Kreg Jig used in my new speaker system

[Ben Socratous]

I bought my K4 about 6 months ago now, and up until about 1 month ago I had only used it to make wooden frames to stretch canvas art across (I moonlight framing pictures for a mate). Having built a few decent speaker systems for freinds and family, and being a fan of turning movies and  the PS3 up really loud, I thought it about time to make myself something really decent.

After the interest I got on a recent facebook post re Kreg's question about what are we building on the weekend, I thought I might share the build process with you here. It is to be a 5.1 surround system. The centre and rear speakers use twin 5.25" vifa woofers and 1" vifa tweeters in a ported box. The front speakers use an 8" vifa woofer, 5.25" vifa mid and a 1.5" peerles tweeter in a partial transmission line box. The sub (when I get around to it!) will be 12" peerless XLS woofer in a hybrid transmission line/ported box.

I started out using 2 1200x2400mm sheets of 17mm Tasmanian Oak veneered MDF. I still haven't got myself a sliding table attachment for my table saw yet and cant handle full sheets myself, so I got my supplier to cut the pieces to size (helped by the fact that they have a digital panel saw with scribing knife). When the boxes are finished, they will be treated to a hand rubbed oil finish. Once I got all the pieces home, the machining began...



ps, sorry about image quality, the iphone is the only working digi cam I have atm!

[Ben Socratous]

The start of things to come

All external panels are mitred for a seamless finish

Router + circle cutting jig makes for nicely shaped woofer holes and tweeter rebates

Resorting to 6kg of glue = proof you can never have enough clamps (girlfriend disagrees)

All internal baffles and braces have been Kreg'd into place

Dry run test fit

After one coat


More pics to follow as the project progressess, after having spent so much time at mates places last week fixing things for them my allowed time in the shed after work on weekdays is now sanctioned! lol

[KregRep]

Looks like a fantastic project, Ben! Looking forward to seeing the final result. Thanks for posting the in-progress shots! This project was featured on the Kreg Jig Facebook Fan Page!

[Jamie Ashton]

absolutely brilliant... I am feeling inspired!

[Ben Socratous]

Almost done! I just need to wait for the paint on the base plates to dry then screw them on. Until such time, I have them sitting on a bare piece of MDF to act as a temporary base plate so I can still listen to them (yes, I have no patience)

Internal damping and wiring done

As they sit at the moment, and they sound bloody good :)

[Ben Socratous]

Ok, I have finally finished them! And here is the end result...

I have just finished setting them up in the room properly, and playing a few minutes of Iron Man on blu ray through them. OMG if I had a bigger screen I'd think I was at a cinema, the sound blew me away (and possibly pissed off the neighbours too :/ lol)

[KregRep]

Amazing Kreg Jig project, Ben! Really shows the extreme versatility of the tool. This speaker system looks amazing, care to share any of the specifics? Stats? Inquiring minds want to know.

Well done, great project!

[Ben Socratous]

Unfortunately I cannot go into the specifics of the design as they are all modelled off of commercially available speakers that retail in excess of $4k. A friend of mine bought a set a few months back and I went with him to help load them into his truck. I got talking to the guy for a while about how I used to be into woodwork and electronics back in the day and that I wouldn't mind a set of his if he could do them in tasmanian oak. He said that the guy he contracts for his cabinet work uses exclusively american oak, but could be stained any colour. I said I much prefer the grain pattern of the tasmanian over the american and he agreed to share his plans for the enclosures and crossovers on the basis that I do not make them publically available.

I can however tell you that the centre and rear chanels are 4 ohm with a sensitivity of 91dB and the fronts are 8 ohm with a sensitivity of 92dB. With an amplifier with enough balls, they will pass any THX test for a consumer based system (ergo convincing girlfriend new amp is required!) and with my current setup running a 60Hz high pass filter on the centre and rears and a 40Hz high pass filter on the fronts leaving the sub dedicated to all bass below 40Hz I can play any movie/game/cd at maximum volume with the only distortion coming from the neighbours complaining about the noise lol.

Having said that, if anyone here is interested in building themselves a set of decent speakers, I should be able to help them out in the design stages. PM away!

[Joseph Grima]

Have you sealed inside the speakers. I sealed a set of speakers i made with silastik and they worked much better because no air could escape.

[Ben Socratous]

I try to make that not necessary when building them as much as possible, but having said that I did seal the inner seams with silicon. Although it would not matter too much as they are all ported enclosures, you can see the large rectangular opening on the rear of the main speakers, what you can't see though is that the centre and rear speakers have a 100mm diameter port on the back panel opposite the tweeter.