Speaker building

[sebr023]

Hi all!

Thought I’d make a post about my current project.

Sorry about the messy shop. Moved last years, got a second chil and we still have moving boxes in the garage. Doesn’t make the most clear picture with all the back ground noise.

I’m building 3 pairs of Solen Mura 5b. For a media / home theater room. 5 of them will be on the “bed layer”: left, center, right, surround left and surround right. The 6th one will be mounted as a “center height” channel.

4 others speaker, basic 3d printed one, will be installed on the surround left height, and surround right height. Will be powering all these with a denon 6700h.

Solen offer pre cut panel to assemble the boxes. But I wanted to make them out of 3/4 mdf, and make a round port instead of the slot port Solen use in their plans.

Started modeling it on fusion 360 back in January I believe. So heres the render of the build.











I decided to have a CNC shop to cut all my panels, except the the post. I used a left over from a previous project for the posts. They consist of 2 layers of 3/4 mdf x 25 inch long. I cut them to final size later.

Anyway, so after I received the panel, I notice the circle weren’t round. They were off by 2 mm and it would show when I placed a driver in the holes. Reached to the shop, and at first they didn’t offer to replace them, so I model and 3d printed some template/jig to fix their oval circle.



Woofer template:


Tweeter template:

Speaker terminal cup template:



Also, you notice on one of the previous picture I dry fitted one of the boxes to see if all the panels would line up:


I used domino to dry fitted the whole thing:



I work on this project mainly on my lunch break since I’m WFH. I’m very glad to have this possibility.


I’ll make another post to continu the write up.

 

[peter halle]

Can't wait to read and see more! Speaker enclosures are such a specialized aspect of woodworking that the nuances are interesting to me although I have no desire to make one myself.

Peter

 

[sebr023]

So after making sure all the panels of the speaker would line up, I started working on the stands.

I laminated the 2 layers of mdf that compose the “foot”. Pictured is 2 “foot” clamped.


Then I round over the top and bottoms. And filled some beginner router mistake. I used a flush cut bit to make sure they were flush.


I also filled some of the defect mdf I received from the cnc shop.


I round over the front of the post for the stand, and machine all the mortise for the 10x50 domino.


I also round over the back of the baffle for the woofer, and the brace:




With all this done, I could start working on the cove between the foot and the post, and the shelf.


Here’s how I was planning of doing it: I model and 3d printed a template for my copy ring to ride on. Careful measurement was the name of the game. Turn out the black template wasn’t the right size, I ended up reprinting bring one slightly larger.




To be continued in the next post!

 

[luvmytoolz]

This looks like a fun project!

Speaker enclosure builds are always a joy.

 

[sebr023]

Heres my router set up for the coves:
I used the painters tape + CA glue tricks and stick 2 layers of mdf to “shim” my router. You can see, in the shadow, the bull nose bit (or whatever it’s called, kinda forgot the name at the moment).



This is the 3d printed template I used to flush cut the shape at the end.





And then, I machine all the reveal on the legs


For this step I used my very high end router table and router fence. I set up a 1/4 inch router bit on the router, and set it up so that 1/8 inch was cutting. Turnout I have close to 3/16 I believe. But I love the look.

 

[sebr023]

Next up was the chamfer and cove under the top shelf.

Chamfer done:


Cove done. Same technique was used:


Here’s a couple shot of the lot:




After that I did some testing for the 1/2 round over on the front baffle And 3/16 reveal between the baffle and the box:



Here’s a dry fit of everything:


I’m thinking about my next step.
Either I glue all the stands, and then prime with zinser white shellac primer. But doing so I think I will have a hard time sanding in the reveals.

Or I could mask all surface that will have glue, prime, sand. And then glue. The glue up will be easier to clean to, and the mdf will be absorbing less water in the clean up. And then I could do my second and third (if necessary) coat of primer once it’s glued.

What you guys think?

 

[MacBoy]

Awesome progress, thank you for taking us along for the ride.

 

[luvmytoolz]

Coming along nicely!