Translam SEOS 10 build

Ya I have way to much on the go, but I guess I'm a sucker for punishment. I want a compact 2 way stand mount thing. So here goes.

I don't have CNC, and I'm quickly realizing why most people do translams using CNC.



Rough cut them out on the bandsaw



A lot of waste in translam.



Affixed the template and pattern routed each piece.



Got this far today.



Soon I'll have to cut the insides. I'm debating buying a scroll saw just for this project. Jigsawing all those will be a lot of work. Any tips on that would be appreciated

 

Ya it's very repetitive. I'm going crazy already. I'm whipping through it surprisingly quick though. I spent about 3hrs today on them.

I forgot to mention the woofer will be the scan speak 22W/8534. It's gonna be sealed in about 20L net. Should hit 80hz no problem but maybe slightly smaller than it likes. I'm also gonna try the DNA360 and cross below the SEOS 10 low cut off. Would be interested in thoughts on that also. Looks is priority one on this build.

 

Ok I drilled out the inside corners on the drill press and jigsawed out the guts. Went faster than expected.



Here's all the waste. Took almost 2 sheets of 3/4" MDF to do this. Was gonna use 1" but it was double the price.



The tree hugger in me hates that, but it's actually not as bad as I thought. It would have taken a sheet to build square boxes.

For the baffle, I plan on book matching a 3/8" thickness of something light colored and exotic. I want the black of the WG and woofer to contrast with the wood. The rest of the cab will be dark. Thinking walnut. So for the baffle I'm thinking of slicing up this chunk of western maple burl.



It seems like a waste of material. Once I axe it up the left overs will be hard to use. There's not quite enough width for a guitar body, unless it was a through neck. So I'm not sure what else I'd do with it. It's about 2" thick, and has been drying a long time. Once it's sliced up I'll leave it next to the fire place for a few nights.

 

Here's a photo taken with an SLR camera to show it better. I think I'll place the WG and woofer about 1/4 to 1/2" lower and shift everything left 1/2". That should position the burl clusters on the baffle better to take advantage of the nice areas. It's all a crap shoot when it goes through the bandsaw though. They may move into the woofer area or off the baffle. I won't know until I cut.

 

Started the glue up process. Got 3 seams glued. I'm using light clamping pressure because I think keeping things true, square, and aligned is much more important than pressure. So the bar clamps will stay on the shelf.



I grabbed a chunk of scrap walnut veneer to see how it matches my potential baffle material. It's not as contrasting as I hoped. Western maple is much darker than the more common eastern maple. Not to mention burls usually are darker also.



That's just a smear of tung oil on it. I might go with something darker than walnut or stain the walnut or use an eastern maple if I can find something nice. Might cost a fair bit to get something I like, so staining the walnut may be the way to go. Maybe even black to connect to the black of the WG and woofer.

 

I did consider that, but it seems most people say walnut actually lightens with time. The maple in my test has been exposed to UV for quite a while, so it should be at it's maximum darkness.

Either way, I didn't have enough walnut, so I picked this up yesterday



I'll experiment with stains on scrap. I hate to apply stain to such a beautiful wood. I do want it very dark. Almost black if possible. Like an espresso or something along those lines. If I have any doubt I'll just leave it natural. I still haven't decided if I'll go with lacquer or what. I'll know better closer to the time.

I don't have a photo, but the glue up is getting close. I'll sand and start applying veneer this weekend hopefully.

 

Thanks Josh.

All glued up and ready for sanding then veneer.



I've been drying that burl slab next to the fire place, as well as my veneer though not really necessary. I'll get the walnut on the cabs first and do some evaluation of how I want to proceed from there.

 

Got busy and didn't work on these for a while. Anyways...

Got them all sanded and ready for veneer, then brought them inside to acclimate.



I then rough cut that burl piece to approximate 6" x 22" ready for cutting. I planed and jointed it then bandsawed it into two pieces about 7/8" thick.



Then I bandsawed those.



These are the book matches I got



This stuff was a real battle to saw on the bandsaw. It must be very hard or my blade is getting dull. I had a more aggressive blade, but wanted a smooth surface. Still very rough and will require some flattening once attached to the baffle. The backs that will receive the glue have been planed. But I can't risk planing the final surface because burl likes to tear out. Maybe if I put fresh sharp blades in my planer I'd be ok.

 

The book matches remind me of your avatar Face

 

So the bandsaw wasn't perfectly centered when I re sawed the baffle pieces in half and one side was slightly thicker.



I don't want to just sand or plane down the face because the book match will drift and not match. So now is the time to plane the back (glue side).



I noticed some checks forming on one end because the quick drying happening from going from over 2" thick to 1/2" and sitting indoors near my fire place.



That was after I cut off the end like this.



Now they're 19" long and my baffle is 17.5" tall, so they better not check much more.

So I painted the end grain to prevent checking.



Finally finished the veneer. Just need to sand them and thick about finishing order before I attach the baffles.



For simplicity, I'm leaning towards just attaching them and giving them a uniform finish. But still considering staining the walnut, or maybe giving it a quick coat of shellac before continuing. Not sure. I'll thick it through before I glue something on and wish it wasn't.

 

I thought of that, but I'm going to be irresponsible anyways

Today I trimmed down the baffles so final trimming wouldn't be bad.





Test piece.



Mark the length.



Cut them to length and will hopefully glue them tonight. Considering epoxy to block moisture since I'm going to permanently affix it. But I think glue will be fine.

 

Ya I'll hit the inside with my finish. And I think I should use epoxy as the adhesive. Expensive though, but better to pay for some epoxy now than have wasted these nice boards and have to pull them off in two years.

 

I'm all ready to go on affixing the baffle, but I forgot I want to put neo magnets behind it. Nearly went ahead and totally forgot about it, but got sidetracked on something else and remembered while not working on them! So once those arrive I can finally do the big step and this speaker will soon come to life

 

Thanks Don. I'm still not sure about finish. I'm thinking a light coat of shellac to seal it up, followed by a black grain filler on the walnut only, to highlight all the pores. Sand it back and finish it with lacquer. Not sure though.

I drilled some forstner holes to accept the neo magnets.



They stick quite well.



Because of some drying out, the seam between the boards wasn't perfectly jointed anymore. So I clamped them up like this and used an 80grit sanding black to flatten them. Normally a plane would be faster/simpler, but I couldn't risk any tear out in this brittle burl. Even with a sharp plane, which isn't something I can achieve, tear out would still be a big risk IMO.



I then glued and clamped.



I screwed it down within the waveguide and woofer cutout areas for additional clamping force where my clamps wouldn't easily reach.



Once done, I check the magnets for polarity and such. The first one I did a terrible job. One magnet flipped, I guess while I was placing and clamping the baffles or something, and another seems to be on its side because the magnets pull in weird directions. So that was an utter fail. My first time using neo mags. The second baffle I was much more careful and checked the polarity through the baffle once screwed down, but not clamped. Once I new all the mags were in the right position and polarity, I added clamps. Came out much better that way. Thankfully I can work with this, but it still pisses me off cause the grills will have to be speaker specific.

 

Finally put some time in on these. It should move a little quicker towards the end now.

Needed to flatten the baffle so I rigged up a router sled. If you're not sure how this works, YouTube router sled.



The end result is never as smooth as a plane, but it wouldn't fit in my planer and I'd risk tear out anyways. Hand planning is to risky for me. Burl is just so probe to tear out. Even with this method, a freshly sharpened bit, and only climb cutting, I still had a couple spots where it tore up.



This baffle had a couple burls that I epoxied before I cut away at it. Again, thinking about tear out.



Then an aggressive sand.



Mineral spirits.



The pair with an aggressive sanding. The left had the mineral spirits so its a little cleaner.



Getting to this point is very exciting. I need to flush trim the baffle. Make the driver cutouts, terminal cutout, fine sanding, and finishing. I might just clear these suckers in a thousand coats of laquer with about a 20 sheen. Gloss will not be the goal with these. So a wipe/hand rub finish may be it. Not sure yet.

 

Ok time to potentially ruin these speakers

Made a SEOS 10 template by tracing the waveguide and using a spindle sander. I gotta quickly mention how much I love this tool. Its a cheap tool, yet it is incredibly useful and works well even though it shouldn't. Mastercraft is usually pretty junky. Its a canadian brand. Kind of like harbor freight. I'm pretty sure other brands make this identical sander. So it should be available in the states, just a different color. And if you're into dust collection, this works really well. Sanders make a sick amount of dust but this guy is totally dust free somehow. I use it a lot and it stores away easily.



Once the template was done I checked out the fit. You can't tell in the pic, but it's slightly loose. Hardly an issue though.



Then a test cut to get the bugs out.



I'm glad I test cut on this as I found the router rocked twice and went out side the template. I'll remedy that before cutting the real deal. I think I'll have to get a shorter router bit to keep the templet closer to the baffle.