Building some speakers

[Fran]

The only amp I've listened to them with so far is the amp we made as a group there a while back, its a chip amp, LM 3875 powered through LiFePO4 batteries. Best sound I have tbh. But I want to test these out with other amps, valve, low power valve, the Pass F5 etc. But first I think I need to let the drivers run for a bit longer. They are probably near 40hrs at this stage which should suffice for a lot of drivers, but I think I will give them another week or so of intermittent play to be sure.

All in good time I suppose!!

[ConorW]

They are coming on very nicely. Sounds like a thoroughly planned and researched project.
How will you finish the veneer - will you use shellac?

I veneered and shellacked my Lenco project plinth. Finish looked great. Really brings out the veneer grain and patterns.

[Fran]

They are coming on very nicely. Sounds like a thoroughly planned and researched project.
How will you finish the veneer - will you use shellac?

I veneered and shellacked my Lenco project plinth. Finish looked great. Really brings out the veneer grain and patterns.

They will be oiled to get a satin finish with some depth..... also very repairable if they get a mark etc down the line.

[Fran]

So on to veneering. I'm not going to lie, this was the toughest part of the job and the finished article would be a lot better if I had a veneer press and some real skills too! The other thing is I made a decision to round the top corners of the boxes with a slight radius as a design feature. While it looks great (imho!!), getting the veneer to wrap around it was tough to do and did not work out as well as I'd like. Also, choosing the raw veneer made life more difficult compared to using a paper backed version.

TL/DR version - I didn't make life easy on myself when designing and choosing the materials.....

Veneer cut oversized and glue applied:

IMG_20200607_182339-01.jpeg (59.29 KiB) Viewed 1116 times

And the same on the box:

IMG_20200607_182347-01.jpeg (54.49 KiB) Viewed 1116 times

Some completed veneered parts before sanding and oiling:

IMG_20200607_182353-01.jpeg (58.69 KiB) Viewed 1116 times

IMG_20200607_215914-01.jpeg (60.64 KiB) Viewed 1116 times

[Ivor]

we're going to have to get a "like" button installed.

[Ciaran]

we're going to have to get a "like" button installed.

Like!

[Rocker]

Super job Fran. Like everyone else, I am looking forward to hearing them. When the lockdown ends.......

[Fran]

So I wanted to get a coat of oil on the padauk first before moving on to the maple fronts. Sanding padauk produces a bright red/pink dust that can stain lighter woods so naturally, I wanted to avoid that. Getting a coat of oil on it first avoided that. So, I sanded to 320 grit with a random orbital sander and gt a fine finish. Along the way there were small patches that had to be looked after - natural voids in the veneer, the odd spot where the veneer split as it was applied, bits where it was a bit splintery along the edge and so on. I spliced in pieces of veneer, mixed wood dust with glue and superglued down small sections to get the surface reasonably stable before sanding. Actually putting the oil on is beautiful as the wood just jumps out of it when you apply it. Its the woodworker's delight to see that.

IMG_20200608_215038-01.jpeg (77.27 KiB) Viewed 1066 times

IMG_20200608_203529-01.jpeg (71.04 KiB) Viewed 1066 times

Having got this far, and getting all the veneer on, it was a joy to see them in their final coat. At this stage the fancy schmancy crossover parts had arrived and it was time to decide how to lay that out. The layout is actually pretty important, as the inductors in particular can generate a field and interfere with each other. So you'll see below that they are offset from each other and also mounted at 90deg as well. Other than that, its just lay out the components in a way that makes sense, and they are mounted down on a piece of plywood and each part held down by cable ties.

IMG_20200610_180906-01.jpeg (64.04 KiB) Viewed 1066 times

IMG_20200610_193310-01.jpeg (92.92 KiB) Viewed 1066 times

Nearly there now!

[tony]

I hope they travel well for comparative listening sessions?

[Fran]

If I can lift them!!