Smaller Curved Speaks Costruction Pics

[tomzarbo]

These will be used with the Bass Module I posted yesterday with the black sides and wood top and front.




These will be 10" tall, about 10" deep, 5" wide. The curve is slight, the finished speaker will be 5" wide at the front, and 3.5" wide at the rear. Front, rear, and top/bottom is 3/4" MDF, sides will be 1/2" MDF with Kerf cuts a bit under 1/4" deep every 3/8" on center.

I'm planning on using this on the rear turned sideways...

http://www.parts-express.com/images/.../260-309_L.jpg

I will screw a piece of wood on the inside of it and mount the crossover pieces to it.

It will use 1 HiVi buyout white coned speaker and one Dayton neo 5/8" tweeter per enclosure.

Done for today, must make cheesecake for tomorrows Christmas party at work.


I hope it doesn't taste like MDF dust.


TomZ

[gowa]

Looking mighty fine!

[Wolf]

It will use 1 HiVi buyout white coned speaker and one Dayton neo 5/8" tweeter per enclosure.

TomZ

I will say the HiVi A3N has a very nice midrange character to it; and they were CHEAP!!!

Have fun!
Wolf

[Ludo]

Tom,

What do you fill the grooves with to seal the cabinet? So far all the curves I've made were done by overlaying layers of 1/8" MDF so I have not had to deal with the grooves. This method seems faster.

Louis

[tomzarbo]

Tom,

What do you fill the grooves with to seal the cabinet? So far all the curves I've made were done by overlaying layers of 1/8" MDF so I have not had to deal with the grooves. This method seems faster.

Louis

As you already know, the grooves allow for easier bending of the panel.
I've used this method a bunch of times, and I've never filled the grooves in.
Because the sides are curved, they are under quite a bit of tension. That combined with the fact that they are curved gives them amazing rigidity. A rap with the knuckles yields a very high-pitch 'tink' to them.

If you want, you could think of the sides as 5/16" MDF with additional strips of MDF for damping, although they really still act pretty much like 1/2" stock in my opinion.

If you cut in too deep, more than 1/4", then they loose some of that rigidity, but at about 3/16" of an inch deep, which is more like what I did here, they don't loose much of their heft or strength.

By the way, when you've used layers of 1/8" MDF, how many layers at a time did you glue? Recently, I've used 1/8" hardboard, two layers at a time, and had a better time with it... just curious what you did. Any pics?

TomZ

P.S. Also, making kerf cuts at the table saw is not a lot of fun. It takes awhile and is a bit dangerous! No blade guard and downward pressure is sometimes needed to overcome the tendency of the board to arch the more cuts you make.

[tomzarbo]

I will say the HiVi A3N has a very nice midrange character to it; and they were CHEAP!!!

Have fun!
Wolf

Yeah, I just checked my invoice from June of '07, and they were $8.88 a pair! Including foam gaskets!! I should have bought a few more I guess.

I was actually thinking about using a Sharpie to get them black, for some reason, the white cone doesn't appeal to me too much. It really reminds me of styrofoam!

TomZ

[Wolf]

Yeah, I just checked my invoice from June of '07, and they were $8.88 a pair! Including foam gaskets!! I should have bought a few more I guess.

I was actually thinking about using a Sharpie to get them black, for some reason, the white cone doesn't appeal to me too much. It really reminds me of styrofoam!

TomZ

It is polystyrene afterall...
Later,
Wolf

[Ludo]

As you already know, the grooves allow for easier bending of the panel.
I've used this method a bunch of times, and I've never filled the grooves in.
Because the sides are curved, they are under quite a bit of tension. That combined with the fact that they are curved gives them amazing rigidity. A rap with the knuckles yields a very high-pitch 'tink' to them.

If you want, you could think of the sides as 5/16" MDF with additional strips of MDF for damping, although they really still act pretty much like 1/2" stock in my opinion.

If you cut in too deep, more than 1/4", then they loose some of that rigidity, but at about 3/16" of an inch deep, which is more like what I did here, they don't loose much of their heft or strength.

From your photos, the grooves are open to the outside on the ends? Is there an end-cap that seals the top and bottom of the cabinet then?

By the way, when you've used layers of 1/8" MDF, how many layers at a time did you glue? Recently, I've used 1/8" hardboard, two layers at a time, and had a better time with it... just curious what you did. Any pics?

TomZ

P.S. Also, making kerf cuts at the table saw is not a lot of fun. It takes awhile and is a bit dangerous! No blade guard and downward pressure is sometimes needed to overcome the tendency of the board to arch the more cuts you make.

I've always glued them on one at a time, but I guess you don't really have to if you're fast with application of the glue and aligning and clamping everything with multiple pannels. I glue on one panel in the morning before leaving for work and another in the evening so it takes a few days to stack up 4 to 5 layers.

Here is a pic of my latest cabinet; just needs veneer now.

Louis

[gc1]

From your photos, the grooves are open to the outside on the ends? Is there an end-cap that seals the top and bottom of the cabinet then?



I've always glued them on one at a time, but I guess you don't really have to if you're fast with application of the glue and aligning and clamping everything with multiple pannels. I glue on one panel in the morning before leaving for work and another in the evening so it takes a few days to stack up 4 to 5 layers.

Here is a pic of my latest cabinet; just needs veneer now.

Louis

That's a great design... gives me some ideas!!

[tomzarbo]

From your photos, the grooves are open to the outside on the ends? Is there an end-cap that seals the top and bottom of the cabinet then?



I've always glued them on one at a time, but I guess you don't really have to if you're fast with application of the glue and aligning and clamping everything with multiple pannels. I glue on one panel in the morning before leaving for work and another in the evening so it takes a few days to stack up 4 to 5 layers.

Here is a pic of my latest cabinet; just needs veneer now.

Louis

Louis,
No end cap, just lots of gorilla glue and caulk on the inside seam. Actually, the Gorilla glue is good enough, but I'll use caulk anyway.

The reason I ask about gluing layers is that when I've done thinner thicknesses, I've found that they can sometimes be fussy when clamping them. In other words, they stay clamped where the clamps are, but elsewhere, the thin board doesn't always stay so tightly clamped because it is so thin, and doesn't have much strength in and of itself. I've taken to gluing two at a time to overcome this, and as a side-effect, I get done twice as fast!

Your project looks very cool. I haven't seen a cabinet shaped like that before. Will you be using spikes or outriggers to stabalize?

TomZ

[Ludo]

Louis,
No end cap, just lots of gorilla glue and caulk on the inside seam. Actually, the Gorilla glue is good enough, but I'll use caulk anyway.

The reason I ask about gluing layers is that when I've done thinner thicknesses, I've found that they can sometimes be fussy when clamping them. In other words, they stay clamped where the clamps are, but elsewhere, the thin board doesn't always stay so tightly clamped because it is so thin, and doesn't have much strength in and of itself. I've taken to gluing two at a time to overcome this, and as a side-effect, I get done twice as fast!

Your project looks very cool. I haven't seen a cabinet shaped like that before. Will you be using spikes or outriggers to stabalize?

TomZ

Tom,

Ok, I understand how you seal it now.

You're right, the thin layers can lift up, but I put clamps about every 8 inches so I haven't had that problem. It also helps if the radius of the curve is very shallow. The downside is I had to use 12 clamps for the cabinet in the pic.

Thanks for the comments on the cabinet; Wolf said that it had "junk in the trunk". My wife says that I just can't keep things simple by using straight sides; all of my builds have either had a curve or angle and consequently take 2 to 3x the time to comlete. I plan to use a hardwood base which is larger than the footprint of the cabinet for support.

Louis

[Wolf]

Wolf said that it had "junk in the trunk". My wife says that I just can't keep things simple by using straight sides; all of my builds have either had a curve or angle and consequently take 2 to 3x the time to comlete. I plan to use a hardwood base which is larger than the footprint of the cabinet for support.

Louis

*Snicker*
Wolf

[tomzarbo]

Thanks for the comments on the cabinet; Wolf said that it had "junk in the trunk". My wife says that I just can't keep things simple by using straight sides; all of my builds have either had a curve or angle and consequently take 2 to 3x the time to comlete. I plan to use a hardwood base which is larger than the footprint of the cabinet for support.

Louis

He He, yeah, I'd have to agree... baby got back! I think you are approaching the art of designing and constructing a speaker cabinet a lot like I do. I enjoy trying a new shape, and curves are just plain beautiful to look at when done in the right proportions. I don't think I'll be making many square or rectanglular speakers from now on, curves are just too much fun!
Lookin' good!

TomZ

[arlis_1957@yahoo.com]

He He, yeah, I'd have to agree... baby got back! I think you are approaching the art of designing and constructing a speaker cabinet a lot like I do. I enjoy trying a new shape, and curves are just plain beautiful to look at when done in the right proportions. I don't think I'll be making many square or rectanglular speakers from now on, curves are just too much fun!
Lookin' good!

TomZ

yeah, what he said.

[tpremo55]

Lots of talk about curved sides so I thought I would throw in a little bit of my trial and error result. After looking at many methods, I went with one very similar to that outlined here. To fill the kerf cuts, I used a 50/50 mix of Tightbond II with sifted MDF dust (who doesn't have a bunch of MDF dust around anyhow?) In the end, the MDF dust glue combination is very much like the MDF wood to begin with. Here are a couple of photos:







More details on the entire build HERE.

I put a fair amount of time into these and learned a bunch. If that can benefit anyone else, all the better.

In the end, I believe that TomZ approach will work very well and at much less effort on a project with a subtle curve and small enclosure such as his.

[joekraska]

That's some amazing work, man.

Joe.

[Wolf]

Poured in a form?

I has LOTS of dat schtuff on my garage floor right now...

I could probably resurrect a cabinet wall with it, but never thought about it.
What's the consistency/ratio?

Later,
Wolf

[tomzarbo]

Lots of talk about curved sides so I thought I would throw in a little bit of my trial and error result. After looking at many methods, I went with one very similar to that outlined here. To fill the kerf cuts, I used a 50/50 mix of Tightbond II with sifted MDF dust (who doesn't have a bunch of MDF dust around anyhow?) In the end, the MDF dust glue combination is very much like the MDF wood to begin with. Here are a couple of photos:







More details on the entire build HERE.

I put a fair amount of time into these and learned a bunch. If that can benefit anyone else, all the better.

In the end, I believe that TomZ approach will work very well and at much less effort on a project with a subtle curve and small enclosure such as his.

Man, you do nice work. Those cabinets look extremely well thought-out beforehand. It looks like you used a thin-kerf sawblade? That doesn't look 1/8" thick to me for some reason, but could be me. Really nice.

I see why you filled the kerfs with the MDF/Glue mixture, you cut in pretty deep. I usually don't go that deep, and rely on more brute force to get the pannel to take the curve. I feel that it adds some strength by being 'under tension' so to speak. I tend to use more cuts that aren't as deep to eliminate the possibility of flat spots showing up on the finish, but that approach obviously works well... See, I learned something!

I will have to try the kerf filling idea on my next curved project. I doubt that I will have enough room in the tiny woofer hole to apply that paste to the sides of this project! And yep, I have lots of MDF dust to work with. Making a bunch of kerf cuts yields a bountiful crop of the stuff as you well know!

Nice work, man.

TomZ

[dwigle]

Wow, great prep work. I have to ask about the form you used to bend the panels. You started with a full length, four batten frame and then it looks like you cut it in half lengthwise to create the arc.

How did you cut the frame? A 6 foot tall bandsaw? Really, that is impressive.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_jrZQmFRc9jg/Rw...k/IMG_6956.JPG

[tpremo55]

That's some amazing work, man.

Joe.

Thanks Joe. Alas, my abilities are not yet close to the level of excellence that many on this board have achieved...