Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

[cowtown]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

I thought it was gonna look like this:



Nice work! I'm waiting for the finished veneer with baited breath.

Yeah, my wife was OK with everything up to the swiveling cannon. I had to scrap the idea and start over.

[Jeanie]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

This is a very nice looking cabinet. A far cry from the plywood boxes I make, particularly the robust cross-bracing. The curvilinear sides will also contribute to the cabinet stiffness.

[Soundslike]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

The compound curve issue you face at the edges of the baffle might actually be an opportunity to come up with an even nicer overall look. How about painting the edges, probably with a semi-gloss black, then veneering the sides, with the baffle painted a contrasting color such as silver? The top could either be veneered, or painted to match the edges. If you were interested in doing that, hopefully you haven't flush trimmed the baffles just yet, so they could be flush trimmed to the veneer height. I think you might well end up with an even more interesting look...

[Soundslike]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Or, I suppose it would be possible to veneer the sides as planned and then notch the overlap where it folds over the baffle. That would only work if you could live with a segmented look, but that could be minimized somewhat by sanding to an extent allowed by the thickness of the veneer. It would also mean a seam where the veneer starts on the front face of the baffle. Of course, you'd likely end up with a little "pucker" at the inside corner of each notch that would have to be sanded away. So, to work, I guess you'd need the thickest, most flexible, veneer available. I think I'd resort to paint, or remake the front baffles in a contrasting solid wood, and veneer up to the edges of it.

These ideas might sound tough, but judging by the quality of the work you've done so far, you're up to it...

[cowtown]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Well it's been a while since I've had time to work on these, but I put a couple hours in yesterday. After much thought, I decided to go ahead with flush trimming. I will most likely do a roundover on the top and bottom horizontal edges, which opens up the possibility of a nice run of veneer spanning from one side, across the top, all the way over to the other side. Then the front baffle will have a separate veneer piece, probably with some contrasting strips.

I just don't think I'm up to dealing with the compound curve issue, and I don't want to risk routing a groove in the nice laminated sides to insert a solid wood strip. A man's gotta know his limitations. :o

My 2" wedge foam arrived last night, and the cabinets are lined. I did add a couple more braces after knocking on the cabinets with my knuckles. Also got all the HDF pieces that will be used to create the driver and port grills routed and sanded.

Now that the cabinets are lined and the drivers are broken in, I can say that I really like the sound of these speakers. They are not as "technical" as the Statement Monitors with their ribbon tweeter, but they really do a good job making less-than-perfect recordings sound good. They are not quite as detailed, but not harsh at all. The bass and midrange vocals are punchy and just fun to listen to. There's absolutely no need for a sub when I'm listening to 2-channel music on these, and they will go lounder than I could ever possibly want to go in a 22x30' listening space. :D

All the pieces for the grill skeletons. The ones on the right are for a Nano Neo build that's waiting in the wings:



Flush-trimmed cabinets:



My team of highly-trained speaker building professionals. For some reason the cabinet sides look like they have flat spots in the pictures. In reality they are very consistently curved. Maybe the veneer will bring this out better:

[Mikers]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Really nice work. I can't believe you got that done with 3 little helpers, I get nothing done with only 2.

Can't wait to see your final product and listening impression. I think of pair of these bad boys in the basement would be a good future project.

[Rob J.]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

These are looking great so far -- looking forward to seeing the veneer and your listening impressions!

[snmhanson]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Three weeks since the last update. You didn't throw some drivers in the raw MDF cabinet to just "take a quick listen", did you? I've been watching this thread closely and I'm itching to see the finished product. I may take some inspiration from your design when I build my version of the Tarkus.

Matt

[cowtown]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Three weeks since the last update. You didn't throw some drivers in the raw MDF cabinet to just "take a quick listen", did you? I've been watching this thread closely and I'm itching to see the finished product. I may take some inspiration from your design when I build my version of the Tarkus.

Matt

That's exactly what happened! "I'll just break them in for a few hours then go veneer shopping...." Then family swimming lessons, karate classes, cub scouts, and of course work took over.

I've been listening to them daily and have discovered what "big speakers" sound like all over again. My room has a nasty ~45Hz null, which has improved very much by having the two big Peerless woofers spread out. That frequency was just soaked up by one sub's output.

Anyway here's my progress:

I have the circular grilles almost done (covered in black cloth with magnets).

Just bid this morning on some Bubinga and Camphor veneers on eBay so we'll see what happens. I'm looking for a burl type with lots of character that isn't super dark like walnut. The "Hoss" design is an example of the look I would like to achieve. Hopefully this will not turn out as a case of "aim high and you're bound to be disappointed." :D

Thanks for all the support guys - it does help keep me going.

[cowtown]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Finally an update. The veneer decision has been really tough - I've only used PSA in the past, and wanted to learn how to work with raw veneers, but at the same time not spend a ton of money and mess things up.

I bought three cheap lots from ebay just to practice a bit and see how they look in real life: aromatic camphor (beautiful, but very wavy and some cracks, probably better for later when I have more experience with this stuff), walnut (nice for later but too dark for these), and finally 11 sequential sheets of bubinga. The bubinga is beautiful. Subtle patterns and different purplish and red color hues inside the swirls.

The sheets are long enough to cover the entire vertical sides but not quite wide enough to do the whole depth of the speaker. I'm OK with this as long as I get good seams. Getting larger pieces looks like it would be cost prohibitive.

The first thing I did, being an amateur at this, was to get the sheets all out of order and then spend about an hour trying to get them back in sequence. :rolleyes:

I'm using LouC's veneering guide with contact cement. It's a LOT harder to do than PSA, and the huge cabinet size isn't helping! I've got all the sides of both boxes done now, and they look pretty good. I'm still not sure if I will do contrasting wood on the baffles.

Also bought some dewaxed shellac, thinking it would be a good finish without darkening too much. I just want to pop the grain out, not color the wood. Is there anything better to use? I've tried a sample but it seems too dark. Maybe just poly?

Cabinets flush-trimmed, sanded and filled:



11 sheets:



Good grain and colors:



It's been over 100 degrees here so I moved inside:

[greywarden]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Oh man those are looking great, I love that Bubinga, I'm thinking I'm going to do my Slant speaker with the same, except they'll be dyed Purple, becuase they're a gift for my wife, she picked everything out, size, shape, veneer, "purple".

[cowtown]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Oh man those are looking great, I love that Bubinga, I'm thinking I'm going to do my Slant speaker with the same, except they'll be dyed Purple, becuase they're a gift for my wife, she picked everything out, size, shape, veneer, "purple".

Purple die sounds good. I see some natural purple hues in my batch of veneer already. Such an interesting wood to look at.

Good progress over the weekend. I'm pretty happy with how the veneer is going, after a rough start with edge tearout and some cracking during rough cuts with a razor knife. After some practice runs, I settled on a laminate trimmer bit for all the flush cutting instead of a bearing bit.

All these shots are before any sanding (beyond a quick wipe over the flushed edges), sealing or finishing.

Getting close! I just have to flush trim the backs, glue on the tops, then start thinking about finishes.


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Colin

[greywarden]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Wow nice work, what method did you use to put the veneer on?

[Applesauce]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Those look fantastic! Yet another project that has me thinking about a foray into veneering...

Can I ask what seller you used on eBay? I've seen a few, all of whom look to offer some promising books of veneer at decent prices.

[fastbike1]

Re: Carmody Tarkus 3-Way in a one-piece curved cabinet

Try Rosebud Veneer. All raw veneer, but good prices and accurate descriptions. I've bought several lots from them.

Those look fantastic! Yet another project that has me thinking about a foray into veneering...

Can I ask what seller you used on eBay? I've seen a few, all of whom look to offer some promising books of veneer at decent prices.