Dynamic 4CC Build complete -jbruns

[jbruns]

Hi All,

I have just completed a 4CC from CLD and thought I should share. I tried some different things with this build. One of them was doing the front baffle in a leather. It took a couple experiments to get it to work but I think i got it to turn out the way i wanted

The veneer is a curly Cherry and the front baffle is done with Whisper Black from yourautotrim. The Leather was very flexible and good to stretch around the corners.


What i did was complete the baffle to the point i was ready for it to be mounted to the box. I ripped the little edge off the back all the way around so when I put the leather on i could wrap it around the back. (still to leave enought for it to be mounted to the cab). The is so I could hide the seam.


Once this is done i found that you could still see a little of the box edge where the baffle and box meet. So i painted a black stripe down edge to make shadow and hide the seam.



You can see i was able to make the seam fairly tight...



So here is the final result. Have not been able to take some good pics with natural light ... as its been cloudy and snow for months. I dont remember what the sun looks like... im soo ready for summer start. Link to Picasa Album





Special thanks go out to Jed - he is very helpful and had good purchase experience.
Let me know what you guys think.. happy building all! :T

[---k---]

I like the leather. :T

I used to have a TV stand similar to yours, but mine was the deluxe model painted black. :P

[jbruns]

Yeah - that TV stand is a awesome! :P ... I working on that next... going to do a salamander like design with 80/20 t-slot stuff.. wanted to make sure this monster was put together so I was sure it would fit in the stand

[numberoneoppa]

Whoa, the leater is really cool! Looks great, I think it's time to upgrade the mains now.

[stgdz]

more important how does it sound?

[DancesWithBeers]

Really nice looking. Post more pictures when you get around to it.

[ripcard]

Very nice work jbruns. I'd like to see a close up of the baffle from one end. The one long shot is a teaser on your neat angles at either end of the baffle.

After the stand you can start on your mains. mmmm... 4T's with leather.

[Face]

Beautiful job!

[synthguy]

Excellent speaker work, just gorgeous. But that arrangement of yours is part of the reason why I will never, ever have a center channel, and if a center channel is required, I will never, ever have a home theater system.

[ripcard]

... I will never, ever have a center channel, and if a center channel is required, I will never, ever have a home theater system.

Never, ever is a long time.

[evilskillit]

Never, ever is a long time.

You say that, do you know how old he is :W

[musikpirate]

beautiful job jbruns!!

I am ordering my 4CC kit on Thursday. Can't wait!!

I like the angles on the sides of the front baffle. I was thinking of doing the exact samething! I think I will now that I have seen it.

[FroDaddy]

Nice looking speaker you have there!

[cremar]

The leather baffle looks great! In fact, I'd like to try doing that with my next set of speakers. I looked at your album pictures and have a few questions about how you did the leather.

Did you first wrap the leather tight over the baffle and then cut out the driver holes?

What type of adhesive did you use?

How much wider did you have to route each recess to accommodate the leather?

In one of the pictures it looked like you had the baffle clamped to the rest of the cabinet before adding the leather...I was thinking I would need to have the leather attached around the back first before gluing the baffle to the cabinet. How did you do that part?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

[jbruns]

Did you first wrap the leather tight over the baffle and then cut out the driver holes?

Yes :T

What type of adhesive did you use?

3M Hi-Strength 90 and some WELDBOND

How much wider did you have to route each recess to accommodate the leather?

This is the trial and error part that is not fun :M
I kinda depends on the speaker size. I cut all 3 speakers in a small piece of wood and covered it just like the speaker and test fitted them. overall its around 1/8 to 3/16 bigger

In one of the pictures it looked like you had the baffle clamped to the rest of the cabinet before adding the leather...I was thinking I would need to have the leather attached around the back first before gluing the baffle to the cabinet. How did you do that part?

Yeah - i completed the box and baffle 100% before putting the 2 together. Its stressful if you a perfectionist!


I think this is the pic you you are talking about. This is the baffle getting clamped to the cabinet... I used a baffle that i had f'd up and a sheet of construction paper to to protect the baffle (leather) when clamping it onto the cab. This happen to came in handy since the f'd up baffle covered the whole surface of the baffle equalizing the pressure and not to mark up leather. At the same time it had speaker cutouts so i could still see inside the box while i was clamping to make sure it was sealing up good.

[mgrabow]

Yes :T

3M Hi-Strength 90 and some WELDBOND

This is the trial and error part that is not fun :M
I kinda depends on the speaker size. I cut all 3 speakers in a small piece of wood and covered it just like the speaker and test fitted them. overall its around 1/8 to 3/16 bigger

Yeah - i completed the box and baffle 100% before putting the 2 together. Its stressful if you a perfectionist!


I think this is the pic you you are talking about. This is the baffle getting clamped to the cabinet... I used a baffle that i had f'd up and a sheet of construction paper to to protect the baffle (leather) when clamping it onto the cab. This happen to came in handy since the f'd up baffle covered the whole surface of the baffle equalizing the pressure and not to mark up leather. At the same time it had speaker cutouts so i could still see inside the box while i was clamping to make sure it was sealing up good.

Sweeeet. Is the leather wrapped around the baffle or what did you do with the edge? How about the corver... Any tips on that? The most mportant, is what kind of leather? Upolstery leather? Is there a goos source you used?


How well is it holding up?

I am doing a Sonus Faber clone soon so any info would be greatly appreciated.

[cremar]

Thanks for answering all my questions! I guess I was on the right track. The only thing I'm not sure about now is how you were able to get such a tight fit around the corners. I would have expected the fabric to bunch up. Any tips?

[jbruns]

since i had the corners cut the way they are ... the leather did not bunch up much at all. the Whisper Black from yourautotrim will stretch some and wrapped right around the corner. I just had to smooth out some some parts that did bunch up a little