MarkAudio Okapi - Alpair 7MS build

I wanted to share here my experience of building the Mark Audio Okapi with Alpair 7MS designed by Scott Lindgren. I was looking for a relatively compact (i.e. narrow) loudspeaker that I could use in my home office. The plan is to use it with an Audio Note Kits "Virtuoso" PP EL84 Headphone/Speaker amplifier that I built a few years ago. I am currently using a pair of Fostex FE83sol in tiny cabinets and I wanted to see if I could do better than that. After reading many posts in this forum I decided to give a self build a go.

Since I do not have a workshop I ordered my plywood (18mm baltic birch) pre-cut online from cutmy.co.uk. I could even specify the circular cut-outs for the drivers and the reflex tube. Here is what came in the package:

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Thanks. I am still working at it and I will post pictures here of the different stages. Next stage for me was the chamfering of the holes for the driver. I used my Dremel tool for that. The results turned out a bit irregular.
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A more interesting challenge was the second layer of the baffle. The inside of the enclosure is quite narrow, so a 45deg chamfer is not possible towards the sides. I first glued the second layer baffle to the outer layer.

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And then used the Dremel tool again. The sides of the holes became quite thin.

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A few more steps towards a working Okapi. Damping is glued to the inside. I got the damping material and glue from KJF Audio in the UK. Word of caution: This glue is the stickiest stuff in the universe and the coated damping material needs to be handled with care (and preferably rubber gloves)!
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Next step (after soldering the wires to the terminals) was closing the box, sanding and applying some wax. One box finished:
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one more to go...
 
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