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This may not be the most exciting build, but for me it's new territory and I felt the need to share it with my fellow PE associates! I'm constructing a portable speaker that is self powered, Bluetooth, battery powered, and lightweight (hopefully). We all see these builds, but I thought I would share how I build things as it is a little different than how most do. The main point is to share with the community my progress, my methods, and get any welcomed opinions/advice/criticisms. My normal projects are always PA style speakers so this is uncharted territory for me.
Let me start of by saying that I only use Russian Baltic birch plywood for all of my products. It costs more, but as a cabinet makers son I have a high appreciation for how nice it is to work with. It definitely takes a toll on any of your cutting equipment, but Forrest makes special profile carbide blades just for crosscutting plywood of this style. They work beautifully. The carbide bits I have been getting from Freud (1/4" spiral up-cutting carbide) seem to be the weak link. They are just cheap enough where it doesn't make sense to take them to a shop to have them sharpened. All of our router bits get constant cleaning and diamond stone sharpening to keep them up to working order. The formaldehyde glue in Baltic birch really loads up on your cutters.
Anyways, all of our construction is done with biscuits and no mechanical fasteners unless absolutely necessary. This entire enclosure is held together with beach-wood #10 biscuits and TiteBond 1 glue. We had to introduce some Senco staples to fasten the mounting flange on the inside of the box, but that's it. For those of you who have not used biscuits, I highly recommend you look into them. They provide a bond between two pieces of wood that is stronger than the wood itself. The biscuits align everything when assembling the panels together. Lastly they allow the user to router the edges without hitting staples or screws. They take much longer than gluing and stapling, but in the end the construction methods are far superior.
The build includes the following:
qty. 2 Tang Band W4-1337SDF 4" Titanium full range drivers
qty. 1 Dayton Audio KAB-250v3 2x50W Bluetooth amplifier
qty. 1 Dayton Audio KAB-BE battery board
qty. 3 18650 Lithium Ion Batteries,
qty. 2 1-1/8" ports
The design of the enclosure is 0.3 ft^3 tuned to 70Hz with an F3 of 75Hz.
More updates to follow!
Let me start of by saying that I only use Russian Baltic birch plywood for all of my products. It costs more, but as a cabinet makers son I have a high appreciation for how nice it is to work with. It definitely takes a toll on any of your cutting equipment, but Forrest makes special profile carbide blades just for crosscutting plywood of this style. They work beautifully. The carbide bits I have been getting from Freud (1/4" spiral up-cutting carbide) seem to be the weak link. They are just cheap enough where it doesn't make sense to take them to a shop to have them sharpened. All of our router bits get constant cleaning and diamond stone sharpening to keep them up to working order. The formaldehyde glue in Baltic birch really loads up on your cutters.
Anyways, all of our construction is done with biscuits and no mechanical fasteners unless absolutely necessary. This entire enclosure is held together with beach-wood #10 biscuits and TiteBond 1 glue. We had to introduce some Senco staples to fasten the mounting flange on the inside of the box, but that's it. For those of you who have not used biscuits, I highly recommend you look into them. They provide a bond between two pieces of wood that is stronger than the wood itself. The biscuits align everything when assembling the panels together. Lastly they allow the user to router the edges without hitting staples or screws. They take much longer than gluing and stapling, but in the end the construction methods are far superior.
The build includes the following:
qty. 2 Tang Band W4-1337SDF 4" Titanium full range drivers
qty. 1 Dayton Audio KAB-250v3 2x50W Bluetooth amplifier
qty. 1 Dayton Audio KAB-BE battery board
qty. 3 18650 Lithium Ion Batteries,
qty. 2 1-1/8" ports
The design of the enclosure is 0.3 ft^3 tuned to 70Hz with an F3 of 75Hz.
More updates to follow!
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