Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Lets plan a theater space

I know right! I was starting to make the rounds locally for what was available, how to and how much. I find online project shopping totally misleading when it comes to staying on budget so I like to verify what things cost where I will actually buy them. Assembly and finish are kinda linked, because how I finish may affect the strategy for assembly order. I can finish the base and baffle seperately from the enclosure if it makes sense to, then assemble.

After pricing out an Alkylid primer, oil based Tremclad high gloss, and Circa Nuluster-55 combo a local paint tech suggested (an interesting epoxy resin I hadnt considered) I really realized just how much potential there is to attack this finish from any angle. A blow torch to help finish a speaker box? That's just cool.

Then I got home and the phone rang..... "Hey, I might be able to get us some of this for free. You interested?"

Little progress today. I got shipping notification on my drivers from Solen so now I'm done with wait and see. Tomorrow I might keep on going and see if I can't get the cabinets together without the front baffles. I have some sanding to do to make sure everything fits right for when the baffle gets clamped on.

Today I worked alone so I chose to glue, pin with brads, pre-drill then screw using 2" coarse thread drywall screws. These will likely be wrapped in the mystery meat I was referring to before- 1" Baltic Birch plywood. Score! It's not a done deal yet, but the options for staining with a real wood finish are exciting. I hope it works out. They will be ballpark 200lbs if it happens. lol.

Glue on base layers before spreading with foam

The before pile


The after pile

Heavy!

Yeah... Too heavy maybe. Started off this morning all ready to pound these out and had a mishap. A sign to slow down. One of the cabinets fell from the table and broke the corner. Luckily it was minor. I should be able to fill it when I am filling the screw head holes and flushing up the cabinet edges.



Had all the MDF parts prepped now and was starting to get things finalized for fit. A palm sander with 80 grit made short work of flushing the edges up.



Then it was time to test fit to ensure nothing would buldge or leave a gap. Goldilocks syndrome. Test, sand, test sand.



And here is the first one all glued up. I'm 6'1" 230lbs and these guys look big beside me. Gonna be awesome once there are 3! Gotta go get more wood glue and screws. More later.

Wow those are gonna be an S.O.B. to move around. that looks almost 5 foot tall. Luckily you plan well enough that you probably have the placement set up with out to much relocating.

Sorry we kinda jinxed you with the stories of mishaps that only the builder knows the real flaws. Here's hoping you can fix that to your satisfaction, even if you know it's there yourself. Every one else is still going to be in aw of your accomplishment.

Mdf is horrible for chipped corners etc thats why we have wood filler or in my case i used bondo when i F'd up my M80 on the table saw Damn i had totally forgotten about that now im depressed. JK> Good progress , and keep the mask on that MDF dust is so nasty.

Little stuff on the big ship as they say. A little patch on the back should be out of sight I hope.

Good weekend. The cabinets are together and the baffles are gluing up. The plan calls for a 3/4" and 1/2" MDF piece to be laminated together for the baffles. It seemed best to glue them all at once stacked up to save on clamps. There is only 8 on hand here. It was all going well until I noticed 8 clamps wasn't covering enough real estate. Aha! I could shift the clamps around and drive long screws through all the layers where the driver cutouts will be. It was going very well until the last screwhead broke off driven in all the way. lol. A future adventure.

I forgot to post up a pic of the 3/8" threaded rod DIY spikes. These will thread through the bases from above to jack up the speakers and level them. There were some decent wood knobs at the local craft store that should work well to dress the top up. Have to decide on gloss black or stain to match the cabinet sides or metallic brass paint to match the threaded rod and hardware. hmmmm. Sharpening the rod was a 3 step process. Angle grinder, belt sander and a modified "drill doctor" drill bit sharpener. I think I invalidated the warranty when I bored a hole through the side to use like a pencil sharpener. Worked great though. If you ever do this clamp your workpiece down!! Kinda dangerous.

DIY 7" Spikes closeup


Another weekend in the books. I'm pumped. Fun stuff.

Oh my! They are pretty big in a human living space.

HOLY HECKFIRE

Probably just a quirk of perspective, but they look bigger than your current speakers.