Wow. Building speakers is SO much like making pancakes…

[JonW]

…The first ones really don’t come out too well.

I’ve started building my first speakers- making 3 of the Modula MT’s. One for a center channel and then a pair to use maybe as rear speakers. Having never built speakers before, I’m starting by making the center speaker first. As that progresses, I’ll see what parts of the cabinet design and procedure I like and then refine everything for the following pair to be built. Even with my very novice woodworking skills, it’s amazing how many things I’ve messed up so far. The rear baffle somehow came out a little small, the inside port flare isn’t as perfect as I’d like, adding T-nuts to the inside rear panel split one of the braces I made, I tried gluing on 4 pieces of the outside cabinet but couldn’t get things all lined up so I had to pull it apart, wipe off the glue, and only glue on 2 sides at a time… None of these things are that bad. Probably won’t influence the performance at all. Just a little ugly. And all are easy to change for when I make the next 2 speakers.

Thanks to everyone for all the help you’ve provided so far. I’m definitely having lots of fun with this.

Some ugly progress so far, sitting upside down:

Image not available

[ThomasW]

Yep and by the time you've knocked off your first dozen projects you'll be ready to turn pro.... :B

[chasw98]

Jon:
That looks like a lot of glue there. They will not be coming apart if it is! You're doing fine.

Chuck

[ThomasW]

Hey, there's no such thing as too much glue and long as you can get the clamps to release.....:wink:

[Dennis H]

Just a comment on the glue for JonW. I mentioned in another thread about scraping it off your finished surface with a chisel. However, for unfinished wood like MDF, a wet rag works great to mop up the excess. With a little more practice, you'll have a better idea how much glue you need and you wont have so much excess. I use a 1/2" wide square artist's paintbrush to spread out a thin layer on both surfaces -- that's all you need. Squirt a bead out of the glue bottle and spead it out with the brush.

[hamm]

Or your pinky finger... that's about 1/2" wide too :T

[JonW]

Thomas-
You don’t have to worry about me ever going pro. I’m doing this 100% for fun. I bet if I had to do it for a living, I wouldn’t enjoy it any more.


Regarding the glue-
Yeah, I’ll get better at it with practice. It looks particularly ugly in the photo because I messed things up here. I put on tons of glue to fasten all 4 sides together, around the braces/port assembly. Excess glue dripped everywhere. But I couldn’t get all 4 sides together quite the way I wanted. So I pulled the whole thing apart, wiped off all the glue, and then just glued on the 2 sides shown. But there’s lots of evidence of my trying to wipe off that first round of glue.

Dennis, thanks for the tip on using less glue. And the wet rag. When I was mopping up the big mistake, I was using a dry rag. It’ll be wet next time. Idunno, I feel better going crazy on the glue. But if it’s not needed, I can back off. And you’re right about the chisel trick- works well.

[Paul H]

It's best to use just enough so that a fine line creeps out from the joint as it's being clamped, but keep using too much glue until you're familiar with how much you need. Too much glue is just messy - too little can be disastrous if/when the glue joint fails.

Paul

[JonW]

Paul- Great advice. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind as my skills progress. I think with all the gluing I'll need in making 3 cabinets, the skills might improve a little.