Looking forward to seeing your progress. I’ve been looking to update my baffles, make them slightly smaller, thicker, from hardwood, and better bases. Acacia counters are one of the most attractive options for me, probably two pieces thick, glued together.
One of these days I’ll get around to it. Probably in the spring.

Hi Jim.

Excited to see that you have joined the open baffle club. I sure do love mine.

The 1.75 should be great - nice and thick!  Put a good thick base on them too.

Post some pics when you are finished with them.

Best,

Geno

When done the baffles will be 2.5 inches taller than Randy’s and 2 inches wider. I am debating how high from the floor the bottom of the driver should be as Randy’s baffle places to 4 1/4 inches above the floor.

Thanks Man E. By my calculations, the new baffle will be 2.5 inches taller and 2 inches wider than the present unit. As far as the height of the enclosure for the driver that becomes somewhat baffling. The bottom of the driver is now 4.25 inches off of the floor. However, the new baffles will mount the drivers from the rear. So I thought of placing the driver 6 inches from the ground. I don’t want to lift it high enough to affect its present imaging or bass.

I’m by no means an expert, I just built mine to Steve’s specs, which are 42” high with the center of the speaker 25” off the floor. I haven’t experimented with different baffles but it seems consistent that the speaker is slightly above center, so you may want to raise yours slightly above center too?
I just used wood glue on mine to glue the bases to the baffles. No brackets. It’s been holding for over a year. Some brackets might make it stiffer. Mine could certainly be improved, but sound great as-is.  8-)

I don’t know the specs on Randy’s but I wonder how much different they are proportionally to Steve’s. My next pair will be thicker and somewhere between the two size-wise, scaled off the decware proportions.
When I built mine I just used wood glue liberally and clamped them. Cleaned up the glue squeeze out with warm soapy water, and then sanded them extensively. I applied finish after gluing them up and sanding.
Looking forward to seeing yours come together. Are you going to radius the side or leave them rectangular?

Off to the wood shop today.

New member,  I have been reading the forum over two years after going to Steve’s shop in 2019 and ordering my first audio system in over 40 years.  Researching the audio world really paid off.  I ordered  a Torii IV and while there, Steve gave me the plans for the ZF15L open baffle speakers.  While waiting for the Torii IV to be built (3 mos), I purchased a slab (3’x8’x2”) of eucalyptus and constructed the baffles to Steve’s specs.  The baffles are 1 5/8 inches thick after milling and planeing.  
The reason for posting is it would be a pleasure to invite you to visit and listen and evaluate the F15’s and perhaps assist you in your project.  I live near you in Fort Lauderdale (Rio Vista).  PM me if interested.
Roon Nucleus-stark I-Ponus-Torii IV-ZF15’s

It was great to meet someone in my own town who enjoys DECWARE gear as much as I do.

What I feared would happen happened. My woodworker Willy was being distracted as he was working on the second baffle and made a mistake. Luckily I have enough left over to make a second second baffle.

This is a wood shop in a retirement community. The person cutting my baffles is a skilled, experienced woodworker. There are other hangers on who are basically old farts that don’t know hardly how to cut plywood to make little wood cars and stupid toys. My guy was being distracted by some old fart and made a wrong cut as stated I’d had enough wood left over to cut another baffle

Ooooof, that sucks. Glad you had some spare wood though. Hoping to get out of this build with all my digits intact, JBzen.

Luckily, I have patience on my side. My father on the other hand...not so much.  ;D

One baffle is done. He did a beautiful job on the round over for the speaker enclosure and rounded the sides of the front of the baffle. It looks nice.

Finished in the raw with the bases clamped.

FAF (fiancé acceptance factor)will determine the finish.

Looking good. I always wondered why the edges of Betsys weren't curved. I know these are bigger than your old pair, but I'd be interested to find out what the curves do performance wise.

I don’t know anything about the clamps. Remember this is not my doing. This is a woodworker at the wood shop in my community. I’m anxious to receive the second baffle and then begin picking out a finish for them.

You owe it to yourself to check out Rubio Monocoat. I’ve been testing it on cut-offs and it feels like nothing else I’ve ever used before and it’s easy enough to use. You've got bits of that Baltic birch butcher block to use as samples so that's already a head start.

My fiancé wanted them finished in gray so gray they will be. I saw a Varathane brand color, semi transparent Weathered Gray that would look good on the birch.

They are basking in the morning sun to make sure that every last bit of that awful solvent based stain has dried. I remember how much I hated working with oil base paint.

Sanding away some of the stain revealed more of the wood grain. Three coats of polyurethane topped it off.

Thanks Man E. All is not perfect. The recess in the back was cut too deep so I had to worry about the screws potentially protruding out the front. And one of the recesses was off center so I could not use all the screws. My amp is still at Decware waiting to be shipped back. The speakers connected to my old solid-state Marantz, so I can’t really make a comparison until the amp is installed again.