Home built desk speakers?

[woodsprite]

New to this part of the forum, but love my music. This is maybe a bit silly. Saw a thread last night about the SWEDX timber computer gear - monitor, keyboards, mice. Personally I thought they looked pretty nifty - or at least would do so on my old timber desk. Might have a crack at making a timber case for the keyboard one day.... but what I am thinking of at the moment is making a couple of small desk speaker boxes for myself. Basically transferring the guts of what I have into some decent boxes. About to renovate the office and these will look good on the desk.

I am waiting for a couple of other french polishing jobs to harden before polishing so will have a bit of time.

I am after any ideas from you proper audio guys - a good timber to use? any plans for this sort of setup around?

I got a nice pair of powered speakers from the local rubbish recycling place a while back for $2.00. Previous owner had thoughtfully snipped off all the leads and internal connections, but an evening's work had them wired up again and sounding good. Each box has 3 speakers in it and each boix standds about12 inches high.

Thanks in advance...
Jeff

[soundman]

If you faithfully replicate the internal volume and the port diameter and length of the original plastic housing you shouldn't go far wrong.

As far as timber.
Solid timber is not recommended for speakers. MDF is great if you want a painted finish or to veneer over otherwise plywood is the go.

for something that small & pretty stay away from the low grades.

10 or 12 mm berch would be my recomendation... its heavy consistent and the edge grain need much less work than other types.

cheers

[woodsprite]

Thanks Soundman - will have a hunt around Bendigo and see if I can come up with some birch ply - I am after a natural finish (to continue developing my french polishing skills) and I like the feel of a good timber box. Will also observe your recommendations re. replicating the volumes etc of the plastic boxes.

Thanks again,
Jeff

[soundman]

If you cant get berch, BB hoop or luan would be reasonable second choices but will be a lot more work to finish.
a lot of people will say that 10 or 12mm is a bit thin. For a tiny box like this particularly in berch you should be fine. a couple of interior ribs to pick up rigidity would be a good idea.
I have had problems in the past with clearance in the holes on thicker panels using small speakers. Some of these little speakers are intended for very thin panels and the terminals protrude into the mounting hole circumference close behind the mounting flange.

even 10mm properly constructed would have to sound better than 1.5mm of plastic.

cheers

[black1]

bit late on this but if you mitre all the edges of the box when you build them you wont see the edge ply pattern and cad still french polish:cool:

[woodsprite]

Thanks again people - I like the mitre idea, and I reckon 12 mm should be OK, and as you say, this would have to sound better than plastic! As an aside, I hooked up my newfound ($2.00) Hustewr 3D-601 subwoofer to some speakers I had lying arounf the shed, the other day. These speakers are now producing a great sound, including the 10 inch plessey speaker I had. Built a 14 inch square by 10 inch deep box for it from 7 ply and 19mm MDF and it sounds terrific( the dynamics of the box are almost certainly not what Plessey would prescribe for it!)
Jeff

[soundman]

:eek: old plesey 10's, crikey havn't seen then for years. they were very popular at one time and wern't half bad by the standards of the time.
100 watt 4 x 10" collum speaker made on those were a common thing.

If you are going to mitre join, make sure you cutting is very accurate becaier evey error will be multiplied.
Masking tape miter method works well, particulary on small boxes.
cheers