Mounting a driver on a curved baffle...

[The Paulinator]

I am making some wall-mount speakers using half-pipes of PVC, what is a good simple technique for mounting the flat driver frame on a curved baffle?

 

[sreten]

A simple way ?

As far as I know there is no 'simple' way of doing this.

It depends on the size of the drivers relative to the radius and
thickness of the pipe, and whether the drivers sit under the
outside curve of the pipe, or subbaffle is used in front of this
surface.

/sreten.

 

[roddyama]

I am making some wall-mount speakers using half-pipes of PVC, what is a good simple technique for mounting the flat driver frame on a curved baffle?

What is the diameter of the PVC and what is the diameter of the driver?

 

[richwalters]

A pity you are using wood as you can"cut and shut" creating a jagged curve then glue all thenwhen set smooth all down using a bastard or a sander. Either way seems laborious and you need a fair thinkness of wood to do it and all depends on the circumference and size of drivers used. Elliptical drivers ?

rich

 

[Bose(o)]

Wouldn't necessarily be an easy way, though, it would work. You could use fibre glass, and it would mould to the curvature that you'd like.

 

[moses]

I'd be easy enough to cut something out on a band-saw, but it all really depends on what you want.

 

[The Paulinator]

The pipe is 4 1/2" PVC, a quarter-inch thick. The drivers are 3" Tang Band 371's. I really want to mount them as flush as ****ible, if it IS possible. I realize I may have to have them a bit raised on a small baffle of some sort, but I still am hoping to find an easy solution, if available.

 

[The Paulinator]

I know there is a company that makes heavy cardboard pipes for speaker building, I wonder what they have in mind for people that buy their tubes.

 

[PeteMcK]

baffle

I had a go at this on some 100mm pipe;
I mounted the drivers on a flat baffle, glued some foam around the edges of the baffle, cut out a piece of the pipe to match the baffle, then screwed the flat baffle to the pipe.

With small drivers, you may be able to cut out an appropriately shaped mounting 'ring' from solid foam (the sort they use to line road cases etc); when the driver is screwed to the pipe there should be enough pressure to prevent any air leaks...???

cheers,
Pete McK

 

[The Paulinator]

I like that idea, except I might have the screws go through some little plastic or wooden cylinders before they go through the PVC, just so they are mounted on something solid. I worry that if I had too much foam between the frame and the PVC, I might have problems with an unstable mounting surface.

 

[roddyama]

Get a PVC "T" and cut the "T" off as close to the pipe as possible. This will provide the flat surface on which to mount your driver. If you feel that the straight "T" is too large of a flat surface, get a reducing "T" (4" straight to 3" "T"). That will give you a 3-1/2" diameter "baffle" surface.

 

[StereoG]

The pipe is 4 1/2" PVC, a quarter-inch thick. The drivers are 3"

Here's an idea.
Use a ~3" piece of tubing for a connecting piece (ie the driver to be mounted on its end)

Use a program like tubemiter or winmiter to make a template for the notch on the 3" pipe, cut it out, and mark & cut the hole on the 4 1/2" pipe. Cut the 3" pipe as short as you dare afterwards, ie to a minimum.
Both are windows programs. tubemiter looks slightly more basic in its interface, but does the same job.

tubemiter.exe (and tubemit3.txt )
http://www.ihpva.org/tools/ (near bottom of page)

winmiter.zip
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/winmiter.html

 

[Da5id4Vz]

Tubemiter Kewl!

I wonder if it works on valves too?

 

[The Paulinator]

Get a PVC "T" and cut the "T" off as close to the pipe as possible. This will provide the flat surface on which to mount your driver. If you feel that the straight "T" is too large of a flat surface, get a reducing "T" (4" straight to 3" "T"). That will give you a 3-1/2" diameter "baffle" surface.

Wow, that's some good thinking. That might be the best way to go. My only concern is that most 'T's have larger ends to act as female receptacles for other pipes, so I'll have to figure a way to disguise or get rid of that. Or if I can find one that is long enough that I can cut the larger ends off and still have enough pipe for a decent sized enclosure, that might work.

Good idea.