[Nebby]

I've started building a pair of Zaph's Bargain Mini's (ZBM) along with Zaph's SR-71. I'll be documenting my build progress in this thread with pictures and comments. Making this thread somewhat for your entertainment and for me to use it somewhat as a log of progress (or lack thereof) as these will basically be my second and third woodworking projects to date. Hope you enjoy this thread as much as I (hopefully) will enjoy the build!

I'm planning on building the boxes with a removable front baffle and bracing where I can fit. The finish will be semi-flat black paint on the front baffle and veneer on the rest of the body. I picked up a few types of veneer but haven't decided on which I want to use on which.

I've already cut the panels for the SR-71, and the initial cuts for the ZBM.

Here's the SR-71 in dry-fit form:

I'll be using 5 screws per edge, in this picture I only have screws in each of the corners of the top and bottom. The back plate is not screwed in, it's held there by friction alone. Frankly speaking I could probably glue the speakers together, but where would the fun be in that?

Here's the panels of the ZBM, after sizing and cutting.

If you look carefully, you can see I wrote the length of each side and a short description of each panel. I learned the hard way that it gets confusing very quickly when working with multiple cuts if you don't have them labeled (and measure...measure....and measure again before cutting!)

Here are the ZBM's, after drilling, countersinking, and screwing:

Probably not noticable, but I left a 1/32th of an inch on each side to account for any follies I make on the positioning. Luckily it doesn't seem like I messed up anywhere. I should be able to take that edge off easily with a flush trim bit on a router.

04/02/09
Today I didn't get much done, mostly because I was inspired by seeing a picture of a dovetail jig online, and asked my woodshop if they had one; turns out they did! So most of my time today was spent adjusting, testing, and readjusting this tool:

After roughly 45 minutes I had good fitting joints. I will be using this jig in the future to make some wooden enclosures for the DAC's that are mostly on temporary mounting boards right now

Quick picture to show the size difference between the ZBM and SR-71:

SR-71 Parts:

Drivers

Terminal post panel

Crossover(s)

Really didn't do much today aside from tinkering with the jig, though I spent a couple minutes with this tool:

Scriber! Saves you a LOT of time that you would otherwise spent measuring again and again. On the bottom you can see the marks I made for the screws that will secure the back panel of the ZBM's.

04/03/09
More tinkering with the dovetail jig today, got some results I think are acceptable. Other than that I did more measuring and marking on the SR-71, and measured/marked/drilled/etc some more on the ZBM.

Didn't quite line up the bottom piece correctly, found out the clap tends to raise up the piece by ever so much if you're not careful.

Somewhat happy with this one, any comments?

ZBM top and bottom and sides of the rear drilled/countersunk/screwed. It's starting to be a pretty solid enclosure!

I'll be testing out veneering on a scrap piece of MDF this weekend to get a feel for how the glue and softener work.

In other news, I'll be building up a pair of TPA counterpoint boards for my buffalo DAC this weekend. I plan on building a case for the DAC out of wood, with dovetail joints. I'm thinking of making the case two parts, rear panel and bottom one piece and the top/sides/front another piece. Put a dado in the side and front and slide the bottom piece right in, with four screws in the rear securing it in.

 

[TimmyMac]

Nice! I've got to get to building a set someday... Maybe when my DAC is finished... the old Akai things I'm using are way boomy in the bass.

 

[a1m80t]

Looks like a lot of fun. I'm at the point where i cannot justify spending a dime more on headphone equipment so I’ve been looking for a new, non-headphone related project.... thanks!

 

[Nebby]

Didn't go into the woodshop, felt too under the weather to trust myself with the project. So instead I did went ahead and tried out a bit of veneering. The veneer I did the test with was a scrap piece of 1/40" figured bubinga.

Main objective of this test was to find out:
1) How difficult the process is
-not very
2) If screws or puttied countersinks showed thru the veneer
-1/40" thick veneer I expected they wouldn't, and they don't
3) How hard it is to work with the veneer
-it's a bit tough, sharp tools help; went with a simple score and snap method for this test piece, will probably cut it properly with the real thing/2nd test
4) Overall melt/solidify time for the heat-lock glue
-initially melts/hardens within seconds, instructions recommend letting it harden for 24hours.

On to the pictures:

Extra countersunk screws

Flush countersunk screws (left one is slightly low)

Extra countersunk screws haphazardly puttied

Glue rolled on to both surfaces. You'll notice that the veneer bent quite a bit from the glue. I read in a book that you can prevent this by spraying the opposite side with water to equal the expansion. The book didn't say what would happen if you didn't, so I decided to find out.

Turns out there's nothing wrong with just letting it dry. I think with a thinner veneer or with veneer that's more unstable you would need to spritz with water, but the bubinga turned out just fine. This is after letting it sit for 30minutes:

After scoring and snapping off the edges (yes, it was rough but it's just a test) and then doing a quick sanding job with 320grit:

Planning on doing a coat or two of spray lacquer to see how it looks/reacts to a finish tomorrow.

 

[Nebby]

Did trial run of the baffle cuts today, first I tried to do the tweeter:

As you can see, it didn't work out too well. The stopper on the router got loose halfway and as I went the router went deeper and deeper until at one point it just went right thru the piece. After getting a feel for how tight was "properly" tight, I went on to go for the woofer.

It turned out a bit better this time, although I went too deep and the cutout got loose when I went to complete the circle. Next time I'm going to make sure to leave a tiny bit left over so the piece is intact, then route that out on the other side.

After placing the woofer in, the frame was acceptably flush with the baffle. It's difficult to see, but the frame has a bevel to it, so getting a proper measurement of the thickness was a bit difficult. I went with what the specs gave me and it ended up alright IMHO.

Lessons learned:
1) Check router stopper is properly tightened, then check again.
2) When doing the cutout, leave a bit of wood so the piece doesn't go loose at the end.
3) Working with measurements given in metric is a genuine PITA when all your equipment are in imperial units.

 

[MASantos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nebby /img/forum/go_quote.gif 3) Working with measurements given in metric is a genuine PITA when all your equipment are in imperial units.

In a perfect world, everything would be metric!

Great work! Keep us posted!

 

[cyberspyder]

My shop has the exact same fence...Delta Unisaw?

Conincidentally, I also built a pair of ZBM4's a year back out of baltic birch...nice stuff.

 

[Nebby]

Long-overdue-update:

After a break in build waiting for parts plus busy with other stuff, the SR-71 speakers are mostly done box-wise. The enclosures are glued and screwed together, the baffle mount corners are installed, Sonicbarrier foam is cut to size and installed, and brace dowels are installed. The baffle is still bare so I'll need to trim it to size (it's a touch larger than the box), run a roundover on it, route out the speaker cutouts then paint it black. Also, I have decided to go with external crossovers housed in a MDF case.

That being said while waiting for the glue to dry I worked on veneering my bargain mini's:

Wet lacquer and flash make for some very eye-popping curl

Here they are after four coats and fully dried:

Yes, it's not a great picture, but you can somewhat see how the curl is quite 3D even without flash.

Next up...veneering the SR-71's!

 

[Nebby]

SR-71 veneering complete:

Sanding and finishing tomorrow

 

[Nebby]

Finished painting the ZBM4's:

That's with roughly 7 coats of semi-clear lacquer, no flash, and the finish fully dry.

I decided it would make more sense to do the cutouts prior to sanding and finishing, so I routed out the hole for the port and it's countersink:

I also cut out the hole for the speakon connector, but the forstner bit was abused badly by other previous users, so my countersink ended up rougly 1/16ths of an inch too wide due to wobble from the bit.

I think I'll be using some black sealant to fill in the gap along with sealing off the the speakon connector.

 

[ting.mike]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nebby /img/forum/go_quote.gif Long-overdue-update: After a break in build waiting for parts plus busy with other stuff, the SR-71 speakers are mostly done box-wise. The enclosures are glued and screwed together, the baffle mount corners are installed, Sonicbarrier foam is cut to size and installed, and brace dowels are installed. The baffle is still bare so I'll need to trim it to size (it's a touch larger than the box), run a roundover on it, route out the speaker cutouts then paint it black. Also, I have decided to go with external crossovers housed in a MDF case. That being said while waiting for the glue to dry I worked on veneering my bargain mini's: Wet lacquer and flash make for some very eye-popping curl Here they are after four coats and fully dried: Yes, it's not a great picture, but you can somewhat see how the curl is quite 3D even without flash. Next up...veneering the SR-71's!

Very very nice build.. but I like the curls the best!!!

 

[Nebby]

Thanks for the compliment! Well you can't quite see it in the pictures but the Bubinga has a decent amount of figure in it as well

 

[dbfreak]

Looking good. I hope for some pics once they are all completed.

 

[ting.mike]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nebby /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the compliment! Well you can't quite see it in the pictures but the Bubinga has a decent amount of figure in it as well

yes. it's very nice. can't wait to see the finished results.

 

[Nebby]

Installed port and jacks on the mini's and finished clear coating the SR-71's. The result: