Another Encore...

[tomzarbo]

Diligent speaker gathering over the past few years (MWAF Tent Sale and PE classifieds) has yielded enough drivers to finish another two pair of Encore's from the project gallery.



Got the top/bottom/braces cut out as well as the front and back panels. Tomorrow I hope to have four of these carcasses together for real with glue instead of blue painters tape. I think I'll try to get crossover blanks built as well... holes pre-drilled and stuff so it's easy to fit in the woofer hole and screw down. I always have a hard time with that... Darn these Shrek hands!

One pair is going to a good friend of mine, the other I get to keep. The other two pairs I built a few years ago have both found homes.





Nothing too exciting I know, I'm just trying to keep the sawdust flying in the basement. I've recently done an inventory of all the drivers I have, and realized I should probably start building some more stuff or soon I'll be storing drivers in my kitchen cabinets.

TomZ

[chrisn]

Looking good. Are the Encores the ones with the RS150/RS28a? That's a very nice driver combination. How do you plan to finish them? I can certainly identify with that last bit, I built or tested 4 designs in the last 2 weeks, plus a guitar cabinet. That's an impressive pile of shavings on the drill press.

[Adam_G]

I've recently done an inventory of all the drivers I have, and realized I should probably start building some more stuff or soon I'll be storing drivers in my kitchen cabinets.

Great touch! Haha!
Have fun with your build, looking great so far!

[tomzarbo]

Looking good. Are the Encores the ones with the RS150/RS28a? That's a very nice driver combination. How do you plan to finish them? I can certainly identify with that last bit, I built or tested 4 designs in the last 2 weeks, plus a guitar cabinet. That's an impressive pile of shavings on the drill press.

Yes, those are the ones. I actually have the shielded versions of those drivers, NLA. They are very nice sounding speakers... The other two pairs I built are long gone, Dad got one pair and I sold the other pair to a good friend, so I still didn't have a pair for home. I'm making the vented version.

I'm not sure on the finish yet. I have some leftover Zebra wood veneer that I may use for my friend's if he likes it, heck, maybe even my pair as well. I also may use some White Birch on these and maybe something fancy for the baffles. Not sure yet. Since these are going to have some seams and layers, I'll let them rest for 3-4 months and let the seams calm down before putting the final finish veneer on them. I also have a few sheets of 1/16" white oak to use a sacrificial veneer on the tops to further mitigate the effects of 'joint creep' over time. That was a great tip someone on this board gave me a few years ago and it's been very helpful.

I'm weird... I like to have a few projects in various stages of completion at any one time. Whatever I'm in the mood to do, veneering, creating a baffle, poly/finishing, etc. I can do that instead of something I'm not in the mood to do. Downstairs I have 2 more 10.5" cube subwoofer boxes done with driver recesses finished just waiting for final sanding and application of veneer. When I'm in the mood, I'll get to those... sometimes, early on a crisp, cool fall morning, there seems like nothing better to do than lay out some veneer on the table to glue onto a cabinet... just feels right at that time.

I also have a pair of Wolf's N.E.H.D. boxes and stands done just waiting to finish off. Not sure why I've waited so long on those... maybe because I have a more complicated idea on how to finish those than normal. It's like Kevin K and I have often said to each other... Do we have speaker-building as a hobby, or does this hobby have us? I think the answer is clear for most of us on this board!

Oh, I cleaned the drill press area off 3 times before I took that pic! I even did a 1/4" roundover on the breathing holes for the brace just for fun. I'll never have 'perfect' looking crossovers, but at least I can pretty up the innards!

Adam... you got it! I'm glad someone did... heck,I don't even get all of 'em.

TomZ

[donradick]

Haven't heard the Encores, but I love my little RS150 build - I gave away a little Speedster clone, but the RS150 is staying.

[Wolf]

I'm weird... I like to have a few projects in various stages of completion at any one time. Whatever I'm in the mood to do, veneering, creating a baffle, poly/finishing, etc. I can do that instead of something I'm not in the mood to do. Downstairs I have 2 more 10.5" cube subwoofer boxes done with driver recesses finished just waiting for final sanding and application of veneer. When I'm in the mood, I'll get to those... sometimes, early on a crisp, cool fall morning, there seems like nothing better to do than lay out some veneer on the table to glue onto a cabinet... just feels right at that time.

I also have a pair of Wolf's N.E.H.D. boxes and stands done just waiting to finish off. Not sure why I've waited so long on those... maybe because I have a more complicated idea on how to finish those than normal. It's like Kevin K and I have often said to each other... Do we have speaker-building as a hobby, or does this hobby have us? I think the answer is clear for most of us on this board!

I'll never have 'perfect' looking crossovers, but at least I can pretty up the innards!

TomZ

I always have several in different stages as well. I like to do smaller projects whilst working on a larger one.

Yeah- I've been waiting to see your finished result on those!

Oh- it definitely has us!!

You'll get there with practice, and I think you'll be getting a lot more of it now that you are getting the art of designing them.

Later,
Wolf

[tomzarbo]

Just a bit more completed today:





The little coffee table looking things are the crossover boards, they will fit in the woofer hole (hopefully) and I'll make sure to predrill all the holes in the bottom of the cabinets before I put the sides on to make crossover installation easier. "Make it so it goes together like a kit" That's my mantra from now on. After the finish is dry, just assemble. Hopefully I can follow my own advice.

Maybe I'll let these cure for tomorrow and cut out the side boards. The day after I'll glue the sides on. Probably 4 layers of 1/8" HDF per side should suffice. If not, I'll add 2 layers on each side, but I suspect 4 layers should be okay.

TomZ

[Wolf]

One thing I like to do, Tommy, is have only one screw to install the Xover boards. You can't always do it this way due to sheer size, etc, but...

Make the back edge of the board slide into a mount of some sort, and secure the front edge. This will make it 10x easier to install them after the paint cures.

In my Destinations, the board was mounted on the inner-back panel, and the bottom edge slid down onto a 'keeper', and the top-edge was screwed into place.

Just a little food for thought,
Wolf

[tomzarbo]

One thing I like to do, Tommy, is have only one screw to install the Xover boards. You can't always do it this way due to sheer size, etc, but...

Make the back edge of the board slide into a mount of some sort, and secure the front edge. This will make it 10x easier to install them after the paint cures.

In my Destinations, the board was mounted on the inner-back panel, and the bottom edge slid down onto a 'keeper', and the top-edge was screwed into place.

Just a little food for thought,
Wolf

I like that idea. I could glue a small board onto the inside back of the speaker which my crossover coffee table would slide securely into, then one screw to hold the board down. I could sand an ever-so-slight taper to it so the farther back it goes, the tighter the crossover board becomes. Sounds like a good plan, thanks! The last thing you want to be doing is trying to figure out a way to secure your crossover in your perfectly-finished speakers when you can barely reach your hand to get to where they fasten.

TomZ

[Jeff B.]

Hey Tom, if you send me an email I may have something for you regarding this project.

[tomzarbo]

Email sent.

[dustinbagby]

For my MWAF build, I actually used the holes in my braces and mounted each end of the XO board to the center piece on each brace, to somewhat bridge them together and just used heavy zip ties to hold them in place, if you can picture what I am saying.

So essentially put a slot of sorts on the bottom of you cabinet gor the end of the board to slide into, then lift the top end up to the brace and mount it to the brace itself, as sort of a false wall behind the woofer (or tweeter).

[tomzarbo]

For my MWAF build, I actually used the holes in my braces and mounted each end of the XO board to the center piece on each brace, to somewhat bridge them together and just used heavy zip ties to hold them in place, if you can picture what I am saying.

So essentially put a slot of sorts on the bottom of you cabinet gor the end of the board to slide into, then lift the top end up to the brace and mount it to the brace itself, as sort of a false wall behind the woofer (or tweeter).

Okay, I got it on the second read.
That's a clever way of mounting a crossover board also. I see how that could act as bracing if you do it right.

I ended up making a little 'ledge' on the back of the speaker carcass that the end of the crossover board could slide into.



I sanded a slight angle to the bottom of the ledge so the further back you slide it, the tighter it gets. I'll secure the crossover with one screw down into the bottom of the box.

Thanks for the good ideas on crossover mounting. It's almost an afterthought for some reason when it should be engineered pretty well -- and early on -- so you don't end up tightening tiny screws by hand because no screwdriver will fit in the opening you left yourself.

4 layers of 1/8" HDF on either side. That equals 1/2" if my math is correct.



Sounds dead enough with the knuckle test. The curve stiffens things up nicely.

Having flashbacks Dustin?
Famous quote from 2016 MWAF by Dustin Bagby... "if you've never done curved cabinets before.... Don't!" Everyone chuckled at that. I felt your pain, but your cabinets came out absolutely gorgeous. Like I told you, I loved the way you matched the grain top to sides...and Hickory is now on my short list of veneers to use in the future.

Thankfully, these are pretty easy being modest two-ways. I was going to glue 2 layers up at a time, but actually, adding the second 2 layers on each side helped to 'clamp' the middle section a little better. That clamp in the middle was just for safety's sake. I did have to hustle a little bit to get everything in place before stuff started setting up. I really put a LOT of glue between the panels. There was good squeeze-out all over the place. That's what I wanted. Last time I had a small section not adhere correctly; I had to do some prying and squirting of glue to get that fixed up.

TomZ

[dustinbagby]

Okay, I got it on the second read.
That's a clever way of mounting a crossover board also. I see how that could act as bracing if you do it right.

I ended up making a little 'ledge' on the back of the speaker carcass that the end of the crossover board could slide into.

http://s49.photobucket.com/user/TomZarbo/media/DSC03701_zpssnvyekj1.jpg.html"][/URL]

I sanded a slight angle to the bottom of the ledge so the further back you slide it, the tighter it gets. I'll secure the crossover with one screw down into the bottom of the box.

Thanks for the good ideas on crossover mounting. It's almost an afterthought for some reason when it should be engineered pretty well -- and early on -- so you don't end up tightening tiny screws by hand because no screwdriver will fit in the opening you left yourself.

4 layers of 1/8" HDF on either side. That equals 1/2" if my math is correct.

http://s49.photobucket.com/user/TomZarbo/media/DSC03702_zpsuymtjyfj.jpg.html"][/URL]

Sounds dead enough with the knuckle test. The curve stiffens things up nicely.

Having flashbacks Dustin?
Famous quote from 2016 MWAF by Dustin Bagby... "if you've never done curved cabinets before.... Don't!" Everyone chuckled at that. I felt your pain, but your cabinets came out absolutely gorgeous. Like I told you, I loved the way you matched the grain top to sides...and Hickory is now on my short list of veneers to use in the future.

Thankfully, these are pretty easy being modest two-ways. I was going to glue 2 layers up at a time, but actually, adding the second 2 layers on each side helped to 'clamp' the middle section a little better. That clamp in the middle was just for safety's sake. I did have to hustle a little bit to get everything in place before stuff started setting up. I really put a LOT of glue between the panels. There was good squeeze-out all over the place. That's what I wanted. Last time I had a small section not adhere correctly; I had to do some prying and squirting of glue to get that fixed up.

TomZ

Yeah, I definitely struggled. There are several things I would do differently going back, but thats if the urge to build another curved pair ever arises. Yours seem to be going together much more easily than mine (I think I had too much curve).

The hickory was very easy to work with, just be careful when youre trimming it with a flush bit to not have it set too deep or it will pull out chunks of veneer pretty badly. I got careless and in a hurry and made this mistake. Its most similar to oak in working with it.

[joeybutts]

Tom, did you use a form/pattern to make the top/bottom/braces? If you do, how do you make the form, just rough cut and massage it till you are happy or some other technique? I think I may start attempting some curved cabs....

These look great, but I'm a sucker for great bracing.