Anarchists Build Log

[wogg]

Frames are nearly done, only one more edge to line with the poplar 1x2. This has been a fairly slow process, each cut is measured with calipers since the boxes are not accurately assembled. This gets me as close as I can get to having those in there tightly. The angle cuts are also a little challenging to get accurate, my gauge isn't detailed enough and nether is my miter saw to hit +-1 degree accuracy required. Once all the bits are glued in, the next task is to sand the sucker:
Front and back mating surfaces have to get flattened as much as possible for a good seal. For the baffle side I'll glue a sheet of sandpaper to a decent flat reference board and sand as much of the surface simultaneously as possible. For the inset rear panel, it's a little trickier but I'm planning on using a sanding block to knock down any mismatches.
Then I'll round over the top 90 degree edge with a 1/2" bit on the router, hand belt sand all other surfaces and soften the corners slightly. Probably a little wood fill involved here and there.

Braces added to straddle the precision port assembly.

[wogg]

Nice day for some sanding. The baffle side is pretty flat and I have a nice 5/4 red oak baffle board to cut up, hopefully get started on that tomorrow.

[a4eaudio]

Looking nice!
Those angles do NOT look fun to work with!

[wogg]

Thanks man!

[wogg]

Here's the weekend progress. Back panels were fit in there with some sanding down to size.


This is the aesthetic I'm going for now. I'll try some grey / weathered lightening stain on the red oak.



Baffles cut and edge shaped, more sanding to do... so much more sanding.



Flush trimmed, which took a while since my cutting bit had just about 1"depth and the board is about 1/8" thicker than that. I had to take small bites, moving the bit to the top and the bottom alternately to bring it down to size.



Finally, I hit it with my little round over bit all around except for the angled edge, which got as deep of a 45 degree chamfer as I could cut. Anything better requires 1/2" shank bits and a beefier router than I have.

[Harvylogan]

I have worked with the Anarchy quite a bit. That will be a nice speaker. Lots of headroom.

[wogg]

Baffle time! Recess for flush mount + cut out. Then used a 3/8" rabbet bit to thin the 1.1" thick panel down, leaving 0.5" for the tweeter, and 0.375" for the RS100 and Anarchy woofer. That matches the depth of the stainless steel 8-32 threaded inserts I have coming for the speaker hardware. Looking at the clearance behind the RS100 most importantly, it seems pretty clear. I don't think I need any additional scalloping to clear air path.





The baffles were then lined up and traced on the front of the cabinet. I used a jig saw to cut out the 1x2 to fit the woofer and mid, matching the outside of that rabbet recess.



Finally, the fit test.

[wogg]

The hand held belt sander job on the front surface that mates with the baffle boards looks good, until you really look close with the baffles laying on there. That means it's time to deploy the oversize board for sanding the whole surface at the same time. There's really no other way to get the whole thing flat.



I just used the remainder of the same oak board the baffles were cut from, some spray adhesive and 4 sheets of 100 grit later I have a big old sanding block.



While I'm waiting on a bunch of hardware to finish assembly, I'll be casually rubbing these suckers on the board in between meetings and what not. It's getting closer to flat, just need to get it under a mm or so to let some weather stripping really do the job sealing up the joint.



I've got a lot of assembly hardware coming:

• 8-32 stainless threaded inserts for the drivers
• 8-32 button cap hex bolts in anodized black for the drivers
• 1/4x20 threaded inserts for the back of the baffle boards and the rear panel mounts
• 1/4x20 black anodized flat head furniture screws for the back panels
• 1/4x20 torx drive screws for the internal bolts to the baffle and the joints to the stands

That cost a surprising amount of money. It's more obvious when I'm not nickel and diming it with multiple hardware store trips.

[Billet]

A decently sharp hand plane would be helpful in flattening the baffle.

[a4eaudio]

Nice macro-photography!

[4thtry]

Very cool and effective sanding technique. Just slide the entire box back and forth and let gravity even out the surfaces. Thanks for sharing!

[Wolf]

A table saw can do the same, just rotate to cut all sides the same dimension.
Wolf

[wogg]

Yes, but that would require a table saw ;)
Would make my life with these projects so much easier, most of my tolerance issues come from using the clamped on guide with a skill saw so I have to re-measure each and every cut. Just don't have the space for a real saw.

[Wolf]

Then you did what you had to,ikely the best way without the table saw.

[wogg]

A little hardware installation today.

1/4x20 threaded inserts on back of baffle, and in the rear lip. Rear panels countersunk a bit for the hardware. Made it almost all the way through the driver 8-32 inserts before the insertion tool crapped out. $15 tool killed in one day, oak + stainless steel inserts are super tough!

[wogg]

Pretty much done with the construction portion of these. Having some difficulty with the whole baffle mounting mechanism, driven by poor alignment of the hardware caused by hand held drilling and too small a space to fit my arm in. I'm having to do some crazy finger contortions to get these screws in place and bruising up my arm a bit while doing it.

The plan was to take a half hour or so last night to apply the weather strip seal and bolt one of the boxes together for testing. About an hour later I still have some more work to do opening up the internal holes to better align with the threaded inserts.


This weather stripping will end up removed and replaced for the final finish, but will do for testing now. Here's the hardware I'm trying to install.


Woofer chamber has room, but bracing makes some of the screw positions a little tricky. That's nothing compared to the mid chamber though, here's where my arm is getting torn up squeezing through the back panel mount gap.



I also got a few screws in before I realized the tweeter needed to be mounted and wired before bolting in the baffle... whoops. Once this sucker is together I'm not sure I'll ever take it apart given how difficult this is. All of this work to avoid gluing a solid oak panel to an MDF frame and risking expansion / contraction damage later.

Hoping to have 1 assembled tonight that will let me start testing seal, tuning, and doing initial measurements.

[tomzarbo]

Looking good!

It's been fun looking at these progress. Thanks for posting as you go.

TomZ

[wogg]

Thanks Tom! Sometimes I wonder if I'm posting for anyone

[a4eaudio]

Oh, I'm sure there are a lot of people following along that don't post anything in the thread. I'm looking forward to the measurement and xo design phase.

[Wolf]

I know how you feel. I've skinned knuckles doing the hidden fastener method too. If I don't draw a little blood en route of a build it's rare. However, they are normally from a screw scratch from inside an enclosure, or something else that is a minor abrasion. Rarely have I done something that would severely injure myself. I still have all my fingers.
Be safe,
Wolf

[wogg]

Success! I have one cab assembled with wiring to test. No measurements yet, I'd like to stuff and line a bit to make it closer to the end game before measuring. First I'll sweep the woofer to determine tuning, the PP is pressed in temporarily at full length. I figure I'll use that as reference for where the tuning lands and calculate back, getting closer to the target than I usually do and avoiding multiple cuts of the tube.

Pro tip:
Most of my fastener problem was left over glue blocking the threaded inserts. I didn't look very closely, so I was focusing on the alignment, which was also a problem but missed the blockage that would have continued to frustrate me. A little 1/4x20 tap work and I cleared the threads, and everything went much better.

Here's the driver fit with the hardware. A tiny bit proud, but close enough.


Here's the back panel.


Standing front view


And the wiring out the port for test.

[tomzarbo]

They're beautiful Wogg!
In fact they're so nice I'm not even going to make a Gumby joke. J/K they're super cool. I love it when people use actual wood to build stuff with.

TomZ