Curved side 2.5 way - one down, two to go

[dhenryp]

I only have one of three (front HT speakers) almost done, but I can't wait to show off a picture. It's a curved side, 3 cubic foot box. It's got two 8" Sound Clearing House drivers and a Vifa soft cone tweeter. The finish is Ash veneer with Cherry Rosewood dye for color. The front, rear and stand are black lacquer with a clearcoat. The grill is 1/8" steel rod with very fine black mesh fabric.

How does it sound? I can't tell you because one of the many things on the long to-do list is complete an active fourth order LR crossover with three DIY LM3886 amps. I've got one set of electronics almost complete but still not quite ready to test out.Photo album with more pics

[dhenryp]

photo album with more pics

[MITMechE]

That looks great,

Ash with a rosewood analine dye? That looks a lot like what I'd like to do. I was thinking dyed maple, but maybe ash is the ticket.
Where'd you get the dye? Was it water based or oil based?

Care to go into more detail of the actual loudspeaker construction? I'm planning a curved loudspeaker project myself. I plan on building a skeleton first, then bending 1/4" mdf over the "ribs" to form the curved sides.

[dhenryp]

Take a look at this photo album:

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/bc/dhe...=/subs&.view=t

I used the same dye and technique described there as I used on my full range speaker. It's water based analine dye I got the dye here:
http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPR...ARTNUM=846-864

The dye is followed by a thin rubbed on coat of poly to seal the surface. Then I used pore filler, tinted black, to fill and accentuate the grain. Finally I put several coats of brushed on semigloss poly.

I did not take construction picture while building the speaker (I will for the next two). I used 3/4 inch MDF ribs over which I bent three layers of 1/4" plywood. Each layer was glue to the previous with standard yellow wood glue. The top and bottom are 1" MDF as is the front baffle. I also glued 1 X 3" poplar bracing for the top, bottom, and baffle.

I made just about every mistake in the book while building this speaker, which is why I completed one before starting the other two. I didn't want to make every mistake three times. The main mistake I made was not taking enough time to make sure that everything is flat and square. The sides must only curve in two dimensions. If the third dimension is not straight, it is nearly impossible to get the veneer on without big gaps.

[JohnSz]

WOW!! Beautiful cabinets! From the looks of them, I can see that they would provide some very interesting construction challenges. I had enough "fun" getting sonotube to conform to what I wanted, and glueing of layers. Your "fun" with the plywood layers must have been a factor of 10 higher!! Then add the tilt and multilayer base. As I first said "WOW!!!".