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

[Soundslike]

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

Fascinating build there Cowtown. Very nice work -- I can see you're accustomed to doing things with precision. Impressive....

[cowtown]

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

It depends on what kind of dowl is used, humidity, temp.... All wood absorbs most of its moisture through the end grain

I'm really, really glad you and FastBike mentioned this BEFORE I blissfully stuck the veneer on!

This is the first speaker build I've done with any non-MDF elements. I wasn't aware there could be a problem with the hardwood dowels, so thanks for that. I don't really know what kind of wood it is. It was marked as "Hardwood dowel" at Home Depot. I'm guessing oak?

The optomial way to do this would have been to drill the dowl holes w/ a forstner bit where the dowls are located from the inside out and stoping within about 1/8th" from the outside, glueing in place and never exposing the end grain. But I would think if Colin would use something like Poly and thin it w/ lacquer thinner and flood the end grain a few days before veneering it will be fine as long as the dowls are realy glued in place securely. R.K.

I was originally going to try to do the holes as you outlined, stopping before punching through, but I couldn't figure out how to locate the holes in exactly the same place on both the front baffle and rear piece. Now that I sit with my 20/20 hindsight, I could have made up a template and put it on top of each piece to locate the holes. But I was in a building groove, and all excited about my clever through-hole bracing scheme. :D

You could always laminate an 1/8" of hardboard over the face of the cab to cover the ends of the dowels. A "pre-veneer" layer if you will. Or if the dowels look nice enough, leave the dowels exposed as part of the finish, I suppose that could look nice if you were doing a birch ply cab with a natural finish.

A good idea - just not sure how I'd deal with the recess for the tweeter flange that is already routed out.

take the dowl down a bit with a fostner bit and bondo.

That sounds good...none of the dowels are glued yet, so it would be really easy to trim them down 1/4" or so.

I've never used bondo - is there a certain type that's best to buy? I'd like to do some practice with it before trying to fix this.

Thanks guys!

[johnnyrichards]

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

take the dowl down a bit with a fostner bit and bondo.

+1

By the way, this should be a lovely build when completed. It is a good design.

[[email protected]]

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

take the dowl down a bit with a fostner bit and bondo.

[bolland83]

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

You could always laminate an 1/8" of hardboard over the face of the cab to cover the ends of the dowels. A "pre-veneer" layer if you will. Or if the dowels look nice enough, leave the dowels exposed as part of the finish, I suppose that could look nice if you were doing a birch ply cab with a natural finish.

[Randall Kepley]

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

It depends on what kind of dowl is used, humidity, temp.... All wood absorbs most of its moisture through the end grain, If using say a oak dowl it will absorb moisture alot faster than say Maple or Cherry. Oak is a very porous wood , end grain and face grain. Where Maple or Cherry is a very tight grain , face and end. The optomial way to do this would have been to drill the dowl holes w/ a forstner bit where the dowls are located from the inside out and stoping within about 1/8th" from the outside, glueing in place and never exposing the end grain. But I would think if Colin would use something like Poly and thin it w/ lacquer thinner and flood the end grain a few days before veneering it will be fine as long as the dowls are realy glued in place securely. R.K.

[fastbike1]

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

A good idea if you ever think you might try active. Certainly the time do it is now. I'm really liking the way the build is going together (except a bit of concern about the dowel end, don't have any personal experience veneering over something like that).

also thinking about mounting two sets of binding posts on each speaker (one pair for the woofer and one for the mid/high) even though it's one cabinet to allow for going active later on if needed.

[fastbike1]

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

Randall, I'd worry that the dowel ends will telegraph through the veneer if not covered/blended. Do you have any experience with issues like that?

Colin, very nice looking build so far my man. A few observations, I think the Dowel system should work great. Constructed properly I think it will provide pleanty of strength and I was wondering what kinda of circle cutting jig you used? The holes look very clean. Thanks R.K.

[generic]

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

That is some seriously nice woodwork!

[cowtown]

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

Nice work man! I had fun building mine, but you're taking it to the next level! I can't wait to see the finished build. I like the dowel braces, cool idea drilling all the way through. It should provide a lot more glue area than just fitting them between the panels. How do you plan to tackle the crossovers?

I'm thinking about building the crossovers on protoboard, but might just use more hardboard. I'll probably do them in two pieces...also thinking about mounting two sets of binding posts on each speaker (one pair for the woofer and one for the mid/high) even though it's one cabinet to allow for going active later on if needed.

Bolland your speakers are just stunning - I can't get over that finish you did on MDF. I don't think I could pull that off, and will stick with safe veneer.

Colin, very nice looking build so far my man. A few observations, I think the Dowel system should work great. Constructed properly I think it will provide pleanty of strength and I was wondering what kinda of circle cutting jig you used? The holes look very clean. Thanks R.K.

Hey Randall, I cut the driver and port holes with a gool ol Jasper jig. I have a decent Bosch router and used a 1/4" spiral upcut bit, doing 1/8" passes at the highest speed. I stuck the two baffles together with double-sided tape and drilled the pilot holes through both at the same time with a mill/drill press, to minimize differences between the baffles. Then routed one baffle, flipped them over, and routed the other.

The 7/8" holes for the dowels are all done on the mill/drill, using a hole cutting bit. For this, I stacked up the front baffle and its matching back and went through in one shot. This was the only way I could think of to make sure the dowels will be perfectly straight and true.

[mattp]

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

Argh! I misspelled Carmody in the thread title. Sorry. I can't seem to edit it.

Fixed.

[Randall Kepley]

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

Colin, very nice looking build so far my man. A few observations, I think the Dowel system should work great. Constructed properly I think it will provide pleanty of strength and I was wondering what kinda of circle cutting jig you used? The holes look very clean. Thanks R.K.

[50 watt head]

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

That is simply awesome work.

[bolland83]

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

Nice work man! I had fun building mine, but you're taking it to the next level! I can't wait to see the finished build. I like the dowel braces, cool idea drilling all the way through. It should provide a lot more glue area than just fitting them between the panels. How do you plan to tackle the crossovers?

[ckmoore]

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

Argh! I misspelled Carmody in the thread title. Sorry. I can't seem to edit it.

oh no. That is unfortunate. If you read the fine print at Undefinition, you must cease all work on Carmody designs, as well as forfeiting all equipment used in said construction, and also agreeing to the purchase at 3 times market value, and daily listening of Bose products only for the remainder of said lifetime.


it looked like a good take on a great design... oh well.



....kidding aside. looking good.