Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Update on my Center Channel build

Just a few pics of the veneer going on and stain. Will put the finish coat of polyurethane on tomorrow. Had a few boo boo's but not too bad for my first time. This is the first coat of stain, trying to match boston cherry. i tested beforehand but for some reason im not getting the desired results.

That looks awesome!

thanks,i feel it could have turned out better but with my limited selection of tools i am quite happy. I have plans to do some work on the small garage next to my house so i can add some more tools to the collection.I quite enjoy wood working.

How heavy is that speaker that you have a floor jack? :P

Bren R.

everything is heavier way up here.

Worked for 3 hours this morning getting the stain as close as possible. Here is the end result. In 4 or so hours i can put on the first coat of urethane . Lot more satisfaction than just plunkin down the ol creditcard.Oh and this is cell phone camera, will take a couple with my good cam when done. The biggest mistake i made was not inspecting the wood before putting it on. The piece i used for the front had serious tool marks in it,but dark stain tends to hide the defects plus the grill will cover it.

That looks great!

I was gonna ask about the 5-car garage you are already working in after I saw the first pic. Then I read that. Next you're gonna tell me it's heated and has plumbing. That must be why there isn't a "hate" icon.

Your super-custom VP160 looks great! I couldn't afford to build that (empty) cabinet for a client for less than $900. Plus, if I did make one for someone, they'd have to deal with me, so there's two big downsides. You go!

Thats the shop where i work,my boss generously lets me use it on weekends.Downside is i like to get away from that atmosphere on weekends. And yeah its not cheap building a cabinet like this,but i need to keep occupied so its worth it.
Are you a cabinet maker by trade bob?

Not until I was almost 50 and got downsized from my artsy-fartsy "career" (colleges/museums). I started doing specialty finishes on walls and woodwork. I worked on so many new wood pieces (built-ins, bath cabs, etc.) that were overpriced and designed and built like crap, that I just had to start offering it to my clients. I'd done it only for myself for 20 years. Ha, it was fun then. The instant anyone offers me $$ for something I enjoy doing, the fun gets sucked out in that same instant. S'why I couldn't make it as a callboy.

You really did a great job on it and I would hurt someone in exchange for that much open floor! Ehh, I'd just buy tons more stuff and still end up with a 10 x 20' workspace.

What happens in there when it's not the weekend?

It is an automotive repair shop. its really dusty here,makes it hard to do what im doin right now. Very time consuming stuff,especially with no experience to speak of. Havent done this since graded 10 . I like doing it but can be frustrating when you mess up. I will not use water base again until we consume or outlaw every last drop of oil . ive tried it twice now just doest work like the goood ol kemichal stuff.

Hey Socketman



Fantastic workmanship. Are you taking orders yet. Put me down for one. Heck I'm even willing to pay ya.... ah ah a nickel an hour. I figure that's more than you're paying yourself I bet. But of coarse for that kind of money, I'll expect you to pick up the freight. Again looks great Congrats.

Thanks gary for your kind words. The next one will be better. And yah ,i could build one for ya but i dont work for less than .07/hr .

A pic of the second coat of clear satin. the fluorescent lights really raise hell with the camera.

Now, I am just a dummy who does not know how to do anything...but do you want to keep the finish out of the speaker recesses so they don't build up a mm or 2? Or are they clear and it is just hard to tell.

The clear goes on so thin there wont be much buildup and there is plenty of room so i dont expect any interference. I used a dremel to make the holes so they are not as accurate as i had wanted.I now have a router and will use that the next time.

On a 1-10 scale, I've never been graded a 10 at anything, so you must have been excellent! Sure looks like it.

Finishing is a whole separate thing. Some pro furniture makers hate it so much (or see it as unrelated to their work as "sculptors"), that there is a whole world out there of pro finishers who do new work only (no RE-finishing).

Waterbased or water-borne (not the same thing), everything dries so fast that it's hard to avoid lap marks or undo them once they're there. Water-clean-up clear finishes do not self-level very well, so application marks are a bitch. They exist mainly for two things right now; spraying (catalyzed water-borne) or keeping the true color of light woods or pickled woods. They can lend a blue overtone to dark woods and their durablity is far less than poly-based finishes.

They keep improving, and, maybe one day, their long-overdue promises will be fulfilled. For now, if you do it again and you have to use water-?, look online for the super-expensive ones--Minwax oil is great, Minwax water sucks. The good water ones (Waterlox, General Finishes, Campbell, et al) are 2-4 times the cost of Minwax and the difference is worth all of it, though still not as all-around good as polys. Wipe-on oil poly changed my life.

Still, it appears that you overcame, 'cause the results look pissah!








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Sorry bought the spelling i didnt get very good graded's in english, plus my mind is faster than my hands. High strung lol. I went and got Varathane professional oil based. It self levels, dries a bit slower. Im still spraying it. I want a couple more coats. Still having issues with the odd run,i keep bumping one of the knobs on my hvlp gun and it lets out too much product. I have sprayed a bit on cars, but this is a whole new ball of wax.Should get it right by the time im all done.

Richard, so far the speaker looks fantastic! Can't wait to see the final product.

You could open up your own enclosure workshop for the DIY crowd?

Like bob said, you start doing something for money and its then work and no longer fun. Things like this are kinda like a bucket list. Just things i want to do maybe a few times . I mostly did it for my sanity.

Few more days before the reassembly , then i will post one last pic . Then i can start doing my measurements. I am building a different crossover with higher grade components to see if i can hear a difference, and or measure a difference.This is not to say i am unhappy with how it sounds now.Just ongoing research in my quest for knowledge and understanding.

Ha ha, that's true. I used to always jokingly ask my best friend why he doesn't try to become a pro fisherman, and he'd always answer, "No, then I'd have nothing to do on my days off."

I think everyone here will eagerly await your crossover test.

AT this point all i have is a big bag of capactiors,coils and resistors so im a ways away but it will happen.I really need to do some room treatments as well before i do any in room testing. The weather needs to improve substantially so i can perform some outdoor tests as well.

Very nice work! Keep that sanity for a while longer. We want to see more pics and hear details from your final tiesting.

stunning work

I like to tinker with speaker building myself but I completely suck at the finishing stage, I'm very jealous.

Thanks ben. Actually i enjoy all facets of the build,though finishing can be tough. Through trial and error i found that when spraying i need to do very lite but consistent coats and more of them.The hardest part is the waiting for the poly to dry. Since i am doing this at work i have to go home for a few hours then come back and its 4 miles each way. PITA

Last time i will bore ya all with my pics Here it is finished . I can rub it out with lemon oil after about 3 weeks.
BTW the color is a lot closer, the M80's are in the shadow of the curtain.


Here it is Nekid


And full dress




Scuse the mess it where my kid sleeps.

Storage Wars! Woohoo!

Yeah , thats a good portrayl of Darrel.

I'd like to dip my cigar in Brandi

Richard, your speaker looks fantastic! Excellent job!

St pat is feeling sleepy ,you are now under my control. Take apart you salks and give me measurements lol.

Thanks patty for your kind words

^^^^^ True dat

ZZZzzzzzzz. . . . . . . *starts packing up speakers to ship to the Yukon*

Alternative, everyone meets at your place on easter weekend,and we throw a ho down or 2 . You pass out and i take the speaker apart.

Socket,
if you want to build some speakers for fun, Decware has some neat plans, including some cool folded horn subs and if you buy drivers from Madisound, they will usually have plans too.

I will check that out. I have been to seas wesite and they have a transmission line plans for a speaker they call thor, that use the w18 drivers. I found a retailer in canada and the drivers are 225. each plus 263. for tweeters.

Looks just fantastic!

Are those Axiom drivers? How does it sound?

Fantastic Indeed! You should be very proud.

I'm too lazy to reread the thread but I don't recall any explanation of the grill. Are they also home built and how are they attaching. They look great as well, right down to the tapered corners.

The thread started out with a different title. The drivers are V3's from my M80's that were replaced with V2's. To my ears it sounds really good. The tweeter is from my VP100.

The grill i made with my router from 3/4 mdf ,i cut it down to 3/8 by laying piece's of 3/4 mdf around it routing it down. Grill cloth i got of ebay and used my hot glue gun.In retrospect i wish i hadnt cut the corners down as much. I used neodymium magnets. These magnets are super strong but it stll took a bunch becasue of the seperation between the ones in the cabinet and the ones in the grill.The grill needs a bit of support in the middle but im still postulating on what exactly to do.

Only comment i got at the AVScience diy forum was i should have put the tweeter closer to the mids. Sounds fine to me. Measurement will get done soon . Also forgot to add some filling,so that is on the todo list.

How did you design the crossover?

I downloaded a program called Room Eq Wizard . I had to build a device so i could measure all the thiele small parameters and loaded them into a program called xover3. There are other programs but they were really complicated. I went with basic 1st order for the woof and mid and 3rd order apc for the tweet.
I am also working on another crossover, with an impedance eq built in.

i have a behringer mike and a preamp with phantom power and outboard sound card to do my measurements with.

Turned out great! Can't wait to see what you measure.

Looks first class, I'm hoping it sounds even better than it looks.