Nephila Build

[Carbon13]

I'm going to be building a pair of Wolf's Nephila's for my niece (a wedding present). I'll be using a "double baffle" approach that I've used in previous builds to accommodate a solid wood baffle - so the outer dimensions are adjusted accordingly so the internal volume stays the same as Wolf's design.

Pile of wood:



Glue up:



Cabs without inside baffle. I used bondo on the butt joints at the top/sides just so there's no bleed through the veneer. The other joints are on back/bottom so I didn't bother smoothing those out.




Next question, Wolf's design calls for stuffing as follows: "1(bottom) was completely stuffed with 3oz of polyfill, 2 had 2oz, 3 had 3oz + Sonic Barrier, and 4 was thickly lined with Ultratouch Denim insulation". I have polyfill and this acoustic foam:


I was just going to swap out the sonic barrier and denim insulation with this foam and then stuff in polyfill as per Wolf's descriptions. Thoughts?

[djg]

Carbon copy. looks good.

[Wolf]

Looks fine. I would use it since you have it.
Wolf

[Carbon13]

Got the boxes put together and maple veneer applied. Inside seams sealed with silicone:


Next step will be cutting out a small panel in the back to access the crossover and accept a plate with the binding posts. Then it's stuffing and sealing the front inside baffle to get ready for the solid wood baffle. I'm going to be doing the front baffle in Padauk with a maple stripe through the middle, here's the boards I'm going to be using:


Going to finish milling these, cut to size and glue up panels

[Carbon13]

Sorry, work has been crazy so not much progress:

Cut holes for the terminal plates in the back of cabinet. Drilled 4 holes and used jigsaw to rough cut opening. Made a template on router table, clamped to opening and then finished with trim router and flush trim bit:

Used a rabbiting bit on table to add the recess for the plate (3/8"):



3D printed boards for crossover, strapped down components and soldered:

[Carbon13]

Strapped xover to middle pillar:




Next up: repeat for 2nd xover and then start working on baffles

[Carbon13]

Sorry, had to pause this build for life...

Got the baffles put together. First time resawing which was fun:


Glue up:

Panels:

[Carbon13]

Question on the port. Wolf calls for a 2.5" port 3.5" long. The port I have is 2 1/4". Can I still use it and should I adjust the length (if so to what)?

[Wolf]

2.25 might work, though I cannot guarantee it. You'll have to measure Fb and match the specified tuning.

I used 2.5" diameter grey electrical conduit, which is 2 3/8" ID. If you brace the rear of the port like I did to
the vertical brace, you'll need to relieve the area behind the ID of the port by removing brace material.
Lobed port exit is optional.

Later,
Wolf

[Carbon13]

It's actually a bit over 2.25; more like 2.27 but definitely not 2 3/8". Would changing the the length help get it closer to the tuning?

[Wolf]

The length change is the only way to get the same tuning with a different port diameter.
Wolf

[Carbon13]

Is there an easy way to figure out what that length should be?

[djg]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=speaker+port+tuning+calculator&t=newext&atb=v312-1&ia=web

[Chris Roemer]

A length between 2-7/8" and 3.0" should be adequately close.

[Carbon13]

Perfect, thanks!

[Carbon13]

Took me some time to figure out how best to cut the hole and recess for the rectangular tweeter. Here's what I did:

I 3D printed a template based on the outer dimensions plus ~1/8" allowance for the router guide bushing and attached it with double sided tape. My first pass was with a 1/2" bit set for the recess depth:



Second pass was using the biggest bushing I have and 1/4" spiral bit to make the inner cutout:



Finally, I made another pass with a 1/4" bit at the recess depth to get a bit more of the corners hogged out:


The fit was pretty good, a bit of space in the corners but I can live with that: