Speaker cutouts AFTER veneering?

[Finleyville]

Anyway...

With the thread up of how to rout veneer to countersink the drivers I was wondering if anyone has veneered the baffle first then rout the driver cutouts afterward. Did it turn out alright? Did the veneer splinter?

It just seems like the easier way to go, that's all....

Comments please.

[AdelaaR]

Good question ... I was wondering the same thing.

[JonMarsh]

That's what I normally do- veneer then cut baffle rebates and holes. The Ardent is a classic example for me of that technique.



And a close up... the veneer is birds eye maple.




That's how they do it at the Avalon factory, also.

~Jon

[PassingInterest]

Some guy on PE did it here starting on page 2.

[AdelaaR]

Thx for the info, Jon, nice build there aswell

[BigguyZ]

The only thing I'd say against doing that is, you bettter be spot on! I'd hate to use a $$$$ veneer and then be off on my cutout placement is make it slightly too big.

Also, if you want to backroute/ chamfer the cutout from the inside, much easier to do with the baffle separated from the rest of the cabinet.

[Johnloudb]

Yeah, got to be careful once you got the veneer on. After cutting holes and chamfering the back I had a lot of touching up to do on the baffle and stuff. So it would have been a big mistake form me to put veneer on first. I'm not an experienced wood worker like Jon and others here though.

[Finleyville]

John,

I am confused as to the purpose of all those beautiful Bessey clamps are doing there if you completed the front baffle including veneering then cut the speaker holes. Could you explain?


Bigguy,

Yeah, I forgot about the chamfering. A reverse cove or these linked bits would work.

[JonMarsh]

It would be clearer reading the Ardent thread, but building the front panel for those was a complex process- what you see here is pictures of the final glue up, for three sections which are individually fabricated. The front section includes the veneer and driver rebate cutouts. It's first glued to the middle section, then the angle bevels are cut (avoiding handling thickness of the full baffle) The last step is gluing up that combination to the back section, which is the step shown in these pictures.

I'm still tweaking this design, had some proposed crossover mods back a year ago that I didn't implement yet (based on the Modula Xtreme), will try to get these done and ready for the May DIY Northern CA. I feel like even mentioning it I will jinx it though, do to work- this year is starting off like the second half of last year. No surprise there, I suppose!