Pipe speaker with a twist

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#21
WVL said:
Okay, I'm forgetting about staining 😉 I really want them to look like they're made from 1 piece. That leaves painting.
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Using standard veneer would be close to impossible as pointed out earlier, but theres a product over here called lignaflex. It’s a very flexible veneer, that might work.
Looks like this, only its available in a wide variety of woods:
 

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#23
Kermit said:
Using standard veneer would be close to impossible as pointed out earlier, but theres a product over here called lignaflex. It’s a very flexible veneer, that might work.
Looks like this, only its available in a wide variety of woods:
Click to expand...
That's very interesting, Sven.

How does the quality of lignaflex compare with normal veneer (my speakers have some pretty tight contours)?
 
#24
What about artificial leather? Or open-celled foam? Or marbling? What about the paints they have now that, when you spray them on, look like stone? Granite? What about pounding a piece of aluminium to fit each side and then brushing it, and putting a line of blue LEDs up each edge? 😀
 
#28
WVL: I'd love to see your creation in a veneer, but if you go with paint, should you be considering Bondo or a locally available 'plastic body filler' from the auto industry? I'm pretty sure somebody already mentioned it, but nobody seems to have latched onto that. Seems to me if you made the squares 1% undersize and 'Bondo' the entire surface, you get 1) a completely homogenous surface receptive for paint and 2) a heavy dissimilar material damping the speaker. If I'm off base, someone please correct me, but for a painted finish it seems the obvious choice.

purpolepeople [and others]: My first and only veneering project was with 6" x 30" White Ash and it was quite fragile. A local recommended 'veneer softener', which I bought from an online source, and once the veneer was softened, per the directions, it would easily bend to 1/4" radius in the grain direction and probably 3" in the non-grain direction. Is this consistent with your experience? That particular veneer was unmanageable before softening, but was practically indestructible after. My neophyte application was poor, but I learned a lot. I wonder if a combination of a 'forgiving' veneer and a good softener might allow WVL to achieve the goal with a standard product??? Not a guarantee, just a question. Regardless, the flexible veneer seems really neat. Not for my future speaker projects, but other in-home applications. Thanks for the info, Kermit!

I have had good luck with many combinations of dye and stain. A $20 book on the subject kept me from making various mistakes, as dye acts different from stain. There are on-line resources as well. www.joewoodworker.com sticks in my mind. Even if a particular project does not require the info, there is some good stuff there to churn the mind.

Good luck with the project. I hope it turns out well, both aesthetically and sonically.

Sandy.
 
#29
Cool, the fixed drill point and angles is brilliant. Just so you know, I wouldnt calculate 250 angles either, I'd find the equation and have my calculator show me a list with the piece number in increments of one and the angle needed in degrees. Calculating 250 things individually would remind me too much of highschool math and I'm not supposed to think about that until summer is over. Good luck.

-Chris
 
#30
Sorry, I should have said that the 1/2" bend was against the grain, which was unbelievable even after I saw it. It was more like a thin sheet of polycarbonate or polyester. I would bend it and it would spring back to flat. Weird stuff.

Even though I had no immediate use for it, I contacted the manufacturer and discovered that it was a proprietary process so I expect that all the others are similar secret recipes.

🙂ensen.
 
#31
@ purpleppl : thanks for this new source! I totally fell in love with that Aspen color. (about the same color my speakers are now)..

okay, so I'm really going to veneer this, will look much better IMO and it will make the whole thing look like it was carved out of a giant tree...

edit :

just looked at the ordering-html-page. Size is only 22x24 (guess that must be inches -> about 50x60 cm... not big enough..)

edit2 :

the lignaflex is available in 122x244cm hurrah!!
 
#32
purplepeople said:
Even though I had no immediate use for it, I contacted the manufacturer and discovered that it was a proprietary process so I expect that all the others are similar secret recipes./B]
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I belive it's a mixture of heat treatments and certain solvents that break down some of the lignin in the wood, making it more flexible. It is also very thin, so careful sanding is a must.

I have sample swatches from the Leeuwenburgh factory, it seems good stuff, though I have not yet used it in a real project.
 
#33
7V said:

How does the quality of lignaflex compare with normal veneer (my speakers have some pretty tight contours)?
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Sorry, but I can’t say much about the quality as I haven’t used it for anything yet.

WVL: Hope it turns out well, this will be one cool speaker!
:drink: I happen to love Dutch beer btw 😉
 
#34
Kermit said:


WVL: Hope it turns out well, this will be one cool speaker!
:drink: I happen to love Dutch beer btw 😉
Click to expand...



hey, who blames you 😉 me too :drink: ... Hopefully the veneer is as good as the beer I bought..

I also got some wood today to try and produce the mini-speakers. unfortunately my nephew is staying over for a couple of days, and I can't make anything at the moment 🙁

edit :

I'm just having one right now, btw..

One more question. How would you guys suggest cutting a say 16cm diameter hole in one of the slabs? this is one of the few things I haven't figured out yet..

Centering the hole is very easy though. I again use the sheet of paper with all the angles (or maybe just a piece of wood with 2 lines at a 90'angle).. then match up each corner of the slab with one of the 90' angles... easypeasy. Essentially the same way you'd find the center on any squared piece with a ruler 😉
 
#35
I took another close look at my current speakers. Can anyone explain how they did this?

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


it looks like they just wrapped the veneer over a 90' angle.. Can anybody tell if this is real veneer? it looks so to me...

btw, it's not dust on the lens 😉 I gotta clean them this week..
 
#37
some commericial speaker companys use pre-veneered wood, and then cut the mdf/ply at 45 degrees and do not cut the veneer. This sort of precision cutting creates basically an origami box, pretty neat really. that would be my guess how its done.

rob.
 
#39
Nappylady said:
But, doesn't mitering the box like that leave it fairly weak and fragile, when compared to other construction methods?
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Except that many modern adhesives are very much stronger than the materials being bonded. With the right glue, you could take a hammer to the box and get a bunch of pieces from the sides and most of the corners intact.

🙂ensen
 
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