Drake Baffle Problems

[unknownuser]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of building the "Drake" sub and I need some advice. It appears that the enclosure drawing on the project page is wrong, it calls for an 11" cutout in the baffle, this is in fact too small and I now see that the PE catalog lists 11 1/8" as the correct dimension. Any suggestions on enlarging this cutout? To me, it almost looks like a small 45 degree chamfer might be just enough to let the driver sit properly on the baffle. Any other ideas?

Thanks!


(Originally posted by: ped)

[koasa]

> Hi all,

> I'm in the process of building the
> "Drake" sub and I need some
> advice. It appears that the enclosure
> drawing on the project page is wrong, it
> calls for an 11" cutout in the baffle,
> this is in fact too small and I now see that
> the PE catalog lists 11 1/8" as the
> correct dimension. Any suggestions on
> enlarging this cutout? To me, it almost
> looks like a small 45 degree chamfer might
> be just enough to let the driver sit
> properly on the baffle. Any other ideas?

How thick is your baffle? Is the driver going to be flush mounted? How about cutting another baffle out of 1/2"(or perhaps greater) thick material with an 11 1/8" cutout and laminating them together? I did that with my sub to flush mount it.

[MerlinWerks]

> How thick is your baffle? Is the driver
> going to be flush mounted? How about cutting
> another baffle out of 1/2"(or perhaps
> greater) thick material with an 11 1/8"
> cutout and laminating them together? I did
> that with my sub to flush mount it.

Thanks for the reply.

The design of this baffle is already similar to what you suggested. Both pieces are 1" mdf, the "inner" part has the 11 1/8" cutout and the driver is flush mounted. The "outer" part has a 12 3/8" cutout and gets laminated to the inner and forms the recess. Both parts are cut, I'm just trying to save the inner piece, although it may be more trouble than it's worth Case in point, I thought about cutting the correct size hole in a piece of scrap for a template and using a flush trim bit with a bearing to enlarge the hole. However, alignment would be very critical and I would probably end up with a hole that is no longer round. By the time I do all that I could probably have another baffle piece cut and the correct hole routed. I know at least a couple of people have built this sub and would have ran into the same issue, unless I am the only one to build strictly from the drawings on the project page

[koasa]

> Thanks for the reply.

> The design of this baffle is already similar
> to what you suggested. Both pieces are
> 1" mdf, the "inner" part has
> the 11 1/8" cutout and the driver is
> flush mounted. The "outer" part
> has a 12 3/8" cutout and gets laminated
> to the inner and forms the recess. Both
> parts are cut, I'm just trying to save the
> inner piece, although it may be more trouble
> than it's worth Case in point, I thought
> about cutting the correct size hole in a
> piece of scrap for a template and using a
> flush trim bit with a bearing to enlarge the
> hole. However, alignment would be very
> critical and I would probably end up with a
> hole that is no longer round. By the time I
> do all that I could probably have another
> baffle piece cut and the correct hole
> routed. I know at least a couple of people
> have built this sub and would have ran into
> the same issue, unless I am the only one to
> build strictly from the drawings on the
> project page

Can you clamp the baffle down to some scrap and then in the center screw the cutout or other scrap of the same thickness to the scrap? Using a straight edge you could then drill a new hole in the center of the scrap and use that to route correct diameter(I'm assuming that you're using a jasper jig or something similar).

Or you could clamp both sections of baffle together and lay the driver upside down from the front. Mark the location of the mounting holes, drill them and check the fit. Then unclamp the 2 sections and you should have a good idea of where you don't want to remove material.

Try using your 45 degree bit - but test it away from the mounting holes first. If that doesn't work you could always use the bit on both faces of the baffle; and then sand or rasp away at the remainder.

Or it may be worth it to just cut a new baffle. Either way you'll learn something.

good luck!