Messed up driver cutouts

[Vikash]

Argh! I hate these non-round drivers.

Spent the day trying to recess driver cutouts to flush-mount the drivers, but I've messed it up a bit - router went astray on me and now i've got obvious gaps in the corners.

The best I think of is to install the drivers and woodfill the gaps - but any magic fixes you have will be appreciated.

Hands up if you think you're worse than me at woodworking

[SY]

Hand up here.

More than once, I've ended up cutting a new front panel, bevelling the edges, then bolting it on top of the old one. The excuse I give is, "Oh, yeah, I planned it that way. Helps reduce front baffle vibrations and resonances."

[Vikash]

lol. well i've got a bag full of mdf saw dust. perhaps i should add some pva, fill the cutouts with the mix and try again...hehe.

[DrewP]

With drivers such as these (radiused corners and square sides) the only way to do it is to get a circle jig, fit stops to prevent you overshootig your corner arcs and then use a stopped fence to cut the sides straight. It's a pain in the butt.

Far easier but more expensive and kind of agianst DIY is to take the driver specs and cabinet front baffles to a local kitchemaker/joiners shop who has CNC milling equipment.

Other options are:

Cut the driver rebates as circles and infill with wood inserts then veneer aftrwards.

Flush mount the drivers (better for time alignment, worse for diffraction effects)

Get some sonically transparent bus visually opaque grille cloth.

My preference would be the veneer option. It looks good, is mechanically sound and easy to rout as well.

[Timn8ter]

Is it cheating real bad to use rope caulk? Maybe the gaps are too big for that though.

[Vikash]

the only way to do it is to get a circle jig, fit stops to prevent you overshootig your corner arcs and then use a stopped fence to cut the sides straight. It's a pain in the butt.

Unfortunately, being the idiot that i am, I went and cut the drivers holes before thinking about how I would make a recess, and was left with no pivot point. doh!

So I ended up making a template for the router to follow (using the method you described) which worked well for the first two holes, but then I got impatient and damaged my template a little...the rest is history.

[wintermute]

Hand up here too

Making the cabinets is the most scary part for me. I'm going to go to a woodworking place (where they have all the tools and skilled people you can ask questions). Hopefully that will help.

Regards,

Tony.

[octopus]

I have a similar problem with an overshot tweeter cutout. I have filled with wall filler - polyfill - and spray painted it.

Could you keep updating with images, I like seeing the 'progress'?

Where are you getting your components from? Wilmslow?

[planet10]

Originally posted by octopus
I have filled with wall filler - polyfill

Bondo works better...

dave

[Vikash]

keep updating with images

Will be putting the pics on my website soon. I'll keep you posted.

No, not from Wilmslow. I'm using the drivers from my old speakers.