Hello, first post here. Finished these about a month ago and thought to share a few photos of build process and listening impressions. Rick was very professional to deal with, I didn't have a lot of questions during build, but he always responded promptly and thoroughly to email queries. I spent a fair amount of time doing research before ordering, and for my purposes it was really nice to be able to speak with Rick directly during the process of picking a kit to build.
I ended up building 1" thick MDF cabinets with book matched Lacewood veneer and black Valchromat (colored MDF variant) side panels. A few photos of build process and finished speakers attached:
Pre cut ventilation chamfers and brace mortises on back of baffle before assembly. I use a Festool Domino mortise and tenon joiner - the tool makes it really easy to produce accurate and strong joints.
Gluing the box - here only bottoms of the 3 right hand joints are being glued - big panel clamps help keep things square and I dry fit tenons in rest of the box to keep everything aligned. Slow way to do this, but it's a hobby!
Central box all glued and veneered with side panel mortises cut. I like using a hot iron and Titebond original for veneer - there are a couple tricks, but done right it works extremely well. Done wrong it will bubble and fall off.
Flush trimming 3 edges of my black side panels. Nasty clouds of black MDF!! Front edge has a 20 degree chamfer and I aligned it to baffle with Domino tool, dry fit and clamped it to box them trimmed top, bottom and back edges to to fit.
Test fitting drivers after cutting openings. This was most stressful part of the whole build as messing up now would ruin many hours of work. Purchased a basic 8" digital caliper and measured depth and diameter on many test cuts before digging into cabinets. Held tolerances to +/- .25 mm, so happy with results
Mounitng X-overs and internal wiring. I've built a handful of vacuum tube amps - when doing internal wiring can't help myself and got carried away on a rainy night and had some fun making full on wiring harnesses and used way too many zip ties.
Finish line in sight, decided to drag things out a couple weeks by fabricating copper and Lacewood outrigger feet. Combining wood and metal is always painfully slow going. I like them, but they only stick out about 15mm on each side so not sure they really add enough to justify the 25 hours it took to make them
Fin!
How do they sound?
Well, I'm really happy. I wanted something that was easy to listen to but still very accurate and these seem to deliver. Thanks Rick!
