Well slowly but surely, I've been doing an average of 10 layers a day this week and I'll have this phase of the project done by Friday. I scrapped 3 layers in the first 10 I did, scrapped 2 more in the next 15 but haven't scrapped any since so I should be about 5-7 scrapped by the time I'm done. And by scrapped I'm talking about anything with a chip that would require any wood filler (being very picky).
Here are all the finished layers so far
And some close up shots
Thanks!
Javad
Here are all the finished layers so far
And some close up shots
Thanks!
Javad
Ok, as promised, all layers compete! (queue angels singing!)
I'll end up with 42 air volume holding layers, one too layer, and 2 bottom layers, one containing a trap door.
The top will be solid mahogany, I did a glue up and to make one bigger piece
After drying I ran it through the sander to make it smooth on both sides, then ran it through the template process, but only for the outside.
Roughed out
And routered
Dowel reference holes only 1/4" deep
The top will feature a CLD treatment and will also tie into internal bracing.
The bottom is 2 layers, one layer will hold the captive nuts, the very bottom layer will hold the trap door and also be a decorative ring to hide the door.
Did a glue up for the nutsert flange, before sanding
After sanding
After templating
Bottom layer done and mocked up
And with door, I'll flush mount Allen screws in that
More to come!
Javad
I'll end up with 42 air volume holding layers, one too layer, and 2 bottom layers, one containing a trap door.
The top will be solid mahogany, I did a glue up and to make one bigger piece
After drying I ran it through the sander to make it smooth on both sides, then ran it through the template process, but only for the outside.
Roughed out
And routered
Dowel reference holes only 1/4" deep
The top will feature a CLD treatment and will also tie into internal bracing.
The bottom is 2 layers, one layer will hold the captive nuts, the very bottom layer will hold the trap door and also be a decorative ring to hide the door.
Did a glue up for the nutsert flange, before sanding
After sanding
After templating
Bottom layer done and mocked up
And with door, I'll flush mount Allen screws in that
More to come!
Javad
Translam possibilities
Shadzi:
Beautiful work! I like how you alternated the wood, and color. Poplar is a nice material to work with, and in my experience, tends to stay pretty true and not change its' dimensions too much. (Desirable characteristics for your project)
I have a couple of thoughts about your project, just wanted to see if you had considered them, and if so, what you think.
1. Did you think about gluing up the original long boards, and alternating the species in a long plank form? For example, say you got 8' long boards, and your speaker is 16" wide: if you glued long boards up a bit wider than the speaker, you could cut out "L" shape pieces, nested inside each other. That would allow you to cut 2 sides on each pass, and do half as much corner joining/gluing.
2. Have you tried using biscuits in the corners for a bit more strength, and to help align pieces? Your template looks really thorough and well-thought out, so maybe this wouldn't make much difference.
3. When I've thought about how I would build something similar, my thought was to make a jig to form the outside to keep the dimensions accurate, but not to make the inside consistent. I've even thought about make small "wavy" routed pieces and gluing them on randomly in an attempt to diffuse any standing waves.
4. Are you happy with your Jet sander? I've owned Jet moulder/planers, and other pieces, and am thinking about one of their knee mills right now. I could also use a drum sander.
I'm very interested to see how your project comes out, and what your experience is with how much movement you see in the wood later on. In todays' world, we tend to live in homes with a controlled temperature, and where the humidity doesn't vary as much as it did long ago. Never-the-less, I've seen my mahogany, oak, walnut, rosewood and other woods in my antiques expand and contract quite a bit, to my frustration.
Best of luck with the rest of this project!
Shadzi:
Beautiful work! I like how you alternated the wood, and color. Poplar is a nice material to work with, and in my experience, tends to stay pretty true and not change its' dimensions too much. (Desirable characteristics for your project)
I have a couple of thoughts about your project, just wanted to see if you had considered them, and if so, what you think.
1. Did you think about gluing up the original long boards, and alternating the species in a long plank form? For example, say you got 8' long boards, and your speaker is 16" wide: if you glued long boards up a bit wider than the speaker, you could cut out "L" shape pieces, nested inside each other. That would allow you to cut 2 sides on each pass, and do half as much corner joining/gluing.
2. Have you tried using biscuits in the corners for a bit more strength, and to help align pieces? Your template looks really thorough and well-thought out, so maybe this wouldn't make much difference.
3. When I've thought about how I would build something similar, my thought was to make a jig to form the outside to keep the dimensions accurate, but not to make the inside consistent. I've even thought about make small "wavy" routed pieces and gluing them on randomly in an attempt to diffuse any standing waves.
4. Are you happy with your Jet sander? I've owned Jet moulder/planers, and other pieces, and am thinking about one of their knee mills right now. I could also use a drum sander.
I'm very interested to see how your project comes out, and what your experience is with how much movement you see in the wood later on. In todays' world, we tend to live in homes with a controlled temperature, and where the humidity doesn't vary as much as it did long ago. Never-the-less, I've seen my mahogany, oak, walnut, rosewood and other woods in my antiques expand and contract quite a bit, to my frustration.
Best of luck with the rest of this project!
Thanks for the thoughtful comments! See below...
You know, I thought about many different ways to construct these including this concept, its something I would definitely consider with MDF or Plywood, but these hardwoods are very grainy and don't like having a router bit make a full pass through them. I also really liked the contrasting dark and light wood as well as the lattice going up the sides, so I ran with that concept. The idea you outline would be really nice to do in a CNC where cutting out interlocking shapes out of one larger board is super easy
I did consider that or dowels but the added work would have been tremendous and they really didn't need it, they only needed to withstand the template process and I didn't have even one break during that. I did however drop one on a corner and it shattered, so there was that, but once these are glued together they will create a very strong assembly.
Yes adding on acoustic diffusers and not routing the inside would definitely be easier, since I was already using an accurate template I ran with this concept, figure routing each inside took about 3 minutes per layer or about 4 hours total, some people watch 4 hours of TV a day, even more, I got to build something cool with the time so I went that way 😎
So far YES, I LOVE it, figure I've got about 10 hours using it so far, the only remote problem I had was that it took me a few tries to figure out the sandpaper application. Turns out if you wind it too tight and close to itself it wants to ride up on itself, leaving about 1/32" gap as you roll it was key and has prevented that issue from happening anymore. I also wish it had a DRO (digital read out), that's the only think it's missing, the ruler is accurate enough, just have to be careful you don't mis-read it and start too think, the sander lets you know right away. It works well to take off about 1/64" per pass max, any more than that and it stresses out...which is more than fine with me.
Yes I'm a little apprehensive about that but feel quite confident that the construction techniques I'm using will prevent any major issues. I've done a few translam builds this past year, and a few others where I layered hardwood and haven't had any issues other than a little noticeable creep of the wood, like where a seam was perfectly smooth before finish a few months later it's proud maybe 1/200th an inch. I imagine some of that will happen with this build, which I'm fine with, it is wood, once a natural living material.
Thanks! And please let me know if you have any other thoughts along the way,
Javad
You know, I thought about many different ways to construct these including this concept, its something I would definitely consider with MDF or Plywood, but these hardwoods are very grainy and don't like having a router bit make a full pass through them. I also really liked the contrasting dark and light wood as well as the lattice going up the sides, so I ran with that concept. The idea you outline would be really nice to do in a CNC where cutting out interlocking shapes out of one larger board is super easy
I did consider that or dowels but the added work would have been tremendous and they really didn't need it, they only needed to withstand the template process and I didn't have even one break during that. I did however drop one on a corner and it shattered, so there was that, but once these are glued together they will create a very strong assembly.
Yes adding on acoustic diffusers and not routing the inside would definitely be easier, since I was already using an accurate template I ran with this concept, figure routing each inside took about 3 minutes per layer or about 4 hours total, some people watch 4 hours of TV a day, even more, I got to build something cool with the time so I went that way 😎
So far YES, I LOVE it, figure I've got about 10 hours using it so far, the only remote problem I had was that it took me a few tries to figure out the sandpaper application. Turns out if you wind it too tight and close to itself it wants to ride up on itself, leaving about 1/32" gap as you roll it was key and has prevented that issue from happening anymore. I also wish it had a DRO (digital read out), that's the only think it's missing, the ruler is accurate enough, just have to be careful you don't mis-read it and start too think, the sander lets you know right away. It works well to take off about 1/64" per pass max, any more than that and it stresses out...which is more than fine with me.
Yes I'm a little apprehensive about that but feel quite confident that the construction techniques I'm using will prevent any major issues. I've done a few translam builds this past year, and a few others where I layered hardwood and haven't had any issues other than a little noticeable creep of the wood, like where a seam was perfectly smooth before finish a few months later it's proud maybe 1/200th an inch. I imagine some of that will happen with this build, which I'm fine with, it is wood, once a natural living material.
Thanks! And please let me know if you have any other thoughts along the way,
Javad
translam
Shadzi:
Thanks for the reply. It occured to me after I sent the first response that your corner joints will be reinforced on each side by the other layers.
Sounds like the sander is working well for you. On my jet moulder I've thought of making a wide wavey knife and then mould an entire board that could be glued inside a regular box to give it the irregular surface you desire. Fast and easy.
I totally agree with the time thing. It is fun working on projects. If you had to put everything into dollars and cents you might as well just go buy a speaker and save time for your paying job.
Keep up the good work!
Shadzi:
Thanks for the reply. It occured to me after I sent the first response that your corner joints will be reinforced on each side by the other layers.
Sounds like the sander is working well for you. On my jet moulder I've thought of making a wide wavey knife and then mould an entire board that could be glued inside a regular box to give it the irregular surface you desire. Fast and easy.
I totally agree with the time thing. It is fun working on projects. If you had to put everything into dollars and cents you might as well just go buy a speaker and save time for your paying job.
Keep up the good work!
I'm at the point where I'll start assembling layers together permanently, the key here will be adding in my bracing layers making assembly order of operations critical.
One thing that needed to be done was to flush the flat port mounting area, when I routered these layers I didn't have a template to lock in the flat to the other layers, but figured I could just flush them to the shallowest layer later on.
Kevin the extra dowel holes was a great call, glad I have them, the layer to layer alignment goes from ok to excellent once all 8 dowels are installed.
More to come!
Javad
One thing that needed to be done was to flush the flat port mounting area, when I routered these layers I didn't have a template to lock in the flat to the other layers, but figured I could just flush them to the shallowest layer later on.
Kevin the extra dowel holes was a great call, glad I have them, the layer to layer alignment goes from ok to excellent once all 8 dowels are installed.
More to come!
Javad
I'm at the point where I'll start assembling layers together permanently, the key here will be adding in my bracing layers making assembly order of operations critical.
One thing that needed to be done was to flush the flat port mounting area, when I routered these layers I didn't have a template to lock in the flat to the other layers, but figured I could just flush them to the shallowest layer later on.
The extra dowel holes in the template was a great call, glad I have them, the layer to layer alignment goes from ok to excellent once all 8 dowels are installed.
More to come!
Javad
Got the final template cut on the CNC, this locates all the drivers, sets their flush mount, and additional templates go inside this to accurately cut the driver mounting holes as well as give the router a stable base:
Did the first glueups tonight, coming along well!
The layers are aligned with 8 dowel pins per layer, each pin is about .7" long as to not bind up between layers. Since I'll need over 700 of these dowels, I had to come up with a fast and accurate way to cut them.
I started with 10 dowels taped together at a time, subsequent bundles are 20 at a time.
Then it's a matter of giving the cut bundles to my 5 yr old daughter who gleefully unwraps them for me
Dowels are set to the right depth with this jig
First layer ready to go, this is the bottom most layer in the enclosure not including the bottom plate and the trap door layers. This and the next 5 layers will house the ports
Clamped up (note top and bottom pieces are sacrificial clamping fixtures which were 2 reject layers)
And glue wiped away
Clamps removed after setting up for 45 mins
Very nice alignment
The layers are aligned with 8 dowel pins per layer, each pin is about .7" long as to not bind up between layers. Since I'll need over 700 of these dowels, I had to come up with a fast and accurate way to cut them.
I started with 10 dowels taped together at a time, subsequent bundles are 20 at a time.
Then it's a matter of giving the cut bundles to my 5 yr old daughter who gleefully unwraps them for me
Dowels are set to the right depth with this jig
First layer ready to go, this is the bottom most layer in the enclosure not including the bottom plate and the trap door layers. This and the next 5 layers will house the ports
Clamped up (note top and bottom pieces are sacrificial clamping fixtures which were 2 reject layers)
And glue wiped away
Clamps removed after setting up for 45 mins
Very nice alignment
The first "braced module" of layers will be 12 layers, this module will house the horn and the 12th layer from the top will contain the first bracing layer. I am glueing up both modules in 6 layers sub-modules, then gluing those together to make the 1 12 layer module.
Here one 6-layer sub-module going together, with the gluing and dowel placement and clamping each 6 layer sub-module takes about 15-20 minutes
Nice glue squeeze out, what I like to see
Tower fully layered up and ready to start assembly, I moved some layers around from this to break up the color distribution
And approx where drivers will go
Driver test fit, 1/32" clearance between frame and template
Here one 6-layer sub-module going together, with the gluing and dowel placement and clamping each 6 layer sub-module takes about 15-20 minutes
Nice glue squeeze out, what I like to see
Tower fully layered up and ready to start assembly, I moved some layers around from this to break up the color distribution
And approx where drivers will go
Driver test fit, 1/32" clearance between frame and template
The first "braced module" of layers will be 12 layers, this module will house the horn and the 12th layer from the top will contain the first bracing layer. I am glueing up both modules in 6 layers sub-modules, then gluing those together to make the 1 12 layer module.
Here one 6-layer sub-module going together, with the gluing and dowel placement and clamping each 6 layer sub-module takes about 15-20 minutes
You are certainly putting a lot of effort into this cabinet, I hope it rewards you 🙂
Nice little glue spreader, never seen one like that before do they have a name or brand?
Hmmm...kind of looks like he is an addict - what else can you expect? 😀
Javad, great work as usual! 🙂
The work in itself is rewarding, problems and solutions fascinate me, however I have no doubt the cabinet will be stunning when finished =)
Yes check Rockler, nice little kit.
Javad
Top two sub-modules are finished, the 7-12 module will get a brace, keeping everything labeled and organized is critical
Work on the bracing is coming along nicely. The way I designed the driver spacing, I am able to put bracing layers all in one style of layer, this means I'll need 3 braces per cabinet and I can make a template to easily and accurately router all 6 pieces. Bracing layers are 3/4" 7 layer poplar plywood.
Initially I was able to trace the ID profile right off the template
With template done and fit, it's a quick rough cut on subsequent layers then off to the router table
Test fit
Since I'm using screws to hold to the template I finished the holes off with a 1" F-bit and gave things a nice round over
A 1.5" dowel will run through the center holes and tie all bracing layers together as well as the top and bottom of the cabinet.
Next step is to continue assembling the cabinet in 6 layer sub-modules.
Thanks!
Javad
Work on the bracing is coming along nicely. The way I designed the driver spacing, I am able to put bracing layers all in one style of layer, this means I'll need 3 braces per cabinet and I can make a template to easily and accurately router all 6 pieces. Bracing layers are 3/4" 7 layer poplar plywood.
Initially I was able to trace the ID profile right off the template
With template done and fit, it's a quick rough cut on subsequent layers then off to the router table
Test fit
Since I'm using screws to hold to the template I finished the holes off with a 1" F-bit and gave things a nice round over
A 1.5" dowel will run through the center holes and tie all bracing layers together as well as the top and bottom of the cabinet.
Next step is to continue assembling the cabinet in 6 layer sub-modules.
Thanks!
Javad
Made some great progress today, things are really coming together (literally)
I now have all 6-layer sub-modules glued up, that means I have 7 per cabinet, and will glue up all 7 modules at the same time. The reason for this is that the 6-layer module remains somewhat flexible and compliant, more layers that that becomes stiffer and the last thing I want are gaps between layers.
So now onto some detail work, the port module. Because I'm crazy and want to be able to remove the ports to ease tuning, I am making an easy to remove module, this also gives me access to the inside of the enclosure through the trap door should I ever need it.
See steps below, should be self explanatory:
Dowels will locate the port module so the ports line up accurately, two large screws will hold the mode to the enclosure
Dowels glued into the port module base only
Time to dry
More to come!
Javad
I now have all 6-layer sub-modules glued up, that means I have 7 per cabinet, and will glue up all 7 modules at the same time. The reason for this is that the 6-layer module remains somewhat flexible and compliant, more layers that that becomes stiffer and the last thing I want are gaps between layers.
So now onto some detail work, the port module. Because I'm crazy and want to be able to remove the ports to ease tuning, I am making an easy to remove module, this also gives me access to the inside of the enclosure through the trap door should I ever need it.
See steps below, should be self explanatory:
Dowels will locate the port module so the ports line up accurately, two large screws will hold the mode to the enclosure
Dowels glued into the port module base only
Time to dry
More to come!
Javad
Finished all the braces this morning, there will be a brace like this every 12 layers per enclosure, I may add some smaller braces between these once the enclosure is assembled but I'll decide that when I'm there.
Neat thing about doing everything template based like I have, all parts are identical, all 6 braces fit perfectly in any layer they're put in, nothing needs to be customized to fit.
All fabricated pieces so far
Neat thing about doing everything template based like I have, all parts are identical, all 6 braces fit perfectly in any layer they're put in, nothing needs to be customized to fit.
All fabricated pieces so far
Little update then not much for a week as I'll be on a business trip.
The top panel of the enclosure will have CLD to minimize any resonances from that panel, in order to do that I'll be bonding this 1/4" Baltic birch to a sheet of sorbothane, which will be sandwiched between the BB and the solid Mahogany top panel.
I cut the BB 1/4" smaller than the ID of the top layer which it will be sitting in, to do that I used the alum template and a templating jig on my router
And this is what I'll be doing for feet, solid CNC alum with 2" diameter sorbothane rubber feet, feet will be threaded to allow height adjustment or tilting, the aluminum will have a special anodizing process that looks sort of like polished steel.
Thanks!
Javad
The top panel of the enclosure will have CLD to minimize any resonances from that panel, in order to do that I'll be bonding this 1/4" Baltic birch to a sheet of sorbothane, which will be sandwiched between the BB and the solid Mahogany top panel.
I cut the BB 1/4" smaller than the ID of the top layer which it will be sitting in, to do that I used the alum template and a templating jig on my router
And this is what I'll be doing for feet, solid CNC alum with 2" diameter sorbothane rubber feet, feet will be threaded to allow height adjustment or tilting, the aluminum will have a special anodizing process that looks sort of like polished steel.
Thanks!
Javad
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