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Speakers for an old friend
I haven't seen my best friend from Jr. High & HS in quite a few years. I would IM him on FB every once in a while and a few years ago I learned he had been diagnosed with cancer. More than just one type! Then they found multiple small brain tumors. He's really been through the wringer. His strength is now slowly getting better. But thanks to the meds, his eyesight has been seriously impacted. But when he told me his hearing is still as good as ever, I decided to build him a pair of desktop monitors. It'll give the motivation to make the drive to Omaha to pay him a visit and talk about the stupid things we did when we were younger.
These monitors are my mod of Duane Brown's Dayton 4s and use the XT25SC90-04 along with a few more parts to deal with that tweeter. Lots of pictures, because I think everybody loves pictures of other people's build process.
I don't remember where I got the veneer, but it has a cool, 3D look to it. But....it's not flat and very brittle, so that took a few days to get under control.
I was hoping the veneer would be soft enough to make a 1/2" radius, but that's too risky. Sides panels are veneered and waiting to be glued up. I thought I would deal with the ports before sealing everything up and making my life harder.
I had a bearing pop off while countersinking the terminal cup - I'll have to deal with that later.
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I had glued the veneer on the backs and flush trimmed it, but then realized I should have waited until the sides were glued and trimmed. I also wanted to flare the port inlet, so that would be another issue with the veneer.
Plan B - heat it up, scrape it off and the backs will now be black!
You make me feel SO much better about all the mistakes I make!
I would go forward and build on what you have done so far. You're heart is in a good place.
Seems like more work to peel it off and prep the surface than to fill the grain and paint over it.
I thought about just painting over it, but there was one bottom edge with a few spots that chipped out and I wondered if the radius on the port might be problematic. Luckily the heat gun and a chisel made it pretty easy to scape off.
Just finished ironing on the baffle veneer. I should have it trimmed up tonight and ready for the 65mm Forstner bit for the tweeter recess. That should be here sometime tomorrow. It's just a cheap Chinese bit, so I'll probably use it to make a router template, rather than using it directly on the veneered baffle.
Veneer softener is your friend. It will make it rubbery and round overs possible.
Awesome reason to build those speakers! I have a friend I've known since kindergarten, was basically my second friend I can remember. We still hang out, he lives up in northern Kentucky, so we're only an 1.5hrs away. He was down last night for a concert. He has a set of my speakers.
Hope you get to reconnect with your buddy!! That'll be a great time🤘🏼
I used a lot of Super Soft on this veneer, but maybe I dried it too much during pressing. I changed the paper towels like they directed and the humidity in the house is pretty low with the AC running so much. Maybe those directions were for when you only need to flatten the veneer?