VCL "A vintage loudspeaker design"
(part 1)
Completely hand made, hand laqued.
The drivers:Woofer: Eton 11-581 Hex b
Mid: Audio Technology
( Skaaning
) 5 H 521506 SD
High: Eton 26HD1 (Mg-Ceramic dome tweeter)
HOME
Cabinet dimensions:
Hight x Widht x Depth: 1125 x 500 x 330mm
This project is done in collaboration with Paul Vancluysen (Belgium),
who designed this beautiful cabinets. He asked me to construct these cab's,
and build them out of (solid) Oak. When painted in a classical dark brown
finish, it gives the cab's a nice (mid 60's) vintage look. Please note:
However that this is certainly not a beginners project, as (some of the) construction
elements are not
that easy to accomplish....
PROFIEL
SPEAKERS
* Hatt MK3
* Hatt MK3 HPL
* Ariel ME2
* Vifa Carat
* Solo 103
* Milestones 2010
*
Milestones noten fineer
*
Scan Speak Shuttle
*
Seas Super Monitor Walnut
*
Seas Super Monitor Maple
* Eekels'
Mini's
* JA8008 / TW034
* Scoperta
* VCL
*
Table Sub-Woofer 2010
HOME CINEMA SET
BUIZEN VERSTERKERS
THORENS DRAAITAFELS
LINKS
Let's make a start....
First of all, I have to attach the Oak veneer
on all (25mm) MDF panels. This is done in an oversized way. To exert
the required pressure on the middle of the panels I use some scrap wood
underneath the middle.
A bass Reflex pipe consisting of 3 seperate parts is used. Being the
Intertechnik JETSET 70 for the woofer, and being the BR Jet 30 for the mid
driver.
Finishing the cabinets with Acryl based laquer, garantees fast drying,
no unhealthy gasses and now muskitos on the surface. Four layers are
used, and two clear varnish layers to prevent scratches.
On the right the bottom panel, made of 18mm MDF, and surrounded by
22mm solid Oak bars. The difference in thickness makes it possible to
attach 4mm lead bitume sheets.
The lead bitume sheets will face
upwards, and face the X-over room when mounted.
This loudspeaker cabinet consists of some unregular edges.This makes
assembling more difficult, as there are hardly opposite sides to clamp
on.
Constructing the top part of this design can be considered as the
hardest part of these cabinets, at least in my humble opinion. The top
construction is made of solid Oak parts. I established this
construction in 3 seperate parts, i.e. ,the middle part, and
the two side (triangle) parts. As this middle part's surface is too
big to work out from one piece, I made it from a number of
pieces which I joined together. The triangle side pieces are
double conic edged, and
not easy to produce! You
can see this, as the front appearance of the part will stay
equal over the edge of 135° ,and moves up to the top on the rear
side. Some very accurate work is done here....On the photo on
the right I made a pre-example of tempex.
It's nice to imagine how I managed to construct this
part...:)
Definitaly not an easy task to ensure a
perfect fit, whilst only having a standard tool set
available!
Some of the wigs out of scrap wood are made to
exert some pressure on the parts whilst
glueing them together. The surplus of glue has to be
removed immediately!
Right: Fine sanding will give a smooth
surface result, a "Festool" ETS150/3 sanding
machine is used here. This will ensure a
surface free from scratches.
On the photo below, the Bass Reflex pipe
hole on the rear side is made with my router.
A=135° B=100° C=125°
(total 360°)
The bottom of these cabinets will have a sealed compartment of 120mm
depth, to mount the X-over parts. This will fit the rather large coils
that will be used later on. Some metal Hex socket inserts are foreseen
to ensure that the bottom plate can be fitted whilst making this
compartment easily accessible.
The Mid / Tweeter section will have its own triangled room. The holes
in the MDF panel provides free air flow into the room next to the mid section,
whilst at the same time increasing the woofer's effective volume.
To mount this grill clothe on the baffle, I will make some grill frames
later on....A new experience for me, as I didn't do this before. As this
clothe is not elastic, it will be a tough job!
Baffle is made of three layers MDF sheets, together make a totall
thickness of 62mm.
From bottom to top: 22+18+22
So this makes the woofer and mid hole 40mm and the tweeter panel 22mm
thick. Alongside the baffle I glued two solid Oak side bars, measuring 10mm
thick each. These speakers will get a sunken grill in the rectangular
driver baffle. I have bought some nice original "Hamond grill cloth" for
this in the USA, see picture below.
