Davids for Tom

[publicIdaho]

Check the woofer fit - nice!

Mark the mounting holes.

[publicIdaho]

Drill the holes for the T-nuts

Made lots of mistakes here. We have a drill set up with a bit that we use for drywall screws, so I used that first, then came back with a larger bit that the T-nuts fit inside. Small hole then bigger hole is a good idea for metal, but for plywood, it sucks - the bit grabs the top layer of veneer and rips it out.

Used the right sized bit on the second panel to start with and the tops of the holes were nice and smooth.

[publicIdaho]

Oops. forgot my pic...

[publicIdaho]

Banged in the T-nuts and go to start lining up the panel on the side and I see I have put the T-nut in backwards

Have to bang out the T-nuts with a 1/4" bolt.

I was not worried about blow out when drilling the holes - it would be on the other side from where the woofer was mounted. But now I have to flip the panel over and all that chip out has to be filled.

[publicIdaho]

Good thing I had some finishing to do while I waited for my wood putty to dry. Do not sand that wood putty too soon - it does not get smooth and it wrecks your sandpaper.

So, while I am talking about finishing and some one had a question earlier, I will show my beat up spray rig. The bigger pot is 2 1/2 gallon, but it is nice because you can put a gallon can inside and don't have to clean up the hole tank every time, just put a small coffee can in with thinner and rinse out the hose.

The smaller rig is pretty affordable and will do a nice job.

[publicIdaho]

Here is the panel all fixed with the T-nuts installed. With the fairly tight hole on the woofer, I saw no need to try to cut an angled hole to allow for more meat to put the T-nuts into.

[publicIdaho]

Oops, that picture was before I figured out I had the nuts on the wrong side of the panel. Don't do it like that!

[publicIdaho]

So, I spent quite a bit of time trying to get the layout of all the interior panels right, fighting the darn things that wanted to fall over and realizing that my changing the way I did the angles meant that the dimensions in the plans were not right for my layout.

This meant a trip back to the house to get the computer so I could look those SketchUp drawings over. What a great tool that SketchUp is!

I had a change of heart on pinning the panels through the outside - pin holes are not that hard to fill, even for that gloss black finish.

But fighting those panels over and over, I got and went and tried the pocket holes on some scrap. We use 3/4" material, so the depth of the drilled holes is set for 3/4". I drilled a hole in some 1/4" scrap and rounded that piece over and slid that piece over the bit up to the regular depth collar - boom, now I am set for 1/2" material. Gave it a try, the screws did not come through or start to bulge the plywood, and that Baltic birch holds the screws pretty well. We are good to go - pocket screwing those interior panels, at least on one side.

[publicIdaho]

We have a jig that is pneumatic, but check out the Kreg jig (we have one of those also that gets used often in non standard situations.

When using pocket screws, realize that the piece with pocket hole in it will have a tendency to creep forward as you tighten the screw unless you have that piece clamped down pretty hard.

Once screwed in, you can loosen the screw and move your piece a little bit, maybe as much as a 1/16" if you can get some good clamp pressure to hold it in place when you re-tighten the screw.

[publicIdaho]

Quick pics on making the spacers between the panels.

Cut to length on the little slider.

[publicIdaho]

Cut to width on the lumber table saw (yes, we cut panels on the big saw, but lumber is ripped on the old Delta (it might be a Rockwell?) Unisaw.

[publicIdaho]

Then sand the angle in on the edge sander. Just put the narrow side mark on one side and sand to it while not putting any pressure on the wide side.

Took way longer to take the pictures than to make the piece.

[publicIdaho]

If you know the David plans, you might have noticed that there is not an access panel hole in the side panel. I could not think of any way to make the access panel look good with the finish job we are planning on. On the old speakers I built 20 years ago, that big gloss black monolith of a side panel is awesome. I wanted the same thing on these speakers, so it means putting the access panels through the back.

Unfortunately, there is an angle joint between two interior panels where the access needs to be.

Looked it over, made some marks on those panels and made some measurements.

[publicIdaho]

Nice part about putting the panels in with pocket screws - you can take the panels back out and the they will go back in right where they came out because the screws will hit the old holes if you get them pretty close.

Cut out the access hole with the jig saw - these cuts do not have to be very straight, the accuracy is coming later.

[publicIdaho]

This part needs to be done well.

I am going to route out a ledge 3/4" wide and 1/4" deep.

My cut out is 8" tall, just big enough to get the woofer through. I think the depth of that notch is 7.5". I need a guide board that has a notch 9.5" wide, cut this out on the sliding table saw. The back of my guide board needs to be 8 1/4". To do this, I putt the blade all the way down on the other table saw, and set the fence at 8 1/8" (the width of the blade brings the outside of the cut to 8 1/4") I put the piece over the lowered blade where it needed to be cut, turned on the saw and raised the blade. Backed the piece up slowly (dangerous!) and then pushed forward until the blade was through the other side cut. This is a dicey method, so do not try unless you are comfortable using your table saw. You have to hold everything in place, turn off the saw and wait for the blade to stop before you can take any of the pieces off.

There are safer ways to make an accurate guide board, but lets move on. I will detail alternatives if there is any interest.

With my guide board cut out, I line up the bottom edges, eyeball the distances of the overhang so that they are the same, and clamp the guide board on.