Oh Boy

[fuzz092888]

Actually Fuzz the interior of the box is divided up into three equal spaces separated by a solid piece of 3/4 inch mdf, I dont know if that helps him or not with sound quality.

Ahh my memory did me a disservice. I had though I remembered seeing more window like bracing. The solid bracing probably isn't going to be great either, but in a different way. I think one issue could very well end up being that the braces look pretty evenly spread apart. That means he has completely mismatched drivers sharing the airspace, which usually won't work because you usually group the drivers that all need a certain amount of airspace together, and that's assuming all the drivers perform best sealed in the first place.

OTOH I'm extremely jealous of his woodworking abilities and especially that finish. A lot of hard work has gone into these things and the look like it. I just wish as much thought and care went into what they're going to sound like. I also see that he has begun to wire them, but how he decided on how to wire them without a crossover or any modeling as to whether he should wire them in series or parallel is beyond me. I also only saw, what looks like a little hole in the back. I'm curious to see how he plans on getting what amount to a 4 way speaker wired up with what looks like a hole meant for a standard pair or possibly a double pair of binding posts.

Oy. With someone like Dennis Murphy's knowledge and this guys skill, you could really get something special. If only he had asked somebody, anybody for some help before he took that leap. I mean, he still might be able to turn that into some sort of LA by altering the bracing a little and sectioning the drivers a little better. All he would need is a new baffle and he would probably have to buy a few more drivers, but I'm not sure he current drivers/configuration is going to yield anything too great. Total eye candy though, so there is that.

 

[mattsk8]

Actually Fuzz the interior of the box is divided up into three equal spaces separated by a solid piece of 3/4 inch mdf, I dont know if that helps him or not with sound quality.

I didn't see that he put wood filler in the kerfs, I'll have to go back over his build and look at what he used. If he just used wood filler it won't do anything for structural integrity, it might as well be plaster. If he used some sort of construction adhesive, epoxy, fiberglass, etc... then it'll bond the kerfs back together and work well.

Edit: Just read it again and he used Elmers wood filler. That doesn't do anything for bonding, it only bonds to the material it needs to fill but doesn't have any break strength. Would've been better to just squirt a boatload of wood glue and brush it all over in there, let it seep into the kerfs.

 

[ImcLoud]

When the cabinet maker made my cabinets he did a curve for the lazy susans and I was kind of hesitant because he used the kerf method, but before he bent it he put {I think liquid nails, if I am not mistaken} and then bent it, screwed some braces on and smoothed out the epoxy.. The cabinets are still there and doing well, he also did a bend in the door but that he didn't do on site he did that at his shop, and that Im sure was a different bethod because its a piece of solid hardwood...

 

[mattsk8]

When the cabinet maker made my cabinets he did a curve for the lazy susans and I was kind of hesitant because he used the kerf method, but before he bent it he put {I think liquid nails, if I am not mistaken} and then bent it, screwed some braces on and smoothed out the epoxy.. The cabinets are still there and doing well, he also did a bend in the door but that he didn't do on site he did that at his shop, and that Im sure was a different bethod because its a piece of solid hardwood...

This is the right way to do it. The liquid nails (or I'm betting probably polyurethane construction adhesive) is actually stronger than the wood itself. Smoothing it out w/ epoxy is a crazy extra step so I'm sure your cabinet is good for life. The curved, solid hardwood door is another, totally different method, there's a couple different ways to do that. One would be to use a bandsaw and cut the radius out of a thick piece of hardwood. The other is to use a mold and spray it w/ water while clamping until it 'memorizes' the bend, this takes a long time.

Sounds like you have a good cabinet maker . IMO, using 2 or 3 layers of 1/4" birch or MDF ply (each layer would have a coat of wood glue brushed over to accept the next layer) would be the easiest way and would be as good as doing it that way.

I'll actually be making my first curved speaker cabinets pretty soon. I'm going to use 2 layers of 1/4" MDF, bent around the top, bottom, and middle brace and I'll veneer them w/ some mahogany veneer that I already have. They're TM bookshelf speakers. I'll definitely post the results once those are done.

 

[ImcLoud]

This is the right way to do it. The liquid nails (or I'm betting probably polyurethane construction adhesive) is actually stronger than the wood itself. Smoothing it out w/ epoxy is a crazy extra step so I'm sure your cabinet is good for life. The curved, solid hardwood door is another, totally different method, there's a couple different ways to do that. One would be to use a bandsaw and cut the radius out of a thick piece of hardwood. The other is to use a mold and spray it w/ water while clamping until it 'memorizes' the bend, this takes a long time.

Sounds like you have a good cabinet maker . IMO, using 2 or 3 layers of 1/4" birch or MDF ply (each layer would have a coat of wood glue brushed over to accept the next layer) would be the easiest way and would be as good as doing it that way.

I'll actually be making my first curved speaker cabinets pretty soon. I'm going to use 2 layers of 1/4" MDF, bent around the top, bottom, and middle brace and I'll veneer them w/ some mahogany veneer that I already have. They're TM bookshelf speakers. I'll definitely post the results once those are done.

He made our door and did two of them so we have an extra unfinished, I think he did it with steam if that makes sense? He started making our cabinets 3 weeks before I even cleared the lot {my perc test wasn't even done yet} and they were the last things installed, he also did all my bathroom vanities {except one, we have 4 full baths so he did the other 3}, and my wife's closet shelfs.. time consuming and expensive but we will never see them in another house...

 

[mattsk8]

He made our door and did two of them so we have an extra unfinished, I think he did it with steam if that makes sense?.... time consuming and expensive but we will never see them in another house...

The steam makes perfect sense, that's the water method. I know it was time consuming and expensive, but not only will you not see them in another house, you won't find that quality anywhere at a big box store. Those will last longer than you'll probably want them to based on how you explained his workmanship.