*FINSIHED* TLAH, Curve SLA, THT, Living Room Theater Build

[Galgo1]

Hello All,

I posted a while back about needing help with plans (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=24680). Thankfully I was able to get help, plans bought, and started on the project before my beautiful wife changed her mind.

For the TLAH, and Curve SLA went with the GT302 tweeter and the Hivi M4N midrange speaker found here: https://www.parts-express.com/hivi-m4n- ... s--297-434

I'm hoping it ends up being a good pairing. The M4N had a slightly large housing and as such I had to scale up the designs. While at it, I changed the baffle angle for the TLAH so that it would point at my seating a little better. I also installed threaded inserts to save the wood from screws - hoping it works out well.

Ran into a little problem with the first TLAH. I maybe did a bad thing and decided to glue up the whole thing at once. The issue I ran into is that the front baffle has a twist to it. The sides and top are straight, and baffle on the front left is straight and the right is straight, but there is a twist between left and right side. I know how to avoid it for the next one, but I am wondering how I can fix it for the one that is already twisted. I had a thought of clamping it down flat and then wetting it and waiting for it to dry to see if this would allow it to flatten. Maybe this would cause more problems. Any thoughts??

Also, I'm planning on having an automotive paint shop paint the baffles satin black and I will do a walnut burl veneer finish on the sides. If anyone has any advise on this it would be appreciated.


If you look close at this picture you can see the twist as the bottom right corner is pushed out farther from the rest:

More pictures:

Lastly if there is a way to keep my pictures from getting rotated, please let me know.


Thanks All!

[Galgo1]

Been getting a little more done. About have the second TLAH finished. It turned out much better than the first. I tried to unwarp the baffle on the first with a little water and that did not work, so I plan on just using a French cleat top and bottom and hope that will hold it flat.

On the second TLAH I glued on of the sides and the top the baffle upside down so I had to cut that off and start over. A Skil saw and a flush trim bit was the only way I could think of to save the baffle. I had to recut one side and the top.

Also, my woodworking skills are not great and I had a lot of trouble getting the SLA curve baffle pieces cut at the right angles. However the hot glue method saved me and I just filled in any gaps with PL.

On to the pictures:

[Galgo1]

And a quick paint edit of what I hope it will roughly look like. Since I went with the HiVi driver, it will look something like the one on the left. After I apply the Walnut Burl veneer, I'll take it to an automotive paint shop to have the baffle painted black with a satin clear coat.

[y2kindyz]

Looking good keep the picture s coming

[Galgo1]

Still steadily working away at this. I'm much better at working on fast cars than doing wood working so this little project seems to be taking me forever. I make way too many stupid mistakes.

Got started on the THT while I was waiting for the center speaker parts to dry. Bounced between the two for a bit to stay busy. I ended up making the THT 24" wide. It will be a coffee table.... I big coffee table. Made it as wide as a I thought I could and still pass the WAF.

Got the SLA Center finally finished up. Had to make some modifications to make it so I could use screw inserts instead of wood screws on the bottom. Its a big dude. 46" wide! The 45 degree chamfer turned out awesome. I was way nervous since it had to be routed from different faces and across a piece that can be detached. Thankfully I was able to get everything smooth and then get the router aligned correctly.

This is similar to how I want the table top on the THT to turn out. I ordered Curly maple and walnut burl veneers and they should be here either today or Monday. I'll hopefully start the veneering process sometime next week. Never done it before so I'm sure it will be a learning experience.

[y2kindyz]

Looking great. Keep up posting the pics

[Galgo1]

Almost finished up the THT over the weekend. I just need to paint inside the top where to horn opening is and then glue it on. After that I will be putting on some crown molding and decorative pieces before I start all the finish work on the full setup. Only construction I have after that is the surrounds. I am designing my own on this as I would like to put a couple tweeters in each along with the two woofers, just in case I ever get content that has some higher frequency content in any of the surround channels.

My veneer should be in today, I am very excited to see it and start working with it. I was doing some measuring over the weekend and the table top for the THT will end up close to 42" square. Its going to be a BIG coffee table

Had a little fun with the horn mouth bracing.

[Tom Smit]

How did you get the drill to stand in that position???
Good work so far.

[ketoet]

Pl?

[Tom Smit]

[Galgo1]

How did you get the drill to stand in that position???
Good work so far.

LOL, I had PL on it and my hands, and the floor, and my workspace, and everything else. There is a lot of stuff stuck together haha. Dang pictures keep rotating when I upload them. Maybe I should turn my phone 90 degrees when I take them

[Dan H]

Forget the drill. He PLd his truck to a wall too. That's some strong glue.

[Galgo1]

I Got a little more done. The THT construction is done, and I am working on the finishing now.

Painted the inside of the THT before putting the top on. What can be reached will get nice paint from the paint shop.

You've heard of river otters, but have you ever heard of work bench otters?

Backside of THT

Frontside of THT

TLAH with a driver mounted, just because I couldn't wait to see what it looked like

[Galgo1]

Look at the threaded insert with the driver on

Driver with some slick little cap screw allen drive machine screws. Got them from Bolt Depot online, they were great!

My first try at veneering. Turned out great! The curly maple popped great, but I was hoping the burl would have popped a little more. If anyone has any tips, they would be well accepted. Also, I wiped on a clear dewaxed shellac, but it didn't come out as smooth as I wanted. Maybe I need to apply it with a smooth brush.

[Rob Shasta Guitar]

Beautiful build, I was thinking about the same walnut burl for the jack I'm making, but for this one I'm keeping it to stuff on hand. As far as the twist, nothing will get that out now. The wetting, clamping, heating can work on a single piece of actual wood, but the glues in the plywood and the pl are done, heat and moisture will not affect them, and if it did, the bond would have been broken.

Shellac is a frustrating finish. It really works great as a sealer, but not so much to build with. The french polish technique works to get a smooth finish with shellac, but only really can happen on a flat surface with no inside corners. I've sprayed shellac to build then french polished to get a sheen and smooth.