Well, Raven and I had a pretty productive day yesterday.  Sort of a day long CDApS meeting.

We started out with a brief listening session.  His new sub is tight in tone and shakes the floor.  Very nicely crafted as well.

The we went to Menards and picked up some 3/4" MDF.  With two people we didn't have to have them cut and they just barely fit into the back of my van as whole sheets.

We came back to his place and cut my sheet down to do my version of the "Donnie baffles" modeled after baffles designed by speaker builder extraordinaire - Donnie.

Basically, we wanted to double up the 3/4" MDF and offset the full range driver.

We did rough cuts with a skill saw and straight edge and then took them over to Raven's table saw.

At my house, if you are within 1/8" you have a beer and call it done.  With Raven, his equipment allows you to be within 1/64th.  We trimmed those sheets down and then glued them together and clamped them.

While the glue was setting, we went back into the listening room and Raven hauled out the Maggies.  Well, I was impressed at their scale and also the bass (I wasn't expecting much).  And they were in very good shape for as old as they are.  I did want more high end extension, but overall liked the speakers.  The ZMA has just enough juice to give you an idea of their sound.

Anyway, the reason Raven got them out was he had a buyer who stopped by and listened to them, pulled out a wad of cash and bought them.

With the glue set, we took the baffles back to the big saw and Raven trimmed them on all four sides.  Again very precision.

I had pulled the drivers from my current baffles so we figured out where to place them and figured out all the measurements.  Raven has this "ruler" that does 64ths and you can use a mechanical pencil to mark through the ruler.  Also, an electronic tool which measures very precisely the thickness of flange, etc.

Using Raven plunge router and his home made jib, we double teamed the routing of the driver holes.  Raven manned the router and I worked the shop vac.  With two people and the quality of Raven's router, we banged out the full ranger holes and then did the initial cut on the Auggie holes.  

Our goal was to flush mount all the drivers so we cut for the Auggie flange "ledge."  I brought them home and routed out the main hole for the basket.

We were off  by about a 64th on the Auggie hole so I had to do a little sanding to get them to fit.  

Anyway, in less than a day, I had the baffles roughed out.  Today I will build the "feet."  I may go back to Raven's to use his 1/2" router bit to round off the corners before I glue up the final.

Raven has the pics that we took during the process.

Well they sounded good and you inspired us!

Since Palomino has hopefully finished cutting out the 15" Augie baffle, and used jigsaw and sandpaper to get a better fit of the drivers in the holes, our next step is to have him swing by so I can use the big Bosch router and my 3/4" roundover bit to give all the edges a nice curved finish rather than the hard 90 degree edge. Supposedly this helps with the soundwaves leave the baffle smoothly or something. I really didn't read much up on it. Hell, I'd just do it for aesthetics. But we can knock out that roundover on both sides of both panels in less than 30 minutes I'm sure.

As good, and smooth as these are looking, I'm really hoping they get painted, but that's a whole nother can-o-worms and skillset that I'm not sure we possess. Well, I don't possess at least. Maybe I'll get to working on my OB baffles today - I should probably tidy up, and maybe even double the baffle to keep up with the other gents.  ;D
But I have a fun paint scheme in mind for my baffles.

I had to sand about 10 min per baffle to get the Augies to slip into place.   A little bit of jigsaw work on the main driver holes and some sanding to clean up and they were good to go.  Those holes were the one real miss of the day due to the extending basket metal.

I should have them assembled for a listen later today.  If I like them then I'll do some more work on them.

Hi Donnie,  I could route the back side to clean it up.  Bolts for the Augies are plenty long.  For the tang bands they are barely long enough.

I ended up having to screw the foot to the baffle.  Glue just not enough.

I ended up doing other stuff and didn't get the drivers in today.  Just ran out of time.

Hey, we're only 3 hours away.  ;)

Palo,
What I've read about chamfering the back is that it helps the driver "breathe" better.  Kinda sounds hokey though, but you never know....
So your thinking 2.25" thick is the next big thing? My speakers would weigh 125lbs a piece.

I got the drivers in the baffles last night.  I took them down to two bolts in each driver for quicker switching in hope that I would have some audio memory.  I also listened to a few tunes with high and low end.

Not sure if I hear high frequency extension.  At first I thought I did, but with more listening on the same tunes, it seems about the same.  But the bass does seem to have more grip.  Overall they sound pretty good.  

I am messing around with placement/toe in because I seem to have taken a step back in 3D or holographic imaging.

When playing a bass heavy song, I seem to get more vibration in the baffles than I did with the Pure Audio type baffle.  Those panels on the PA baffles had cushion between them and the rest of the frame but the total weight of that setup is probably 10% of these baffles.  Interesting.

Lets round over those edges and see if maybe a brace of some sort can stiffen them from whatever bass rattling your hearing.

Raven, I don't hear the bass rattling but I can feel it vibrating the baffle.  Seems like it couldn't be good for the other drivers performance.  Thinking that the baffle needs to be thicker.

I was thinking about adding some rectangle pieces of MDF to the back so we wouldn't have to do more routing which may or may not line up.  

I am not sure that additional mass would help but its worth a try.

Don't get me wrong, these sound very good.  Just the vibration in the baffle seems too much.  Like there is a band of bass sound that is exciting the resonant frequency of the baffle or something.

I like your attach them to the old frame idea, but I'd have to see if they will hold the weight.

Donnie, we were pretty good about our glue application and clamping.  They are solid as a rock.  It could have to do with it being attached to a "foot" (glued and screwed).  It's kind of like a tuning fork.

Overall I just think that to harness the energy put out by those augies, you need a lot of mass.

When I went to Axpona and looked at OBs there like the Spatial, those babies were at least 3" thick.

I took some rough measurements at Axpona.

LR,

 Just saw this post, and spotted the diffusers. If they work as ingenious as they look, you in for a treat. Acoustic experimentation is practically endless. Now, as a DIY project, do you have ideas about what could be used as far as the plastic panels are concerned? I'm sure that there is some sort of idea that will come to mind.

I may add a few updates to this thread if I try some things, but overall, I am pretty happy with these baffles.  Especially on the low end.  I wish there were a better way to A/B the high end given the new offset.  

With the bass, it's no contest.  Even if the baffle does seem to resonate.  I intend to put the augies back into the old baffle while I paint the new one and I will see how much that baffle resonates.

Its interesting that you went the way of those new diffusers after that picture Steve posted of that room.  I immediately started thinking of building skylines that I could mount to my ceiling using the foam.  I'd still rip the sheets into 2"X 2" strips on the table saw, then use my hot wire cutter to quickly bang out hundreds of blocks whose length would be pre-marked.  Glue them to foam board and see what I get.

Oh, and I would make the sheet to the exact size of my ceiling tiles so I could mount them in their place.

Palomino's skyline diffuser sweatshop, hard at work.  ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnWoOCUfpGw

Not sure.  At first o thought so but then after listening for a while I wasn't sure.  At least it is not as noticeable as the bass.  When I first heard it I was like "oh yeah".

Hey LR and Pal - I continue to be intrigued by your ideas, and the progress that you are making in your listening environments. When you get working models, post some pics, please. I for one would be interested in purchasing diffusers built by fellow forum members, and I'm guessing that others would be,too, so keep us posted.

Cool, LR! Let us know how that goes, and take pics if you can.

Very interesting build to read into, and using the bass drivers I need too!