Aftermarket speaker grill manufacturer

[3db]

I'm going to be purchasing a used pair of speakers with no grills and I'm looking for an after market grill manufacturer . Any ideas?

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm going to be purchasing a used pair of speakers with no grills and I'm looking for an after market grill manufacturer . Any ideas?

You make your own. It is very easy.

You use 3/8' plywood

Make the cut out you want with a rip saw. Now cut the board to size, with a skill saw, or table saw..

Mount the hardware.

Paint the outside of the frame with mat black blackboard paint.

Now cut the fabric to size, and staple is with a staple gun.

You can get the hardware and speaker fabric from Madisound, and I suspect a lot of other places.

I doubt there are any custom builders.

 

[3db]

You make your own. It is very easy.

You use 3/8' plywood

Make the cut out you want with a rip saw. Now cut the board to size, with a skill saw, or table saw..

Mount the hardware.

Paint the outside of the frame with mat black blackboard paint.

Now cut the fabric to size, and staple is with a staple gun.

You can get the hardware and speaker fabric from Madisound, and I suspect a lot of other places.

I doubt there are any custom builders.

I may try this myself. It maybe fun. I may buy some quarter round molding to give it that raised look around the edges. How much clearance do I need to leave around the drivers and ports or would the 3/8 plywood be strong enough to provide just a rectangle with enough wood around the knub region to mount the mounting hardware?

 

[TLS Guy]

I may try this myself. It maybe fun. I may buy some quarter round molding to give it that raised look around the edges. How much clearance do I need to leave around the drivers and ports or would the 3/8 plywood be strong enough to provide just a rectangle with enough wood around the knub region to mount the mounting hardware?

I make it an inch or so wide. You want good clearance from the cones.

All grills are a little frail off the speaker, but the mounting hardware when installed makes it quite rigid.

 

[Alex2507]

I may try this myself. It maybe fun. I may buy some quarter round molding to give it that raised look around the edges. How much clearance do I need to leave around the drivers and ports or would the 3/8 plywood be strong enough to provide just a rectangle with enough wood around the knub region to mount the mounting hardware?

IMO 3/8 is a little thin.

Salk uses 1/2" mdf with magnets like the ones from PE and the screen side is chamfered on the internal and external perimeters.. I guess he didn't want the hard 90 degree edge on the cloth where you could see it. The speaker side has a 3/16x3/8 rabbet fwiw.

I wouldn't add 1/4 round. I would want the frame out of one piece of wood/mdf.

I used 5/8 ply on my diy subs with as many magnets as I could fit. It takes two men to pull it off. j/k

 

[TLS Guy]

IMO 3/8 is a little thin.

Salk uses 1/2" mdf with magnets like the ones from PE and the screen side is chamfered on the internal and external perimeters.. I guess he didn't want the hard 90 degree edge on the cloth where you could see it. The speaker side has a 3/16x3/8 rabbet fwiw.

I wouldn't add 1/4 round. I would want the frame out of one piece of wood/mdf.

I used 5/8 ply on my diy subs with as many magnets as I could fit. It takes two men to pull it off. j/k

The trouble is that the thicker you make the grill the worse the diffraction problems. For a sub that is not an issue.
However for other speakers it is. The best grill is no grill, but the thinner the better acoustically.

 

[Swerd]

You make your own. It is very easy.

You use 3/8' plywood

I would use something much thinner than 3/8' plywood . 3/8" would be good .

The most difficult part may be finding mounting hardware that fits what those speakers have.

 

[j_garcia]

Parts express should have replacements for those speaker grille clips, but they only come in like a 10pk. I bought some years ago and still have them and end up using them here and there when I pick up older speakers.

*edit 12pk and there are two sizes:

https://www.parts-express.com/parts-express-heavy-duty-speaker-grill-guides-12-pair--260-367

https://www.parts-express.com/parts-express-small-speaker-grill-guides-12-pair--260-368

 

[Verdinut]

If the grill is not too heavy, Velcro can also be used to secure it. I used it on a pair of 3-way floor standing speakers containing 12" subwoofers.

 

[TLS Guy]

I would use something much thinner than 3/8' plywood . 3/8" would good .

The most difficult part may be finding mounting hardware that fits what those speakers have.

I would just insert magnets form KJ magnetics.

 

[Alex2507]

With all this high level input, these grills better be somerthing to look at.

 

[3db]

Thanks for all the input. Let me pick up the speakers first and then we'll talk.

 

[KenM10759]

I'd use 3/8" or up to 1/2" plywood as it's thin enough yet has much higher fracture toughness than MDF. I'd use a corner-rounding cutter on the outer perimeter & inside opening edges, and a small 1/16" x 45º chamfer on the perimeter edge that meets the front baffle (to reduce cutting into the grille cloth and minimize gap.)

Get cloth and sets of 8 peg & sockets at Simplyspeakers.com. Looks like you have medium, and they're the same thickness as 3/8" plywood. You only need one side, the sockets. Click on each and if you scroll down you see the diagrams for dimensions.

EDIT: Looks to be the same stuff as the smaller ones from Parts Express, for more money. Go with PE.

 

[3db]

Found a back view of the grill.. Looks dirt simple.

Looking at it again, there must be two wooden pieces that make up the grill. The bottom one is totally covered by the grill cloth and then the mounting piece which sits on top.

 

[KenM10759]

Those appear to be molded plastic frames.

 

[highfigh]

Thanks for all the input. Let me pick up the speakers first and then we'll talk.

No! Do it now!

Let me know if you want to discuss over-engineering the crap out of them.

 

[3db]

No! Do it now!

Let me know if you want to discuss over-engineering the crap out of them.

LMAO

I want to try and duplicate the bevelled look of their grill as shown below.

There is only one piece after a closer look and the grill cloth is wrapped/glued across it.

 

[KenM10759]

If you have a router and the right bits, you should have no problem duplicating it in plywood.

My son has a decent little Ryobi router and mating table. I machined an aluminum mounting plate for it to replace a plastic one, making it much sturdier. It's never going to be a pro-level machine, but got a lot closer. He's also got a good Reliant jointer, a Porter Cable 557 biscuit joiner, a PC 12" 15amp bevel mitre saw, and a few other woodworking tools so we can start making speakers when both of us have more money.

Our first project will be to make a slightly thicker grill for my recently re-engineered M&K V-90 sub. I'll let you know how that goes. That one is bigger, so we're going to use hardwood strips and the small biscuits on mitered corners to make a frame rather than a huge cutout from solid.

 

[highfigh]

LMAO

I want to try and duplicate the bevelled look of their grill as shown below.

There is only one piece after a closer look and the grill cloth is wrapped/glued across it.

If it's just a bevel (or chamfer), it can be cut on a table saw or router. I would start by shaping the edges before cutting the opening. That would prevent the edge pushing in when it's being cut- this would be more likely to happen if the edge is cut with a router, but it can happen with a table saw, too. If you have access to a router, a template could be made of thin material (plywood, Masonite, whatever), held on with screws where the holes are located at the corners and the opening could be cut roughly with a jig saw (inside of the line) and cleaned up with a flush cut router bit, using the template as a guide.

 

[3db]

Thanks Ken and highfigh.

It would make sense to bevel the wood before cutting the driver openings. Lot more sturdier. Also, when I drill the holes for the mounting knubs, I will drill them larger then they have to be and glue in a rubber hose in the hole so that there is more friction to hold the grills on.