Quite inventive. Maybe they’ll give you a tour if you’re near Salisbury.
Contact us at our headquarters in Salisbury, UK | MPOWER Tools Ltd
Fabulous folks to deal with. I tried to buy some 12mm rails for my Hitachi TR12 because they weren’t supplied in the box. The documentation said the rails were sold separately but when I contacted them they were quite apologetic and said they had sold through existing stock and 12mm rails were no longer offered. They dropped the 12mm rails because the supplied 10mm rails worked just fine and they saw no reason to continue them. They assured me they would correct the documentation at the next printing cycle. Again, fabulous customer support from my perspective and a great tool.
Thanks! It's out of stock though. However I found the same thing on the brittish Amazon for about the same price as the Swedish website. I'll definitely have a closer look at that product (and double check to make sure it's compatible with dad's Skil router).
A while ago my dad helped me cut the baffles for me.
He also let me borrow his router so I could finish the rest on the baffles. I have never used one before so I figured I'd try on some scrap wood first. I was planning to make a circle jig but the router base plate is too big for the ~62mm radius circle I need so I had to think of something else. I realised that by using one of the holes in the base plate I should be able to make such a circle anyways. It took me a couple of tries with different sized bolts but with a 4mm bolt in a 8mm hole and using the big router bit I was able to get a pretty good sized circle.
This is with the driver pushed all the way to the right. The circle is a little too big but not by much.
How do you guys do it when you need to make a circle that smaller than your router base plate? Is there any other clever way of doing it? For the inner circle that goes all the way through the board I used another hole in the base plate that's close to the center. Turned out it was just the right radius for the cutout.
Have a look for adjustable router circle jigs. For small circles, my smaller jig has rebates on both faces. Allows a large washer with a countersink machine screw to sit below the surface. Guide pin is offset a way so it can sit under the router base for quite small circles.
What is special about CSS EL70?
A few years ago I found a reference on the forum about how capable are the CSS EL70 in the low frequency department... however I couldn't find it again... the purpose was to find out more about the "anomaly" - is it really that good with lows to call it an anomaly? Why would that be so? there are other drivers from the same family (MarkAudio) - is this somehow much better for bass? Is it something to do with a special ratio between parameters... for example Fs / Qts?
A few years ago I found a reference on the forum about how capable are the CSS EL70 in the low frequency department... however I couldn't find it again... the purpose was to find out more about the "anomaly" - is it really that good with lows to call it an anomaly? Why would that be so? there are other drivers from the same family (MarkAudio) - is this somehow much better for bass? Is it something to do with a special ratio between parameters... for example Fs / Qts?
I cannot say why they are surprisingly capable in the lower frequencies but I can say that it depends a lot on the cabinet. I get a little lost with the Planet10 cabinet names but I have built two different ones. The first one was a pretty basic "full-sized" Mar-Kel70 in 12mm particle board. They played bass surprisingly well considering it is only a 4" driver. Now I have the same drivers in a pair with similar exterior size as the first ones but they get narrower towards the back and they are made from 18mm birch ply so the internal volume is a lot less than before and so they play less bass too.
But then again, it's not a magic driver. There's no replacement for displacement and there's not a lot of displacement going on with a 4" driver. It's just the laws of physics.
I know you can't trick the laws of physics, but I have never heard such claims about related Mark Audio drivers so I presumed that somehow the CSS EL70 was better for lows than an already well performing Mark Audio 4 incher, and I was trying to determine if this was an "exception from the rule" driver... let me give you an example of what I mean - in the world of photography the Sony RX100 (in the original incarnation from 2012, but not just) was and still is an exception from the rule, a particularly small and lightweight camera made to rival the photograph quality of larger cameras, with very good dynamic range (=real performance) for the sensor size/megapixel count. The camera really is that good, not just in advertising and on paper. There are always products that are better than you would think, but they are the exception. For the connoisseur this is the one you want, the rest of products are for the masses. My question was investigating a rumored "exception from the rule" driver.
No, but you sure can 'trick' one's ears! 
Haven't kept up with the myriad MA driver variations, but my EL70s have just the right amount of built-in BSC 'bump' up in the mids where 'fullness'/'mud'/'honk' resides, slowly rolling off to Fs, so get the tuning dialed in with the room and you get what some locals at an Atlanta DIY Meet referred as a 'toe tappin' [dance party] performance.
I cheated a bit though by loading them into some then unfinished super hard, shaved plank MLTLs made for tweaked RS 40-1354 'FR' drivers to get a bit of added mid-bass, lower mids 'richness', so technically more a musical instrument than HIFI reproducer: http://myhifisite.50megs.com/gm/tower.html
Basically, the EL70 gave me the basics for ~reproducing the mids from ~700 Hz on down of the original Lansing Iconic studio monitor/electric bass guitar MI speaker that lived on well into the '70s as the Altec Valencia [1936 measurement IIRC]: Valencia FR | GM210 | Flickr
Note the similarity from ~700 Hz on down to the Iconic's broadband reflex vent tuning: http://rutcho.com/speaker_drivers/css_el70_en/resources/css_el70_datasheet.pdf
GM
Haven't kept up with the myriad MA driver variations, but my EL70s have just the right amount of built-in BSC 'bump' up in the mids where 'fullness'/'mud'/'honk' resides, slowly rolling off to Fs, so get the tuning dialed in with the room and you get what some locals at an Atlanta DIY Meet referred as a 'toe tappin' [dance party] performance.
I cheated a bit though by loading them into some then unfinished super hard, shaved plank MLTLs made for tweaked RS 40-1354 'FR' drivers to get a bit of added mid-bass, lower mids 'richness', so technically more a musical instrument than HIFI reproducer: http://myhifisite.50megs.com/gm/tower.html
Basically, the EL70 gave me the basics for ~reproducing the mids from ~700 Hz on down of the original Lansing Iconic studio monitor/electric bass guitar MI speaker that lived on well into the '70s as the Altec Valencia [1936 measurement IIRC]: Valencia FR | GM210 | Flickr
Note the similarity from ~700 Hz on down to the Iconic's broadband reflex vent tuning: http://rutcho.com/speaker_drivers/css_el70_en/resources/css_el70_datasheet.pdf
GM
I am still struggling with routing the baffles. I don't think I will be able to do it with the router I have now since the base plate is in the way and not removable and there is no way I can make a jig that works either since the hole would have to be where the base plate is.
This had me looking at buying my own router instead and return this one to dad. What routers do you guys use for speaker building? Been looking at the Bosch POF 1400 ACE, Bosch GKF 600 and Makita RT0700C. Does anybody have experience with using any of these?
This had me looking at buying my own router instead and return this one to dad. What routers do you guys use for speaker building? Been looking at the Bosch POF 1400 ACE, Bosch GKF 600 and Makita RT0700C. Does anybody have experience with using any of these?
I have an older Hitachi TR12 but that thing is a beast at 3HP and no soft start option (I do have a router speed control hooked to it). It really should be dedicated to a router table instead of handheld duty. Were I in the market I would be looking at offerings from Makita, Porter Cable, and DeWalt. Even though PC and DW are both owned by Stanley Black+Decker they’ve been allowed to develop their product lines independently of each other.
A 1-1/4 HP unit will allow you to rout the baffle holes. If you step up to a 2-1/4 HP unit it will allow for more aggressive work like routing dadoes, dovetails, and doing large radius roundover work. The best bang-for-buck options tend to be the kits that include both fixed and plunge bases. I prefer the routers that will handle 1/2” shank bits. Some of the lower powered units will only accommodate 1/4” shanks and that limits the cutting ability, requiring you to make more (shallower) passes for the same amount of work that a more powerful unit with a 1/2” shank bit could do in less time.
I would really like to have the Triton MOF001 2-1/4 HP unit but alas, it won’t accommodate my M-Power CRB7 router jig.
A 1-1/4 HP unit will allow you to rout the baffle holes. If you step up to a 2-1/4 HP unit it will allow for more aggressive work like routing dadoes, dovetails, and doing large radius roundover work. The best bang-for-buck options tend to be the kits that include both fixed and plunge bases. I prefer the routers that will handle 1/2” shank bits. Some of the lower powered units will only accommodate 1/4” shanks and that limits the cutting ability, requiring you to make more (shallower) passes for the same amount of work that a more powerful unit with a 1/2” shank bit could do in less time.
I would really like to have the Triton MOF001 2-1/4 HP unit but alas, it won’t accommodate my M-Power CRB7 router jig.
Alright, thanks for the advice!
I think I could go with a "weaker" unit since I only need it to rout baffle holes. Don't really think I will be doing any roundover or dado work. I might do a roundover on my birchply floorstanders some day but I guess going slow compensates for the lack of power maybe?
You are correct. Going slower and making multiple shallow passes will definitely get the job done.
I’m not familiar with the Bosch units you mentioned but the Makita RT0701CX3 is a very neat kit that includes 4 different bases for about $250 USD (2415 SEK). If the kit isn’t available or is outside your budget then the RT0701CX7 kit at least includes plunge and fixed bases and goes for about $140 USD (1350 SEK). There may be some differences in model names for different markets and you might have to deal with VAT but at least it’s a start. A plunge base is a must for me so that’s why I mentioned the kits.
I'm pretty sure that's the same Makita as that I mentioned just that it has a slightly different name for the US market. The kit is available here with the name RT0700CX5J and includes the same things as the kit you mentioned and I see no other differences except that it seems to be cheaper here (2150SEK or ~$222). I think I might go for that one actually since it's available in a store five minutes away from where I live.
I bought a Circle cutting jigg from Amazon.de (they ship to sweden) with one of those you can cut from 20-30mm all the way up to a 21" driver!
My local IKEA is out of the small Variera but I have the 4" Tangband ready to go and some network designed for baffle step and taming a peak at 9 kHz
My local IKEA is out of the small Variera but I have the 4" Tangband ready to go and some network designed for baffle step and taming a peak at 9 kHz
I bought a Circle cutting jigg from Amazon.de (they ship to sweden) with one of those you can cut from 20-30mm all the way up to a 21" driver!
My local IKEA is out of the small Variera but I have the 4" Tangband ready to go and some network designed for baffle step and taming a peak at 9 kHz
What jig did you buy? Also, what does the baffle step network look like? I'm thinking that if it's something simple and inexpensive then maybe I should do something similar as well.
The Bosch POF1400ACE is really great IME. To be honest I did not use mine many times before upgrading to a GOF, but for DIY use it's probably the most versatile model you can get (and it's well-made even though it is the cheaper "green" series from Bosch).
The Makita is a really nice bit of kit (I have one as well), but for larger tasks I would be worried that it runs out of steam a bit. For routing edges and holes it's probably fine (I bought it recently, so I have just been playing a few times)
The EU-version of the GKF does not have variable speed which rules it out from my POV, otherwise I think it's a worthwhile alternative to the Makita.
HTH!
Something along the "KUNSE Circle Cutting Jig Für Bosch Makita Electric Hand Trimmer Wood Router Holzworking-C" I might upload some pictures later of the jigg. The dissadvantage of such a large jigg is that I can not clamp boards to be cut as the jigg hits the clamps. I have drilled holes though an old table and use screws from below to fixate the boards.
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