Ever tried building your own speakers? (DIY home theater)

[Dagster]

One of my hobbies is building speakers and subwoofers for home theater and 2 channel listening. There are lots of proven plans and forums to help you build already proven designs or design your own. Building speaker cabinets is really satisfying. You can look at my website linked in my signature to see a few of the many designs a I've built.

I got permission from the moderators to post a link to my favorite home theater / audio forum. I happen to moderate in the DIY speakers and subwoofers section. Once you've built a set of speakers that cost $200 but rival commercial speakers costing thousands you'll be hooked! It's a lot of fun too.

Give it a peek. I've asked them to come visit here as well if they are interseted in learning how to build a proper cabinet or improve on their abilities they may already possess or maybe teach some of us a thing or two. If you've built your own speakers tell us about them or show us a current project!

Great forum with great people: www.hometheatershack.com (http://www.hometheatershack.com)

Here are a few pictures of some of my projects:

http://www.garagehobbies.com/images/HT/av2andstand.jpg http://www.garagehobbies.com/images/figwal3.jpg http://www.garagehobbies.com/images/Ellis/f5b.jpg



http://www.garagehobbies.com/images/adire/tempest/f1a.jpg






Darren

[Don]

Thanks, Darren. That "sounds" like another interesting and valuable woodworking project. I look forward to reading more about it.

All the best, Don

[mw2095]

Hey Darren,
Very nice looking speakers and thanks for the link, what are you using for your finish?

[Dagster]

Thanks, I generally use around 15 coats of sprayed lacquer. I rub it out every 5 coats and then rub it to a nice satin or gloss sheen up to 4000 grit sandpaper and then rotten stone for gloss, 0000 steel wool for satin. The subwoofer is just several coats of tung oil. I also use 50/50 boiled linseed oil / poly for a nice rub on finish. 4 or 5 coats of that does nicely. The walnut speakers are sprayed lacquer rubbed out to gloss, the speaker on the stand is 50/50 blo/poly, and the subwoofer is tung oil.

[Don]

My father and I made a matching pair of butcher block islands, mid-eighties. I never intended for it to be used to cut up meat on so I used Tung oil. Formby's brand I think. Several coats, rubbed on by hand until you got it warm by the friction. The finish builds really well and feels silky. I like oil finishes, they are very forgiving, can be repaired and re-coated, they age really great.

dawjr

[thekl0wn]

The sub/end table is still one of my favorite designs I've seen come up recently. And I'd have to agree with Darren... HTS has some incredibly intelligent people over there on the topic of the AV world!

I too build all my own speakers, but I've been in this aesthetic mode lately, and everything has been done in MDF with flat/satin black finishes.