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My Rescession buster surrounds

post #1 of 32
3/23/09 at 7:54am
Thread Starter 
I picked up a Yamaha rx-v663 recently and needed to get to 7.1 from 5.1.

So i ordered a couple of pairs of the RB kits so i could move my current surrounds back to my bedroom.

made all the cuts last night and was able to glue up one minus the baffle.

like they always say never enough clamps:


thats all of my clamps currently so this will take a little longer than i had hoped.

I plan on experimenting with a piano finish on one pair and i will update my progress as i go.
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post #2 of 32
3/23/09 at 8:04am
Nice saw - I've got the very same one. and I'm also working on a set of RB speakers... I'll try them out as fronts for a while but they're destined for surround duties eventually!
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post #3 of 32
3/23/09 at 8:41am
Thread Starter 
Yeah i love that saw. We got one for my dad for xmas as well so with two we can share jigs and what not.

Speaking of. i am in desperate need to make a cross cut sled, it would have made it much easier to make the cuts with the stock involved.

I might try the speakers out as mains as well. see how they compare to my NHT super ones.
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post #4 of 32
3/23/09 at 10:07am
Ditto on the nice saw, I also own that one. Good luck on your projects.
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post #5 of 32
3/24/09 at 8:14pm
Thread Starter 
Minor update:

Gluing up number two I realized i forgot to mention a little trick that my dad and I used: setup blocks

The black lines show the blocks which i measured exactly to make the spacing correct


this allowed me to have a little overlap of some of the pieces so that my cuts didn't need to be as precise. i will follow up with a flush cut but later on.

here is the second glue-up with the first one next to it:

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post #6 of 32
3/29/09 at 9:27pm
Thread Starter 
So today i got that much closer to finishing these speakers.

When my dad had us over cut an just go with a flush bit at the end i was a bit worried but as you will see from the pics it turned out pretty damn good.



And the roundover worked quite well also.



Lay out for the holes for the speaker jacks you see in the background


A rasp made quick work of the remaining MDF


A little fine tuning to make it more even


YAY CLAMPS!!!


A view from the top to show you the inside.


YAY MORE CLAMPS!!



PS, if you need clamps and build smaller speakers, check out this: http://www.garrettwade.com/12-in-fas.../p/05R08ddd01/

Really nice clamps, and cheap too. the 10 pack allowed me to finish two of these up today so that i can be up and running a lot quicker.
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post #7 of 32
3/29/09 at 10:07pm
surrounds ? looks like book shelfs, too me. anyway

that MIG, a 250 ? i do some welding myself. miller dynasty 200dx, is my expensive machine.
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post #8 of 32
3/30/09 at 7:03am
Thread Starter 
Yeah the original goal was surrounds but I might turn them into my mains depending on how they perform. Also I have plans for some 3 ways as my mains so these will do great as surrounds once I have those set up.

Its just a 100 Lincoln from Home depot. I would love to get something higher end but I just dont weld enough to justify it right now. I might fire it up to make some stands for some of my projects in the near future though.
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post #9 of 32
3/30/09 at 8:32am
Brian,
I made a pair of sealed RBs like these as replacement 5.1 surrounds and set them up as mains for break-in and evaluation. They need a sub with a high XO point, 100-120Hz to my ears, as well as an in-wall/on-wall placement. You really hear the lack of BSC when isolated from nearby walls...

Have fun,
Frank
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post #10 of 32
3/30/09 at 9:15am
Frank,

How long did you break them in for? I have two sets to break in and was going to do the same as you did by setting them as my mains for some time.

James
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post #11 of 32
3/30/09 at 9:27am
Thread Starter 
Right now I have bookshelves as my mains so I shouldn't have to fiddle with the XO points too much. But thanks for the heads up I will definitely keep that in mind.
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post #12 of 32
3/30/09 at 10:58am
Just listen to them; you'll hear the sound change as they break in.
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post #13 of 32
3/31/09 at 9:03am
Thread Starter 
update, so so close
Here they are out of the clamps

After the flush cut


Glad i made the binding post holes already so i could do this, 3 inch screw through a scrap board to clamp it to the work bench

Final round over

On the work bench waiting to solder up

Crossover inside showing the carpet padding. Still not sure if i will bother to put a pad under the cross over or not.



I hope to finish putting the padding in the second one and get everything wired up tonight. hopefully in time to get in a listen or two.
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post #14 of 32
3/31/09 at 10:52am
About the carpet pad...

The general rule is to line a ported box and stuff a sealed one. It will not hurt to line a sealed box, I threw a layer on my back panel, too, but you may also want to add some polyfill stuffing. If that's what you planned to do... Nevermind (spoken in my best Emily Littella).

Frank

PS Those boxes look familiar, save that I did long sides and narrow ends.
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post #15 of 32
3/31/09 at 10:59am
are you veenering them?

I would assume you are not but if you are I want to learn how to veneer over a baffle that is rounded on all corners.
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post #16 of 32
3/31/09 at 11:31am
Thread Starter 
i took the lining idea from zaph for one of the small designs. i do plan on experimenting a little bit. though i need to get some stuffing before i can do that. also i need to pick up some 8-32 machine screws of some type that i can use with the hurricane nuts i have. that will make experimenting with changes easier.


I don't plan on veneering them the compound curves would make that very painful and probably not result in a good finish.
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post #17 of 32
4/5/09 at 7:12pm
Thread Starter 
they are finally finished. they sound great though i wish my receiver was working, the "B" speaker output wasn't working so i couldn't do a proper comparison.



still working on the second pair, though that i will take a bit more time on.
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post #18 of 32
4/6/09 at 9:52am
Give them a little break-in time, keep them against the wall and integrate a sub with a high cut-off and you'll have a very nice experience! Nicely done.
Frank
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post #19 of 32
4/6/09 at 1:11pm
Thread Starter 
thanks, i am gluing up the second pair tonight and i plan on putting a nice finish on those then swap them out and finish these.
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post #20 of 32
4/6/09 at 5:58pm
Nice job so far. Are you still planning on doing a piano finish on these? I don't think that these speakers make for very strong mains but are definitely excellent surrounds. I am currently breaking in my set and they do sound great.
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post #21 of 32
4/6/09 at 6:09pm
Thread Starter 
this pair will stay as is while i put a finish on the other pair of boxes. i plan on at least bondoing the whole box and sanding it, depending on how that goes i may just put down a satin black instead of going to the trouble to do the piano finish.
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post #22 of 32
4/8/09 at 9:08pm
Brian they look great! I am right in the middle of building my pair as we speak. Question...what did you use to cut the tweeter and mid holes with? I have a router and i have seen people make home made jigs, i have also seen people use a jasper jig. Problem is that tweeter hole is too small for my router with the larger base it has. Also what router bits did you use for cutting the hole and the recess for the tweeter?
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post #23 of 32
4/9/09 at 8:24am
Thread Starter 
i used the jasper jig on my rigid router with a 1/4 straight bit. it was a bit of trial and error to figure out how deep to make it.

My router has a fine adjust stop on it and with calipers and trial and error we figured out that 11 clicks of the fine adjust wheel netted the exact amount.

to make it easier to set we made the bit flush then adjusted the knob to 11 clicks and set the stop on top of that. once the stop was set we reset the fine adjust to zero and then started the cut.

after the first cut you will move the pin on the jasper gig about a half inch in at a time till you get to the inner circle dimension.


Depending on the setup tools you have for your router this may be more trouble or less trouble. If you have a good depth gauge for your router it would have been much easier. also different routers will have different adjustments available


If you want i can take pictures of how i did this but it will have to wait until i get home from work


hope i explained that well enough.
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post #24 of 32
4/9/09 at 10:47am
Quote:
i have also seen people use a jasper jig. Problem is that tweeter hole is too small for my router with the larger base it has. Also what router bits did you use for cutting the hole and the recess for the tweeter?

mine too, I can not route any hole less then 5 1/4"

I might buy an new smaller router, I did my RB holes free hand
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post #25 of 32
4/9/09 at 11:20am
No that helps, I guess i should have thought more carefully when i bought this router. I heard some people recommend the smallest possible base for these smaller cuts. Someone recommended i try a Dremel, they make a jig that can cut holes from 1" up to 12". So i ordered that part it was only 10 bucks, thought i would give it a try. I just dont know how well it will cut through the 3/4" MDF, i only have the 7.2 volt model.
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post #26 of 32
4/9/09 at 11:38am
Quote:
Someone recommended i try a Dremel, they make a jig that can cut holes from 1" up to 12". So i ordered that part it was only 10 bucks, thought i would give it a try. I just dont know how well it will cut through the 3/4" MDF, i only have the 7.2 volt model.

Been there...it sucked for me!
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post #27 of 32
4/9/09 at 12:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by penngray View Post

Been there...it sucked for me!

So you tried using the dremel? No go?
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post #28 of 32
4/9/09 at 1:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cy-Gor View Post

i used the jasper jig on my rigid router with a 1/4 straight bit. it was a bit of trial and error to figure out how deep to make it.

My router has a fine adjust stop on it and with calipers and trial and error we figured out that 11 clicks of the fine adjust wheel netted the exact amount.

to make it easier to set we made the bit flush then adjusted the knob to 11 clicks and set the stop on top of that. once the stop was set we reset the fine adjust to zero and then started the cut.

after the first cut you will move the pin on the jasper gig about a half inch in at a time till you get to the inner circle dimension.


Depending on the setup tools you have for your router this may be more trouble or less trouble. If you have a good depth gauge for your router it would have been much easier. also different routers will have different adjustments available


If you want i can take pictures of how i did this but it will have to wait until i get home from work


hope i explained that well enough.

Actually a picture would be great....lol.
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post #29 of 32
4/9/09 at 1:44pm
Thread Starter 
Do you know why they are saying to use a smaller base?

Generally the larger the base the better as it makes the router more stable.

also something i failed to mention.

When making the cuts you dont cut the whole 3/4 in one go. Generally 3-4 passes

Making the woofer circle shouldnt be a problem with the dremel, since it is hidden behind the speaker.

the tweeter will be more difficult as it needs to be flush for the driver

The jasper jig should work on just about any router.

i found this video giving you an idea of how it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lreaiq1mKHU
the jasper jig works with a similar principal but it has a bunch of wholes in the bottom with predetermined spacing.

hope that helps
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post #30 of 32
4/9/09 at 2:37pm
I have a decent sized Sears router with both fixed and plunge bases. I can cut any size holes down to whatever the Jasper jig can do. I know for sure it is less than 2" in diameter. It's just that the pivot pin is under the router base. No problem at all.
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