protective covers for drivers and ports

[sadams]

Looking for ideas of DIY "covers" to protect drivers on front of speaker boxes, as well as to keep "critters" from crawling into vents (these boxes will be in my basement/shop). Of course, I dont want to alter tuning of the ports or impede sound from the drivers. Was thinking of using screen or perhaps 1/4" gap hardware cloth. I will appreciate any suggestions.

[Jim Griffin]

I make grills for all of my DIY speakers using the aluminum window screen frame materials from home stores like Lowe's or Home Depot. My grills are rectangular and the frame pieces connect together with plastic corners that you will find where you buy the extruded frame material. The framing that I use is 0.75" wide and on the back side there is channel into which a spline and the screening material is rolled.

I use magnetic attraction to 'attach' the frame to the speaker enclosure. I glue 0.5" high energy magnets into the rear of the plastic corners and flush mount a set of 0.375" magnets (you have to observe polarity so that the magnets attract) into the surface of the enclosure. While I use grill cloth to wrap around the frame and roll spline into the groove on the back side of the frame, you can use plastic or metal screening as intended for windows.