boards I've made baffles from, but I'd say close to a good solid oak board. The four screws seem to be plenty. I have used 6 and even 8 bolts before when the baffles were a bit larger or weaker.
To paint the inside of the ports I use a short nap, 6" long mini roller. I don't slide it all the way on the roller handle (about 1/2 way) so that it will reach all the way into the port. I also sand blast the inside of the ports before I install them so that the paint has some tooth to bite onto. One warning about sand blasting PVC, or in this case CPVC... it builds up a nasty static charge that likes to discharge itself through YOU! If I only blast for a few seconds then wait 15 seconds (rinse and repeat) the charge dissapates and I get no shock. The first time though... I was blasting away and after about 15 seconds POW. It hit my forearm like a lawn mower magneto!
Oh Man, I've been there on both accounts. Good safety tip.
Remind me to tell you about an ESD story from when I worked in plastics
It was pretty funny!
Here.
And.
And.
Those look awesome, Craig.
They look like they are from the 90's in the best way possible. I hope to hear them some day.
Where I work we have a grounding strap in our sand blasters so that we can clip them to what we are blasting. This has all but eliminated the zapps, hope this helps.
Pretty, I haven't done an oak speaker in a while. Make that another project added to the list. I really need to get faster, or just retire.
Nice! Your friend will enjoy those for sureππ»
I'm curious too. Each time I've tried I wind up with paint flakes everywhere when Isildur cuts the Ring from Sauron's hand.
Whew! Finally at the voicing stage. Crossovers have a few extra parts (series notch), 10 parts per side. On and off axis measurements look great. I'm down to just dialing in the padding resistor. A real shame these MCM woofers are NLA. They represent a huge bang for the buck!
Ok these aren't just pretty good, they are VERY good. I haven't taken the final distortion measurements yet but to my ears distortion is acceptably low. They are an MTM so they do sound a little different when standing up off the vertical axis. But sitting down they image great and the sound stage is deep. I had to add another resistor so the xo part count is up to 11
Sure would be nice if Mark from Meniscus could offer a 5.25" woofer with the same cone, motor, and soft parts as these MCM 55-3669 units, but with maybe a round frame. And of course a price tag under $30. Hint hint Mark π€
Mark could just put these on sale. https://meniscusaudio.com/product/eclipse-w520r-8/
Ron
I'm sure those are nice drivers... but Mark would have to discount them by around 70% to match the performance/price point that the MCMs were.
Hmm, how did you cut the not round or square recess in the baffle?
Gotta make a template. Same frame as the Audax junk I frequently use. There's a link to recessing non round speakers somewhere, sorry, I don't have it.