Making a Woofer

[jwatts]

I have been contemplating on the idea of making an actual driver. I have the necessary means to measure the drivers T/S parameters and I also have a small machine shop to fabricate components. I have looked on the Internet for manufactures who make actual components spider, cone, voice coil, etc. All the manufactures are Asian and would probably require an order of a thousand parts minimum. I hate to buy a thousand cones or baskets just to prototype one single driver. Could some one point me in the direction of a company I could just by single parts at.

[SmarmyDog]

A couple vendors I use are Krenz Electronics for voice coil stuff and NuWay for spiders, caps and cones.

Also, the American Loudspeaker Manufacturers Association (ALMA) has a great buyer's guide.

-Casey Walsh

[jwatts]

On a second note. Could you share and any good tipes or tricks that might help me in the construction of the driver. What type of adhesives should I use?

[Ken C]

I'm not much help Jason, but you've got a wicked name to start a driver business with...I say order a gross of driver parts and open your own shop. "Watts Audio" or something.

[jwatts]

Most people simply refer to me as Watts.

[jwatts]

Could some one recomend me a good basket and magnet manufacture?

[SmarmyDog]

Jeff Lee at China Magnet Source has always been reasonable. Can't help you with baskets.

-Casey Walsh

[Cal Weldon]

Watts,

Have you taken one apart and put it back together successfully? Or done a recone?

I've always thought that's a good starting point.

Cal

[Dingle]

Well these guys aren’t from the US but they do have a distro in California http://www.xiangyangusa.com/english/productshowroom.htm

E-mail Gorge bi he will get you squared away with a catalogue.

You probably already have this covered but this is the company that I use for glue http://regalplastics.com/

locktight makes a good structural adhesive called 727 and it seems to work the best (if you can get it) for magnet to top and back plate connections.
Just make sure that you get the primer and the glue if you don’t it will never work. Just ask one of the sales guys what the model number is. I don’t remember off the top of my head.

As far as spider to basket, coil to spider, coil to cone, cone to basket, and cone to dust cap connections I just ask them for a sample size of CA if you are only building a couple woofers and if you are impatient you can get an accelerator spray that will speed things up considerably.

If you have any other questions shoot me an email. I have lots of advise for people building woofers by hand.

P.S. That avatar is a 10” that I built about a year ago with parts from distributors listed in this thread.

[Grahamt]

Have you taken one apart and put it back together successfully?

They never go back together as easily as they come apart do they?

Good luck with the project Watts, keep us updated on the progress. I always wanted to make my own drivers too.