Solstice Speaker Kit with HempWood baffle

[Uncle Bob]

Finally decided to replace my Stentorian HT speakers with the Solstice. By now, everyone knows the quality of this speaker and it's definitely a step up from the Stentorian. Given the price difference of the components, one Solstice mid driver cost more than the entire Stentorian build...this speaker is worth the cost, the same way the Stentorian was one heck of a value! This has also allowed me to repurposed the Stentorians into multiple MTM and TM builds for others. Given the fantastic quality of the speaker design, I was looking for something unique to make it as visual appealing as it sounded. Not really a fan of the MDF baffle provided in the kit, I decided to build one out of hempwood from a company in Murry KY. Getting the design idea from the Sonus faber Lumina III, I used a 1/4" roundover on the main box and held the baffle back 1/4" on the perimeter. The black box was coated with truck bed liner and the hempwood has 4 coats of Watco danish oil. Looking forward to building one more Solstice MTM to replace the Stentorian center.

[Steve Lee]

Fabulous!

[Colonel7]

That is fantastic. How is the Hempwood to work with? Does it chip easily? And which product did you use for the baffle? Paneling, floor, or board?

[Uncle Bob]

I used the 3/4" thick boards, ran through the table saw on both sides first then glued together to get the width prior to running them through the planner. I was surprised how well I could router and keep a crisp edge. Very easy to work with overall. One word of warning...when your router bit gets hot after a few cuts, step away and let it cool down. I noticed the "hempwood dust" can be flammable if exposed to a hot router bit!!!

[silverD]

Nice job and very appealing!

[Colonel7]

Ha - Great tip. I should have known hempwood is easy to spark-up!

[Uncle Bob]

Fortunately it was just a glowing ember and not a burning flame....although it was enough to provide a "slow burn" in my dust collection system horizontal tube that had me tearing things apart to fine the embers! Lesson learned at minimal cost!

[Chris Roemer]

Isn't the smoke a problem though, or no problem?

(And I fly High Power rockets at Bong Rec Area.)

[Colonel7]

And was the cut Rift or Face? I'm guessing rift

[Uncle Bob]

These are riff cut. They also have face cut boards which I used for chess pieces on an alternating riff cut board. The face cut is a bit busy for the directional grain look that I was going for.

[Wolf]

Those look great!
Wolf

[Paul Carmody]

Looks sharp!

[mattk]

I've thought about hempwood, yours looks really good. The glue-up of the two 5.25" boards is barely noticeable due to the random nature of the hempwood, but I do wish they would come out with wider boards.