Cigar box mini system

[Jake]

I've always used cigar boxes to make things with. Mainly small amps, and bluetooth speakers. I've never used them to build a pair of speakers. I decided to use two Acid boxes, both with a rough internal volume of .09cf. I used a little over 2oz of poly fill for each box. Internally cross braced each one with 1/2" wooden dowel. I tuned them to 82hz, which surprised me how low these little drivers went. For the finish, I put on a couple coats of Danish oil, then wipe on poly.
The speakers themselves were built entirely of parts that I already had. The drivers are 2.75" paper cones with a large dust cap and rubber surrounds that I canalbalized from an old bluetooth speaker from the thrift store. The tweeters used are the 1/2" PE $.98 buy outs that I've become fond of. The crossover is a 6k hodge podge of parts thrown together.
The amplifier is a Sure tpa3110 from PE. I recapped it with larger/better caps. I used a 3.5mm jack front mounted to keep the signal line short. I wired up a 50k potentiometer with some cat6.
I'm very pleased, and surprised by this combo. Good for a bedroom, desktop, or kitchen.

[Jake]

[3rutu5]

looks pretty cool. good recycling

[Jake]

looks pretty cool. good recycling

Thanks, there's a cigar shop that supplies me boxes for free. I was thinking of gifting it to them.

[tomzarbo]

hey Jake,
I didn't realize that cigar boxes came so big. They really look sharp!
TomZ

[Jake]

hey Jake,
I didn't realize that cigar boxes came so big. They really look sharp!
TomZ

Thanks Tom!
They actually get bigger. This one has an internal of .15cf. Been using them for years. Cheap unique enclosure. Check out a recent amp build.

[PWR RYD]

A man after my own heart! I've built several amps and external crossovers in cigar boxes. In fact I've used those same exact Acid cigar boxes. Nice work.

[Jake]

A man after my own heart! I've built several amps and external crossovers in cigar boxes. In fact I've used those same exact Acid cigar boxes. Nice work.

Thanks you sir! Nice to see an inexpensive build get a little love.

[djg]

Nice work. Curious, do you smoke all those cigars or is there a used cigar box market?

[Jake]

Nice work. Curious, do you smoke all those cigars or is there a used cigar box market?

I smoke an occasional cigar, probably a couple a year. I get them from cigar shops. Most shops sell them for $1-5. A few months ago I found a shop that gives them away, but that's the only one I've seen do that.

[PWR RYD]

+1

I don't smoke but the local cigar shop sells them for $1 each. My wife and I don't really like the cigar smell so I usually spray the inside with some Febreze then stick a Bounce dryer sheet in them for a few days. Works pretty good.

[MaxineDanko]

It is looking really cool and amazing.

[Jake]

MaxineDanko: thanks for the kind words

[Jake]

Update:
Thanks to my friends at the cigar shop, and PE for providing the buyout 239-2300 tweeters I decided to build another pair of cigar box speakers. This time I went with the pc83-4. I've tried them before, but found them awfully fatiguing. So, I went with full BSC on the crossover. It's crossed over at 5k. I used a 5.1uf cap, 3.3ohm, and a 4ohm resistors for the L-pad, blends just right for me.
The speakers are somewhat picky on box size. I tried the large reccommened, but they seem to get lost in the box. I also tried a .083cf, and that wound work tuned to about 90hz, but I wanted to get a little lower if possible. The acid cigar box is approximately .094cf. I think the narrow baffle
and somewhat deep cabinent make for a good box based on my testing. I used a 1" pvc for port tuned to 85Hz. You won't get much usable bass below that. Last time I used a cross brace for the previous speaker. This time I removed the 1/10th" bottom, and replaced it with 1/4" mdf.
The end result is very clean and well presented sound. Slightly more low end then the quarks, and cost just under $60 tof build.

[Jake]