I am using a circular saw and it's not cutting straight by 3mm and it is also very slow going through 3/4 BB. This makes gouges. These are the fostex fe127 and fe126 recomended enclosures. How many mmcan they be off? How much can I fill with wood glue? Or should I cut the peices again at home depot and just pay a cutting fee. I can't afford a table saw.
Try clamping a straight piece of wood (1x2" or wider) to act as a rail to keep the saw straight. Do a slow smooth, non-stop cut if possible.
Maybe a new blade. I think more teeth is better but small teeth give a cleaner cut, large teeth cut faster but leave a rough edge.
You should be able to get ±1mm this way with practice.
You can use a wood filler (I use DAP plastic wood) and lots of sanding to fix your current boards. Just glue it up clamped square.
Maybe a new blade. I think more teeth is better but small teeth give a cleaner cut, large teeth cut faster but leave a rough edge.
You should be able to get ±1mm this way with practice.
You can use a wood filler (I use DAP plastic wood) and lots of sanding to fix your current boards. Just glue it up clamped square.
That sounds like a good idea. You can get by with inaccurate cuts, but then you have to do a lot of sanding or planing. The more accurate you can get things the less problems you will have with making the final result look and work good. Remember that in most instances joints need to be air-tight seals. That probably means some hand-finishing work anyway. It's normal to sand identical dimensions together by clamping the components together. Like making identical ribs for a 'plane wing, if you know what I'm talking about. Basic craftsmanship. Cut oversize, painstakingly and laboriously remove the excess manually by very small degrees. You can, of course, always build things up again with scraps and glue, but this is ugly and better avoided.
You can get a very inexpensive power planer these days, and a reasonable quality router with an attachment to cut circles. You can bodge the circle cutter with a bit of ingenuity. The router will make rebated joints easy. These things generally connect to a domestic vacuum cleaner for dust removal. They will pay for themselves in no time.
w
I stopped trying to make accurate cuts a while ago...
Overhang, and clean it up with a router/flush trim bit combo. You'll never be able to duplicate <32nd of an inch finsh it gives you with just a saw.
Home Depot will not, (or I'd be extremely surprised) gaurentee accurate cuts. At least not to what you're looking for.
If you don't have access to a router, Iain's suggestion of clamping a guide for your circular saw is the best option for you.
Overhang, and clean it up with a router/flush trim bit combo. You'll never be able to duplicate <32nd of an inch finsh it gives you with just a saw.
Home Depot will not, (or I'd be extremely surprised) gaurentee accurate cuts. At least not to what you're looking for.
If you don't have access to a router, Iain's suggestion of clamping a guide for your circular saw is the best option for you.
Now, these are the two routes I've gone down.
DIY: circle saw or hand saw, lots of fitting filing, filling, sanding etc..
Get local carpenter shop with precision table saw to do the job: assemble in one afternoon and light filling & sanding: perfect.
Now, I'm well in to DIY, but I've found that the extra outlay for getting stuff properly cut becomes peanuts compared to the manhours I've spent just getting things reasonably straight and square.
I'd rather spend my effort on the finishing and other nice stuff!
My local shop cut to a tenth of a millimeter precision. I designed in a 1/10 mm glue clearance, and when I assembled there was virtually no step whatsoever between the boards. The day after, the glue had dried and i could get straight on with the nice stuff.
My last project, a horn loaded subwoofer, I decided to do on the cheap figuring I'd just get a cheap sheet of 19mm MDF and slice it up with the circle saw in no time. Yeah, right..
By the time I was half way through, it had just turned from an exiting DIY project to a chore I had to finish before spring came...Never again!!
DIY: circle saw or hand saw, lots of fitting filing, filling, sanding etc..
Get local carpenter shop with precision table saw to do the job: assemble in one afternoon and light filling & sanding: perfect.
Now, I'm well in to DIY, but I've found that the extra outlay for getting stuff properly cut becomes peanuts compared to the manhours I've spent just getting things reasonably straight and square.
I'd rather spend my effort on the finishing and other nice stuff!
My local shop cut to a tenth of a millimeter precision. I designed in a 1/10 mm glue clearance, and when I assembled there was virtually no step whatsoever between the boards. The day after, the glue had dried and i could get straight on with the nice stuff.
My last project, a horn loaded subwoofer, I decided to do on the cheap figuring I'd just get a cheap sheet of 19mm MDF and slice it up with the circle saw in no time. Yeah, right..
By the time I was half way through, it had just turned from an exiting DIY project to a chore I had to finish before spring came...Never again!!
Thanks. I actually started with a new blade, 140 teeth, and used a 1x2 as a guide. The blade went slowly and slowed to a stop at 10". When I went slower it cut even less acurately. I just got back from The House Of Hardwoods an they will cut it within 1/32 at 90$ an hour. Totaly worth it. I get my BB from them for $65 a sheet! I'm just going to let them cut me from now on.
So for 2 of their man hours, you can have a new router that will give you the fit finsh you can't match with saw cuts. Let alone extensive sanding that will more than likely take away your 90degree corners. You can even forget about all the other advantages/convenience having a router will give you for baffle work, eg; driver cut outs, and baffle edge roundovers/chamfers.
You don't even have to worry about biscuits or dowels for accurate clamping Throw it together, and clean it up afterward.
I don't mean to hammer the option to death, but it's such a far superior method to precision cuts and fighting with clamping. I'm suprised that I'm the only one promoting it.
depends how many you're doing. For a pair of speakers that'll keep you busy for a couple of years, having a pro cut the boards is about the same as investing in the tools. If you're gonna make them for your friends then absolutely, buy the tools and practice using them.
Just because it's DIY doesn't mean you have to do it ALL yourself
Just because it's DIY doesn't mean you have to do it ALL yourself
It depends on what your finish will be.
I cover mine in thin carpet so that hides quite big discrepences !
I use a jig saw and just go carefully and can usually get within a few mm of the lines.
I also use thick bracing so that seals the cabinet quite well.
You're pushing the saw in directions other than the line of the guide (and the plane of the blade). When the blade starts cutting towards the guide, it jams. It's hard to do good long cuts on a circular saw, that's why they make table saws. But it doesn't have to be that way. I've see professional carpenters cut up ply and MDF better than I can on my table. It's all about making the blade teeth cut in the plane of the blade.
You're next speaker's will be better!
P.S. when I hear the saw motor loading up due to wrist swerve, I pull back a bit and re-establish the line of the cut. You need to keep the saw flat on the job too.
Actually, I have a question to the carpenters out there. Is it better to have the blade fully lowered as if you were cutting 1"+ material? Seems like the blade is cutting wood at 90° in that set up vs only having the blade just break through the thickness of the wood where the angle of cut is much shallower and there is more wood in contact with the blade (more resistance?)
What's the right way to cut sheet?
What's the right way to cut sheet?
Absolutely agreed on the router cuts which also don't raise any splinters on veneered plywood. Other point is if you _do_ have a table saw, keep it clean and waxed so the work doesn't stick / hang on the table or the fences. Table extensions can help a lot. I have a 2' x 4' fold down particle board table extension on my Sears 10" saw. I can manage < 1/32" acuracy on 4' x 4' plywood pieces with nobody helping. I learned a lot watching Norm Abrams on PBS.
G²
You guys are awesome! Thank you for all your help! Yes I am making two pairs. Actually the fe126 are the recomended BR not the double BR and the fe127 are the mfonkens which I am very excited about. The finish will be ghetto. My friends and I will put stickers and permanent marker on them and Clear PU over to seal it. Each speaker will have a small fm receiver, TA2020 amp, and a lithium ion 14.7v 3aH battery, attached to the outside in polycarbonate enclosure. Each unit will then be wrappedin EVA foam and strapped to the back of a bike. One bike has an iPod and radio transmitter. So it's a PA for bike rides. Next I am making a three way system to reach 115 db on 3 bikes. Eminence delta Or 1550 woofer in it's own enclosure, audax PR170M0 in the smallest appropriate box with a T90A strapped on top. I'm in design stage. Illstart a thread on this later. I'm thiniking of 41hz Amp9 kit for 50-100w at 12-24v. The supertweeters get 115db with only 8w from a TA2020. The subs and mids each need only 32w to reach that but I'll have 50 anyway.
Anyway I could realy use a nice router set up but At the House of Hardwood they can cut an 8'x4 sheet into speakers in 10 min! That's $15. Then they can router right there or I can rent a router for $24 a day. This will have to do for a while. Thx again
The mFonken performs well. The FE126 isn't really well suited to a BR box. You will finfd the bass sadly lacking and start thinking about stuffing the port and doing a FAST with a big woofer.
dave
Does that include the recomended BR that comes with the drivers from fostex?I prefer tomake mfonkens with the 126 but I have no design or software to do that. Any suggestions on how to make mfonkens out of fe126es?
I mean we like bass but remember these do have to fit on a bicycle rack.
Hi Iain, you lower the blade so it is about about 1/4" beyond the depth of your cut. Using a sawboard or straight edge really cuts down on the binding. Add one to the thin kerf camp.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.