Donnie!  Your work looks most impressive!!!!  Once I tried to put together a cabinet with only 90 degree cuts to be made and I still failed miserably...  Your work is impressive!

I don't want anyone to think that I have fallen asleep at the switch on this latest project.

I took my time getting started this morning, it was cold out and I'm starting to show signs of becoming a dreaded Senior Citizen. I'm just not too enthusiastic about working in the cold anymore. Come on, it was only 25 outside.

But things did happen, I got all of the internal bracing cut out and all of the pockets cut out of them.

The plan for tomorrow is to do a lot of the internal work, there are a lot of  what I call keyways, but woodworkers call them something else, maybe rabbits or wolverines or possibly badgers, I really don't know.

I'm working up the nerve to do the front and rear baffles. There are a lot of "complications" on them. They are already cut to size with all of the angles, but now there are the holes and keyways in them to contend with.

No hill for a climber, do what is in front of you at the time. Yada yada...

Most of today's progress. 2 each of the braces.

Those pictures look splendid, Donnie. My hat is off to you. But not in 25 degree weather, I've gone bald on top.  

Brian

"snow in April"
That's Global Warming!

Brian

Cool!

Donnie,

If you ever decide to start a new business consider doing basketball, soccer ball and football cooler boom boxes too. The latter would sell like hot cakes to tailgaters.

You could become a bazillionaire.

HK

Excitement is building here in the cornfields.

I got some machine time and cut out the front and back baffles for my Karios project speakers. It is time for glue!

Then the interesting part of bodywork and finishes.

I've also been thinking about some speaker stands for under them. They could be interesting if my thoughts are doable.

Dan, Yeah we have had a bit of rain, now it is supposed to get hot.
If it isn't one thing it is another.

I'm hoping that "project creep" with the speaker stands ends up as cool as I can see in my minds eye.

I aim to inspire! Lol

I just get bored and make shit. Sometimes it works out well.

The weather is nice and I'm feeling industrious, so it has been a couple of days of speaker building.

The Karios speakers are getting real close to paint, just some work on the inside to make positive that they are sealed up tight. They also need some work on the rear hatches to make them removable, I have plans for that.

There was another set of speakers knocked out yesterday, a small ported pair that use a little cheap 4" full range Dayton Audio drivers. Two drivers per box just because I could.

Oh, by the way, someone has bought all of the good binding posts at Parts Express and I had to use stupid terminal cups. I wonder who bought them all out???

They are in the glue drying mode right now, I'll listen to them for a few days then attack the finishing.



And some action shots of the Karioses as they are Bondoed and smoothed out.

Brian,

The kit comes with Dacron. Or at least that is what the instructions say.
I'm just building off of the print, don't know yet if I will be installing the crossover or drivers.

Right now I am making sure that I have a good seal at all of my joints with epoxy.

Blueone302 wrote on 06/05/21 at 04:26:41:


I believe that my auto body friends say "Putty is my buddy".

Today I move into paint.
Prime, sand, prime, sand, and then prime and sand one last time.

I get stupid with paint, I really wish I was good at it.

Dang Donnie!!!!!!  Pulling it off so smoothly

I think I am understanding now. You are a cousin to M.C. Escher.

Brian

Yeah, they started out as "walkers", the one in the back going to the front and the other one was opposite.
But that design wasn't as sturdy as I wanted, so necessity being inspiration, I went from side to side to solidify them up.

If you look at the picture of the back of the speaker you can see how I started.

They are interesting, I like interesting!

Hello, my name is Donnie and I have a problem.

Last night I started polishing the paint on the Kairos project. Everything was moving well and things were looking real good.

Well I noticed a small place where I had polished through the paint.

I stewed on it overnight, came out this morning and sanded both speakers down and started the paint process more or less over again.

Believe me when I say that no one would have noticed it but me, but it was there.

Action shot from last night.



And where I am this morning. Negative progress!
Obsessive behavior for sure.

Well Archie I was using wet 1500 paper by hand when I just caught the edge, small things drive me nuts.

I usually start with 600 and work my way up to 2000 then polishing compound and finally wax.

The pictures were with the polishing compound and then after I got mad and sanded it down with 220 to start over.

Yeah, I'm going for mirror finish! I almost had it too, missed it by that much. (Get Smart reference, Damn I'm getting old).
Flat and polished look is the name of the game right now. I'll get it!

I've used steel wool on stain and Poly before. Don't use it on water based finishes unless you are going for the "Rat Rod" look on your speakers.

Well me and litefootdan spent the last day bolting together the Karios speakers to get them up and running.

Dan is a much better solderer than me, his stuff actually works after it is together, quite unlike my attempts.

After we got the crossovers mounted we kind of looked at each other and thought, "Why Not?" and completed the build and gave them a listen.

We compared them with everything I had sitting around and they were very good sounding.

Now I'll break them in for a while, then take them back apart, work on the finish some more and put them together for good.

The "Murderers row" today.



Next up, something a little more "High End". I might actually build my Koa wood speakers that I have always promised myself.

I think that I just ordered up this speaker kit.

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/SBA-761.htm

The reason I say that I think they are on order is that it comes from one of those countries over in Europe that is on vacation about 90% of the time and I haven't gotten an answer back from them.
Daneland, or Belgium, or Saskatchewan, One of those foreign countries.

Anyway, the plan is to make them out of MDF and then veneer them in Koa from this place.
https://www.koalitywoods.com/buy-koa-veneer/hawaiian-koa-fleece-back-veneer-0001...

Hell if I know what I'm doing, but that pretty much sums up my entire life.

Some better photos of the Karios.





I'm about 90% ready to take them back apart and start the painting over.

I figured out that my polishing compound was doing more damage that it was fixing. Maguiar's has let me down.

Holy crap 4krow, those look complicated.

I pulled up the prints, there is a lot going on there. I wish you luck!

Yah, it's pretty much one step at a time. Here is a better image. Each panel on the inside looks like this.

You DIY’ers constantly amaze me. Nice work, Donny and 4K!!!

I'm sitting here listening to a small side project that I gave myself a few weeks back.

My Boss has a small cabin that seems to be more of a mancave/bar/hideout than a camping lodge and I deemed that he needed a decent pair of speakers instead of those stupid Bluetooth speakers that everyone seems enamored with.

I knocked out a pair in a few hours that use some cheap Dayton Audio plastic framed 4" drivers. Nothing fancy, but more than serviceable for a cabin in the woods.

Truthfully, they image really well but are a tad bass shy. Nothing that his sub won't fix, or at least that is my hope.

As an added feature, a Co-Worker airbrushed a logo on the side of one of the speakers.
The cabin is named "The Dusty Mushroom" for some long drawn out reason that I won't bore you with.

So here are the "Dusty Mushrooms"








Come on down to "Crazy Donnie's House of Speakers. We have a lot of inventory and more coming in every day.
He's so crazy he might just give you speakers for free!

So remember "Crazy Donnie's House of Speakers" the next time you need a pair of quasi OKish speakers.
Crazy Donnie's, where you always get a free onion!




Speaking of inventory, I just got a email from Fedex that my speaker kit from Janzen Audio in Denmark will be delivered to me Monday. But they didn't specify what Monday. I can only hope that it is this upcoming one.

That project has me wondering if I'm good enough to build them to what I'm seeing in my minds eye. We shall see what the future brings.