[jacket_fan]

Has anyone attempted to bend curvature into the side panels of speakers?  

There are a number of speakers that have curved sides that I think looks good.  I have seen woodworkers bend wood to various degrees, but something like MDF or Baltic birch at a thickness of ¾ in looks to be a challenge.  Especially for DIY speaker builders.   I think line arrays would look great with sides that curved out.

I was thinking that you could build a form to the shape.  Then use a clamping along the edge.  Slowly increase clamping pressure and form the MDF or Baltic birch to shape.  

If this sort of thing can only be done by a big press or special tooling I will give up on the idea.  But if there is a way to make it work, or a particular material to use, I may want to give it a try.

[mpm32]

You wouldn't want to curve 3/4 material.  You could if you kerf cut it and then bend and filled in the kerf cuts with glue.  Or you could use thinner layers, such as 3 1/4" layers and bend each on individually.  It's not hard at all to do.

[Watson]

You might be interested in this page (one approach to curved speakers):
http://www.zaphaudio.com/audio-speaker20a.html
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[jacket_fan]

I never thought you could kerf cut MDF.  

Very impressive.  Thanks for the link.  

I have a 1/16 blade.  Looks like I need to make some sawdust this weekend and experiment.

[Brian Bunge]

Mark,

I've seen people cut out their shelf braces so that they are curved and then use 1/4" MDF in 3 or 4 layers to build up the curved sides of the enclosures.  From the pics I've seen it seems to have worked out pretty well.

[jacket_fan]

Thanks Brian, I'll give it a try as well.  

I cut some kerf cuts into a 3/4 piece of MDF and it bends well.  But leaves gaps in the wood.  I know you are supposed to fill with adhesive, but sounds like Brians way would make a more solid panel.

[Bill Baker]

Kerfing works very well. I was doing this about 10 years ago when custom designing and building speakers.  If using MDF, the key is not to scratch or mar the outer service if you want to paint the cabinet. Once you break that outer skin, it's a pain in the ass to get a smooth, paintable service back. If using Veneer, this is not as much of a problem.

 One of my secrets........ scoop up some of the MDF sawdust off the floor. When you are ready to fill the 'cuts', mix the sawdust with some wood glue. This will provide a stronger bond and not waste as much glue. Think about it. What is MDF anyway.

 I have also used this technique with veneered plywood as the outer veneer coat holds things together and keeps the integrity of the structure. Once internal bracing is installed, you are good to go.

 I have also tried other techniques as mentioned in this thread such as cutting special shaped "frames" out of MDF and then using multiple layers of thinner material to build up the skin. I once built a large speaker that used 10 layers of 1/8" outer skin material. This produced an extremely rigid enclosure.

 Imagination is all that is needed to come up with a design that fits your needs. Don't spend to much time asking yourself "is this a proper method" because it doesn't matter. If it works for you, that's all that counts. Be unique. You will have more pride in the finished product.

[jacket_fan]

Imagination is all that is needed to come up with a design that fits your needs. Don't spend to much time asking yourself "is this a proper method" because it doesn't matter. If it works for you, that's all that counts. Be unique. You will have more pride in the finished product.

Ain't that the truth.  That really is what DIY is all about.  In the end when you stand back and are pleased with your work.

[Bizarroterl]

http://www.aitwood.com/StoreFront.Asp?WoodType=MDFNEATFORM&CATID=10&Section=MDFNEATFRM&wDesc=Neatform%20Bendy%20MDF

[rosconey]

you can also stack mdf cuts-saw it a few years back when i was thinking about doing it-buy a boat load of mdf and make a template for the shape of the cabinet's bottom-use a router to cut a  the pieces , stack and glue them-then sand smooth and cover -this way is solid as a rock-you can have thick sides and baffle's with no intrenal brace's if you dont want them

[tg3]

http://www.aitwood.com/StoreFront.Asp?WoodType=MDFNEATFORM&CATID=10&Section=MDFNEATFRM&wDesc=Neatform%20Bendy%20MDF

Great link! Thanks!

[cOz]

This site is awsome for learning about different techniques for making a speaker with curved sides.  I have the same interest.

http://users.tpg.com.au/users/gradds/curved/curved%20sided%20loudspeakers.htm

Cheers,
Robert

[klh]

This topic is quite inspiring. All you need is some basic tools, a little bit of money and lots of time and patience. Anybody with a reasonable amount of skill could do it... it just may take the novice "a bit" more time, wood/MDF and patience.

Are there any shapes to be avoided? It seems to me one could create nasty nodes within a cabinet if the shape is wrong, and it would be hard to predict what would work and not work. Imagine how frustrating it would be to create an elagent peice of art only for it to sound like crap!

[skrivis]

you can also stack mdf cuts-saw it a few years back when i was thinking about doing it-buy a boat load of mdf and make a template for the shape of the cabinet's bottom-use a router to cut a  the pieces , stack and glue them-then sand smooth and cover -this way is solid as a rock-you can have thick sides and baffle's with no intrenal brace's if you dont want them

I think it was Vandersteen that was bulding up enclosures doing this. I remember seeing some good pics of how it's done.

Fiberglass works really well for this too. Doing a constrained-layer sandwich with fiberglass skin and some kind of damping material inside would be great.

[Watson]

Here's a great link showing a variety of ways to make curved loudspeakers:
http://users.tpg.com.au/users/gradds/curved/curved%20sided%20loudspeakers.htm
Be sure to check out page 2 as well.  The first page is all translams.