Translam sealed DaytonRS TMWW's (& probably CC!) Underway
Using Dennis' xovers.
The son and I, and his truck, just got back from the 'Depot to pickup 3 more pcs of MDF. I actually have some 3/4 and 1/2 that have weathered several years in the garage-- "shop"-- with no problems since they were between other material. Some of this has birch on both sides. Oh, well. I have found a method, and I'm a happy woodworker!!
I started with Brian Walter's plans, see the looong thread in Mission Possible.
Thanks, Brian, for the inspiration and the plans.
Thanks, also to whoever posted the words "A piece of paper, a pencil, and a brain" in reference to making plans to work from. I'm not used to CAD. If I were, I would have gone that way, I'm sure. It is quite easy to proto a design, make changes, and keep on gettin' up using those ancient, non-digital, items.
I wanted a changing radius curve on the side, so I drew a centerline 19" long, and the back and front widths at 90 degrees to that on a piece of 1/4" ply. Then I bent a 1" piece of Lexan with in one hand, holding it against my hip on the the other end, and traced the nice curve between the front and back corners. I then repeated this about an inch to the side with a little taper-off towards the back to be the inside of the enclosure, and sketched a radius for the baffle edge between the tow lines on the front end. This gave me one leg of an open translam pattern ala this design, second pic down on the page.
Cut out with the jigsaw, beltsand to a good contour, and I was on my way.
I flipped the this leg, and duplicated it (see the first jpeg), then screwed both to a 3/4" piece, cut it out, and that was my 1st whole pattern. After fooling with a 1/2" dia. stagger tooth bit which chattered too much, I found that the good ol' 1/4" spiral upcut will do the job of cutting through 3/4" MDF in two 3/8" deep trips. I used the 5/16" template guide and switched to 1/4" thick patterns because the 5/16" template guide is only about 3/16 deep. With the template offset this gives me about 1-3/16" thick side wall. A bit heavy, but I have a dolly and the finished products are going downstairs, not up. I wanted to use an open end so the baffle can be cut from flat stock, and the rear champfer can be done simply with a router. An unexpected bene of this is that I can get 26 pieces from a 49x97 inch board (see the pict with the patterns screwed to the board.) My patterns are cut form 1/4" mdf handy panels from HD. Sorry for the poor pictures. I only have a Palm Treo phone for a camera. I will get better ones when the procedures get to finer stages.
You'll notice a wood(ply) piece added to the two original legs on the front ends. I needed some thickness here so I could make a later cut to recieve and support the baffle, 2 pieces of 3/4", after the transverse sections are cut. That has to be exact, and it has to be a sharp corner to be flush with the baffle face. The jig will hold the ends in place for an exact notch.
So far I only have 14 sections cut. I'll need 114 including the xbraces, top and bottoms, and mid-tweeter partition parts. For these I will just screw the needed addition piece down inside the existing pattern, dupe it a couple times in 1/4" stock, then use that to do the full thickness ones.
I plan to make the center channel a twin! In case you're wondering, the mask works great, I'm already sensitive to the MDF fines but no reaction with the mask. But I'll probably have a shop half full of MDF dust tomorrow afternoon. I did find bags for my shop vac which I've never seen before, that keep the filter cartridge clean. I am not using the vac during cutting right now anyway. I just cut, because I plan to use the broom/brush/dustpan approach. At $13 plus a pair, I can't afford that many bags. I have to use the vac and a flat blade screwdriver to clear dust after the first cut. The through cut just falls out.
More to come :B
The son and I, and his truck, just got back from the 'Depot to pickup 3 more pcs of MDF. I actually have some 3/4 and 1/2 that have weathered several years in the garage-- "shop"-- with no problems since they were between other material. Some of this has birch on both sides. Oh, well. I have found a method, and I'm a happy woodworker!!
I started with Brian Walter's plans, see the looong thread in Mission Possible.
Thanks, Brian, for the inspiration and the plans.
Thanks, also to whoever posted the words "A piece of paper, a pencil, and a brain" in reference to making plans to work from. I'm not used to CAD. If I were, I would have gone that way, I'm sure. It is quite easy to proto a design, make changes, and keep on gettin' up using those ancient, non-digital, items.
I wanted a changing radius curve on the side, so I drew a centerline 19" long, and the back and front widths at 90 degrees to that on a piece of 1/4" ply. Then I bent a 1" piece of Lexan with in one hand, holding it against my hip on the the other end, and traced the nice curve between the front and back corners. I then repeated this about an inch to the side with a little taper-off towards the back to be the inside of the enclosure, and sketched a radius for the baffle edge between the tow lines on the front end. This gave me one leg of an open translam pattern ala this design, second pic down on the page.
Cut out with the jigsaw, beltsand to a good contour, and I was on my way.
I flipped the this leg, and duplicated it (see the first jpeg), then screwed both to a 3/4" piece, cut it out, and that was my 1st whole pattern. After fooling with a 1/2" dia. stagger tooth bit which chattered too much, I found that the good ol' 1/4" spiral upcut will do the job of cutting through 3/4" MDF in two 3/8" deep trips. I used the 5/16" template guide and switched to 1/4" thick patterns because the 5/16" template guide is only about 3/16 deep. With the template offset this gives me about 1-3/16" thick side wall. A bit heavy, but I have a dolly and the finished products are going downstairs, not up. I wanted to use an open end so the baffle can be cut from flat stock, and the rear champfer can be done simply with a router. An unexpected bene of this is that I can get 26 pieces from a 49x97 inch board (see the pict with the patterns screwed to the board.) My patterns are cut form 1/4" mdf handy panels from HD. Sorry for the poor pictures. I only have a Palm Treo phone for a camera. I will get better ones when the procedures get to finer stages.
You'll notice a wood(ply) piece added to the two original legs on the front ends. I needed some thickness here so I could make a later cut to recieve and support the baffle, 2 pieces of 3/4", after the transverse sections are cut. That has to be exact, and it has to be a sharp corner to be flush with the baffle face. The jig will hold the ends in place for an exact notch.
So far I only have 14 sections cut. I'll need 114 including the xbraces, top and bottoms, and mid-tweeter partition parts. For these I will just screw the needed addition piece down inside the existing pattern, dupe it a couple times in 1/4" stock, then use that to do the full thickness ones.
I plan to make the center channel a twin! In case you're wondering, the mask works great, I'm already sensitive to the MDF fines but no reaction with the mask. But I'll probably have a shop half full of MDF dust tomorrow afternoon. I did find bags for my shop vac which I've never seen before, that keep the filter cartridge clean. I am not using the vac during cutting right now anyway. I just cut, because I plan to use the broom/brush/dustpan approach. At $13 plus a pair, I can't afford that many bags. I have to use the vac and a flat blade screwdriver to clear dust after the first cut. The through cut just falls out.
More to come :B
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