Building Elsinore Speaker

[tomp]

Whatever you do remember that if you are covering with a thin glossy material that any imperfections will show much more than paint. Prep is everything.

[David McGown]

Construction progressing nicely...

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Another view

Partial Assembly

Assembled baffle

[David McGown]

Still more...

These are getting pretty heavy to move about. Currently, the driver holes are good handles to lift the cabinets, but I suspect the final assembly of these speakers may be in situ after finishing is complete. I expect to be starting to patch and sand these down later this week (or by the next weekend) to prep them for painting. I still have some router work to do (chamfer the edges). Also, still debating whether to veneer the top and sides, I have such a nice flat surface. Really depends how well the top and bottom blends into the side panels.

David

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Another view of assembly

All but the top and bottom

[tomp]

My kind of guy. Clamps are like dollars. You can never have too many.

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[David McGown]

Agree, never enough clamps. I was eyeing more Besseys on my last trip to Home Despot. However figured if I staged my glue-ups right, I would get by with the number I had. Using biscuit joinery helps, since they most of the alignment, and once you hammer the panel down, just need the clamps to provide clamping force, not holding the work in place. I hate using screws in MDF, they either split out the work (even after drilling holes), or don't hold well, so planning on using dowels for alignment of top and bottom during glue up. Also made some nifty clamp extenders, since none of my clamps are long enough for the height of the speaker (45" tall).

David

[brombo]

These screws work well in MDF if you drill the appropriate hole -

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.a ... 41315&ap=1

[tomp]

If you need more I'd be happy to loan some to you. Here is what I did when gluing the bases to the pyramids not only because they were so tall but also tapered. I had to make the fixture at the top. Note the plastic on the floor to catch any glue drips. I also used waxed paper under the straps so they would not get stuck to the base.

I agree 100% on not using screws with MDF. If you read the egg article you would see that I had splits when mounting the drivers. I changed to machine screw inserts that I epoxied in place. If you don't have tools for dowels you can drill a pilot hole at each end and then use nails as register pins which you can later remove. You only have a small hole to fill that way.

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[David McGown]

I used inserts as well for mounting the drivers. There is a split resistant T-nut insert available from McMaster-Carr designed for hardwood, it has prongs on the barrel engaging the hole instead of on the flange where it splits out wood (or MDF). I used a superglue gel cement with a long set time under the flanges and drove them home. Worked like a charm.

David

[David McGown]

Nails as register pins are a great idea. I just need to keep the top and bottom in place. They are oversized by 1/4" in each direction, and I will follow up with a flush router bit.

David

[Stuart Polansky]

Thank you's to David and Tom for sharing your woodworking tips and build pictures. They are informative and appreciated.

As usual, beautiful work, David.

Stuart