It’s been a while since I’ve been called young, thank you
I’m sure your skills will come back to you, stick at it! I wish I’d had some training beyond school now, I’m thinking of looking for evening courses round here in the new year.
The nice thing about doing this, or anything, as a hobby is there’s no pressure, you can take as long as you like and it doesn’t really matter if it goes wrong.
Whilst I’m really pleased with the way things have gone so far I’m under no illusions … ask me to make a dovetail joint
Since today was a balmy 10 degrees and I only needed two jumpers, I took myself out to the garage to start trying out an idea I had before Christmas.
I’ve made the cabinets from 18mm MDF which is less than the 20mm used in the plans. Troels said this is fine but to use the bitumen pads on the interior to help reduce resonances. Even so, it’s been niggling me, thicker panels would be better … so I’m going to look at cladding/laminating the sides and rear. The idea came from the new Purifi-6661 floor standers on his site. I think it will look nice as well.
Time to repurpose the test cabinet again! Need to remove all the paint from both sides… some of it was thick!
Yes they’ll be quite heavy with these panels, but should reduce cabinet colouration a lot. I don’t have to use 18mm, could get some 9 or 12mm and see how that works. I do like the heavier look though, the wide bevel on the front makes them look more solid I think.
More experimentation needed!
One downside is that I won’t be able to use my Gaia speaker feet with these, will surely be more than their 35kg max weight.
Great job Mark,I also took woodworking in high school,but ended up in the Mold making industry as a Mold maker/machinist. I appreciate all the great work and photos you have provided.
I used to own a pair of Peak Consult speakers,they have strips of 1" thick birch attached to the outside. Google their website,they have some photos of their factory/build process that may interest,or help you.
What I will say though, is that Troels voiced the speaker to sound right with the cabinet in the plans. Changing the cabinet can effect the sound, as you know, but it is unknown how this change will effect the end product. You’d assume it would change it for the better but that cannot be guaranteed. It is for this reason I’ve always stuck to the plans as closely as possible.
Another thing to think about is that those speakers are a nice nice size. Not too heavy and reasonably slim. Heavy speakers are a real pain to move around on your own. Trust me. Mine are a nightmare. I wish they were lighter!
Mould making sounds interesting, what was that for?
Thanks for the tip on the Peak Consult speakers, hadn’t heard of them before. They look pretty amazing, visually too, beautifully made. Their website is very interesting, I like the modular approach they take with some of their models. They do use some seriously thick cabinets, their huge floor standers are 3 inches of HDF with a further inch of solid wood and weigh 174 kg!
Yes that is a good point. I did have a discussion with Troels early on when I was having difficulty sourcing the thicknesses he uses. When I said I could easily get 18 or 25 mm MDF he said both were fine, bitumen with the thinner sheet and increase the width to account for the thicker sheet, which is in effect what I’m doing here.
An extra 18mm may be a bit over the top, I couldn’t get hold of any 12mm today to try. I think erring on the side of thicker should be better, but I will check and see what he says.
Just did a rough estimate and these panels would add around 8 kg to their weight.
Previously I estimated the cabinets at 28 to 30 kg with drivers (not crossovers). That was including the heavy bitumen pads, around 6 kg, which I wouldn’t need if I did this.
So actually the increase in weight shouldn’t be that bad.
Mostly we do work for the auto industry.
As far as the Peak Consult’s go,I had a pair of Incognito’s.Great speakers,mine weighed 165 pounds each.
It looks to me like they glue all the strips of birch together,then glue it to the Speaker as a panel. From your photos it looks like you are attaching one strip at a time.Not that I know which way is better,but just an observation.
Cheers
Ah, I started out in the auto industry, on the art side. I stayed in Windsor for a month or so back in the late eighties, travelling across the bridge to Detroit. I have vivid memories of that hotel’s external lift … was very glad there was a bar at the top!
Yes I’ll be doing it as a single sheet … Troels was positive about doing this so I reckon I’ll go ahead, just need to figure out the best way to cut it. Could do with a CNC machine
Yes he was very positive about it, should give quality and visual (imo) improvements. I don’t think the weight will be significantly higher since the bitumen pads won’t be needed. The width will increase to 256 mm which is still pretty slim in proportion to their height.
Really liking the look so far, need to get some paint on to get a better idea.
Almost tempting to add a cut line and paint the middle black with white sides …
Are you going to glue the side panels for your main speaker? I’d imagine that movement will eventually lead to a separation line in the filler and paint at the join.
Yes the side panels on the actual cabinets will be glued!
Just doing this so I have a better idea of what it will look like without the joins etc. If I have something else I’d like to try then I can just pull off these panels. Plus I like to try things out in advance, e.g. how to do those recessed bevels.
Or did you mean that when glued there might be a risk of the join cracking?
I think it should be fine? There’ll be a very large area that’ll be glued, it should be incredibly strong.
You have got me thinking though, one way to protect against any cracks would be to veneer these areas, would also deal with the end “grain” of the MDF which is a pain to seal, finish and paint.
