[NaDs]

Hey all,

So I originally asked Rick to design a floorstander version to the Vigore and I didn't give him much else to go on other than I wanted dual woofers, and I left the driver selection and placement up to rick. I just asked for a neutral speaker that was ever so slightly forgiving and to place the drivers wherever he thought was best for sound quality.

The design he came up consisted of using all SB acoustics drivers including the new sb29bac-c000-4 berrylium tweeter, the Satori MR13-P 5in midrange and dual SB23mfcl 8in woofers. The plans I received for the cabinet were of the coesivo, while the new three way has the woofers low and offset, so I had to do some adjustments  in cad as the bracing would have interfered with the woofer and crossover placement. Additionally the new design completely interfered with any possible placement of a conventional port, so I had to build in a slot port. Rick was very prompt and helpful getting me through all of this and dealt with my neurotic overthinking quite well.

The entire speaker is 18mm plywood, preveneered walnut for the bits that matter, the front baffle is made of 2 pieces of the 18mm ply, almost 1.5in thick. If I ever get to build another speaker I will never ever ever ever again use preveneered ply. Trying to build something this heavy and complex with the veneer exposed is asking for trouble. With every cut there is always a worry the veneer is going to tear out, a miscut would show in the final finish, and mitered corners are a bitch to get perfect if you want a high end finish. It makes for a needlessly stressful build. Next time it's mdf and veneer after.

Another tip for anyone interested. I used glued butt joints, which is plenty strong enough once it's all together. But getting the bracing to not slide on the glue and keeping everything lined up is a pain. The only reason I succeeded is there were two of us to keep an eye on everything. If I were to try this again, dados, biscuits or dowels would be a great idea!

I'm almost at the finishing stages, so here's a bunch of pics and comments of the journey!



initial mockup, my photoshop skill are severely lacking



The girlfriend helping me pick plywood, she never got angry at me even once. I don't deserve her!



The tweeter is kinda ugly in most of the pictures on the internet. It's actually pretty good looking in person, and the grill protecting the beryllium is probably a good idea!




The SB23MFCL is stupidly heavy woofer. I was straining to hold it in this shot.

[NaDs]

The planning to get everything just right requires a fair amount of forethought. All pieces are cut at the same time, so the settings on the saw blade are maintained throughout. It's really the only way to keep things uniform. The sides were marked and glued with a few pin nails to help keep things aligned. Again, if I did it again, dados would be my weapon of choice.



The mid cab enclosure glued in place



The mitered corners I was complaining about. Getting this perfect was terrifying. You only get one shot to get it right, and if it goes south, I would have to reveneer it, completely losing the continuous grain and the colour would be off. Don't use preveneered ply for speakers!



The continuous grain!

[NaDs]

 
The back glued in. I used a piece of mahogany veneered plywood, since it's about 1/3 the price of walnut veneered ply. This pic was after staining to match. After thinking it through, once clear-coated, the stained mahogany and walnut veneer will never match, so the rear will be painted black in the end. The edges will be router flush at a later stage.



The front baffle was tricky business. At this point I can't cut the woofer holes in the front part of the baffle, as I wouldn't have enough material for a router bit bearing when routing the hardwood edges that will go in after the baffle has been glue in place. But I can't chamfer the rear of the driver hole if I cut the hole after the baffle is glued in. So I had to pre-cut the woofer hole in the rear piece of the front baffle but not the front pice. So here the woofer is being test fit



The front piece of the front baffle. The holes are drilled from the back to place the grill magnets about 1 to 2 mm from the front surface. The slot port was cut in both the front and rear pieces of the front baffle at this point, by laying each one in place in the cabinet and using a flush trim bit with the router. The front and rear baffle slot port cutouts have to be cut individually as the flush cut bit isn't long enough to cut 1.5 in of material and still have the bearing follow the slot of the cabinet.



Doweling glued in place to hold the magnets in place and fill the voids.



Finally the two pieces of baffle are ready to be glued together. Here you can see the rear chamfer for the woofer cutout, leaving extra material for the mounting screws. For a woofer as big as the sb23mfcl, this is probably overkill, but it doesn't hurt!



I used a jasper jig at this point to cut out the mid and tweeter holes. Everything lines up exactly flush when I test fitted it. I spent a fair amount of time test cutting and measuring before doing this cut, I wanted it perfect. Unfortunately my jasper jig is 1/32 off, so I had to modify the damn jig (drill extra holes) for every hole size. It was a lot of work but it paid off in the results. Both drivers sit perfectly flush.



The rear of the midrange driver cutout. Note the chamfer to let the midrange breathe. With this little midrange placed in a straight hole through a 1.5in baffle, there wouldn't be enough breathing room for air movement. The added air resistance acts to dampen the movement of the driver. The results of which show up in the frequency response. I originally left extra material where the mounting screws go, for a little extra meat. But I ended up chamfering it completely later on, as the screws would still have plenty of material.

[NaDs]

The crossovers being mounted and the wires guided through the cab. At this point all the wires are crimped with connectors. The final wiring looks a helluva lot neater than the picture.



The damping material installed. Rick sends some seriously expensive damping material with his kits. Really impressed with the quality of the components he uses. Even the speaker terminal and plate are thick, and heavy. Pretty much oozing quality.



With the front glued in, it's starting to look like a speaker, or coffin.



I forgot to take a pic after the solid walnut edge was mitered and glued in. Here it is after routing the roundover profile. I have to admit, I am copying Salk aesthetics. Really love the way their song3 series looks. I didn't full copy their edge profile as I want the front to have a smooth transition, but for the roundover to be incomplete on the side, to keep a little bit of an edge. Looks really sexy in person. This was done with a 3/4 inch roundover bit.



The woofer hole cut with my malfunctioning jasper jig. One hour of setup and test cuts to get it perfect. I think I will write them a negative review on amazon. A $60 piece of plastic shouldn't be this inaccurate. I really should have to add holes to compensate. Either way, the final result is great. Ignore that the tweeters aren't flush. Once screwed in, it lays perfectly flat.





Almost ready for finishing. I'm going to use danish oil to pop the grain followed with General Finishes High Perfomance topcoat. Danish oil seems to pop the grain more than any other finish I've tested. Really nice sharp contrast. Still considering using medium and light walnut danish oils together to create a really mild burst finish. Soon!

[poseidonsvoice]

Hi!

Few things:

1. It’s awesome that your girlfriend is so understanding!
2. Exceptional effort so far! You have an awesome skillset!
3. That damping material looks similar to NoRez, but I know Parts Express sells Sonic Barrier, etc...

Best,
Anand.

[oskar]

Looking very good!
Thanks for documenting and sharing your build.
Tear out is a bitch but it seems you overcame it.
No doubt you're eager to get them into your room.
Let us know how they sound.

[DaveC113]

Looks great! 

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect with the title "Canadian 3 Way". Thought I might learn something new... I did, just not what I expected.   

[RDavidson]

Looks great! 

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect with the title "Canadian 3 Way". Thought I might learn something new... I did, just not what I expected.   

 

[Norman Tracy]

Hi NaDs,

Thanks for the write up on your project with Rick. The quality of the design, drivers, and your fab skills will yield a fantastic system. Looking forward to seeing the completion pictures.

Given my personal pro-plywood anti-MDF preference the added stress of using the factory veneered ply is worth it in my humble opinion. When I have built identical speaker boxes using MDF vs. plywood I preferred the sonic signature of the plywood. And the veneer applied using the the massive presses and production engineered adhesives at the factory will never give you bubble or edge lifting headaches in the future. It appears your material is veneered on both faces, that balances stress on the panels and is also a very good thing.

None of that to minimize the hours you spent on the tight rope without a net using that material. Getting to this point says you have great skills, tools, knowledge, and nerves.

[NaDs]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'm sorry I did not deliver the 3 way you guys expected... 

I do see the pros of using the pre-veneered ply, which may be worth the extra effort in the long run. The ultrathin veneer was extremely stressful to sand. I really really hope I like these speakers as I don't see myself having another opportunity to build another pair for a very long time, if ever. I consider myself lucky to have even had the opportunity to build these!

Anyways, the project continues...




I hunted everywhere for Famowood wood filler. Really great to work with, easy to apply, strong and sands beautifully. This sanding isn't complete in this pic. I used the walnut colour. Not a bad match. It darkens up nicely once the danish oil goes on, and becomes very difficult to distinguish once clear is applied. I did have one are were I lost a small piece of veneer and the ply below it when doing the woofer cutouts. There's about 2mm between the woofer cutout and the hardwood edge, so it doesn't take much. The famowood filled it in beautifully, and after sanding and danish oil it looks perfect. I can't tell the difference between the repaired edge and the the other ones. I really can't recommend famowood enough!!!

I struggled initially with using an orbital sander to get the hardwood flush with the veneer. I tried applying extra pressure on the hardwood to minimize contact with the veneer, it made for a very time consuming job that was far from perfect. What worked really well was 150 grit sandpaper over a long narrow piece of plywood (2" x 8" rectangle). Using one finger pressure over the hardwood side and using long strokes I was able to get everything exactly flush in 1/10th the time (no exaggeration). After that everything was sanded up to 220grit.










This is what it looks like after 1 coat of natural danish oil. I used 2 coats of black walnut danish oil on the hardwood to get tone to match a little more. It's interesting how much colour variation walnut has, and how much ambient light plays into it.

I was just using the danish oil to bring out the grain and give it some contrast. I'm gonna wait a week for it to fully off gas and then coat it with GF high performance poly, and then paint the black bits.

That's all for now!

[NaDs]

Well finishing is definitely the most stressful part of the project. I made some serious mistakes and came pretty close to giving up.

After letting the Danish oil cure for a week, I decided to use a thin coat of 1.5 lb cut dewaxed shellac to seal the Danish oil and help with surface compatibility issues. Turns out with such a complex shape that has radiuses and cutouts, shellac is tricky to apply smoothly. I had some build up issues and brushmarks etc. So I gave it a light sanding to try and fix those areas, and wet it to confirm that I had not sanded through. So added a the first coat of general finishes high performance poly in high gloss.



Turns out I did sand through and now it's sealed in with a coat of clear... Perfect.

In addition to this, there were issues with swelling and roughness in those areas. I really didn't think this was fixable to be honest, and about here I almost gave up.

In the end I lightly sanded the rough spots with 400 grit paper and used varathane special Walnut gel stain to lightly glaze between each coat. I ended up doing 2 coats of gloss and 3 coats of satin. The first three were applied with an expensive brush, whereas the last two coats went on with a doing brush. The sponge brush gave a much cleaner smoother finish. Pretty happy with the way it turned out. Pretty close to meeting my expectations!






This is under natural light, really shows the chattoyance.



Right now I'm in the middle of painting the back black with general finishes lamp black milk paint.
 

[DaveC113]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'm sorry I did not deliver the 3 way you guys expected... 

Yeah, I was pretty sure it would include Bigfoot somehow... Oh well, the speakers are great too! 

I agree about finishing, stressful and not as easy as it looks! Good job though, I think it came out great in the end.

[DoubleChin]

I’d like to build a pair of this
Can I still get plan or crossover design somewhere?
I would like to know if someone can help with