Dual Opposed Prototype

fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Some of you may have been following along in my earlier thread so I won't go into much detail about the design. Anyways, I got tired of waiting for my potential partner to cut me (CNC cut) a cabinet that would have been the prototype. If all went well and we could make the pricing work we would consider offering it as a flatpack to any who wish'd to purchase such a thing. Since I'm the impatient type and having two 80+lb drivers sitting around my living room irritates the heck out of me (well mostly my girlfriend and we all know what they say about sh!t and hills) so I made the drive over to home depot and got 3 sheets of MDF and got to work. It had been awhile since I'd looked at my drawings so it took me the better part of an hour trying to figure out what was what since there were several revisions. However the build is underway. I have everything cut out except for the long support braces that run the length of the interior of the cabinet. Tomorrow I hope to get the dados cut with my fancy new Freud table saw dado blade and possibly start routing the 14 holes. If all goes well I may even be able to start gluing tomorrow.

 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Good luck, have fun, keep us updated!
Thanks, will do. This is my week off so I'm hoping I can get to the point where all cutting is done and all that's left is gluing. That would mean that I could have it up and running by next week. Probably a pipe dream though, fingers crossed :D
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Didn't make as much progress as I would have liked to, but them's the breaks when you have to install a new hot water heater. Thank you insanely old one for not lasting another two months when we had planned on replacing you. Anyways, I got some of the Dados done and a few circles cut. I got enough done that I can start gluing a few things tomorrow while I finish up the rest of the cutting.





 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Those are wide dados with clean looking surfaces. You cut them with a dado blade on a table saw?

The dados I've seen cut by dado blades were a bit uneven along the bottom of the goove, requiring clean up with a chisel or a router before you could glue.

What kind of saw blade did that?
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Those are wide dados with clean looking surfaces. You cut them with a dado blade on a table saw?

The dados I've seen cut by dado blades were a bit uneven along the bottom of the goove, requiring clean up with a chisel or a router before you could glue.

What kind of saw blade did that?
It's the Freud 8" Professional Dado

Freud SD208 8-Inch Professional Dado - Amazon.com

I'm extremely happy with the performance and any imperfection is my fault. It made cutting those dados about a 10min job. I had to make two passes because the set I bought and linked only goes up to 7/8" I think and I needed 1.5". Two passes with 3/4" did the trick though.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Nice. I hadn't seen one of those. It looks like it cuts grooves that are ready for glue up. With a good fit, assembly is much easier, and you are likely to get stronger joints that may actually be airtight.

I don't have a table saw, so I cut dados with a router and a straight fence. I usually use a ½" straight bit and make two passes if I need a wider groove. In the real world, ¾" MDF or plywood isn't actually 0.75" thick, so I use the actual thickness of the wood I have to determine the width of the dado groove.
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
The only part I think I'm going to have difficulty with is lining up the interior dado'ed pieces with the exterior solid pieces, but I don't forsee that being too bad. Then once all those are done, like you said it should all just slot together. That's the plan anyways especially if it might become a flat pack.

The pieces I got were pretty close, close enough that the next size down would have been a tight fit bordering on not fitting. I guess I'll find out. I'm definitely not as good with a router as I am with the table saw, but I'm working on getting better.
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
All pieces finally cut. I have a few more little things to do to the interior braces, but all the big cuts are finally done.



This is about as far as I got. It was getting a little late so I decided to call it a day. I got the screw holes drilled and the hinges on, this way I can just loosen the clamps hinge open the interior layer, glue, and fold back down and screw and clamp. Then I only have to do that 5 more times and it will be assembly time. Yet again I say, I need more clamps.

 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Had a little mishap that necessitated the making of a new interior brace piece and the cutting of this circle free hand. Color me irritated.

 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Got some work done today. All pieces are completely together (not assembly though) so they're ready for a dry fit tomorrow or whenever I get time. I'm sure I'll have to do some shaving here and there to get everything to fit perfectly, but I guess I'll find out. I dread the dry fitting since this thing weighs nearly twice as much as I do. Each piece weighs somewhere between ~25lbs - ~40lbs or more. Anyways, enough complaining.





 
ARES24

ARES24

Full Audioholic
Nice. I hadn't seen one of those. It looks like it cuts grooves that are ready for glue up. With a good fit, assembly is much easier, and you are likely to get stronger joints that may actually be airtight.

I don't have a table saw, so I cut dados with a router and a straight fence. I usually use a ½" straight bit and make two passes if I need a wider groove. In the real world, ¾" MDF or plywood isn't actually 0.75" thick, so I use the actual thickness of the wood I have to determine the width of the dado groove.
The exact same dado I use. The joints ARE airtight with only a little glue. For my box the ply was 1/32 larger then 3/4, this dado has shims that size for fine tuning. I was able to get away from using a lot of clamps, I just put 250lbs on top and used a mallet w/ block to drive the insert into dado. With a good fit the joints don't let go, usually ;p. I only had to clamp what I would consider sparingly (four clamps and four 2x4s).

Before gluing the sides on I would sand the corners of your dado and the brace so they 'slip' together easier, made my life easier!
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Thanks, I did a little test fitting before I left today and I already found a few pieces that are going to need shaving.
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Perfection is for loosers. It's got a nice rustic look!
Thanks. I still plan on getting a baltic birch cabinet cut, which I will then finish, so it's up in the air if I will finish this one. I know after this one gets done I'm going to bring the other one down and start prepping it for veneer.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
With all those screws, you must have doubled the weight!

If those screws are steel, make sure you use an odd number of them. With large dual opposed drivers those electromagnet motors can cause a cabinet to shred the space-time continuum unless you put them slightly out of phase by using an odd number of steel screws :rolleyes:. Of course, a real audiophile would have used non-magnetic brass screws :rolleyes:.

Can you lift the assembled cabinet without an audiophile-grade forklift?
 

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