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Learning woodwork - neofone full (wide) range in a standmount cabinet

Brian

Eating fat, staying slim
Another go at doing something with the Neofone full (wide) range driver.

I bought the neofone’s ~14 years ago and knocked together a grubby floorstanding cabinet for them, and I mean grubby. All I had was a jigsaw and a few clamps. The result (sound) was impressive for such a small driver, mainly in areas I expected from a speaker without a crossover but the cosmetics terrible. Ultimately I took a hammer to the cabinets, the neofones went into a cupboard and have stayed there for years. I concentrated on optimising my KLS3’s, which remain one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard.

For a long time, having followed the amazing efforts of members of pfm, I’ve wanted to learn how to better build stuff from wood. By ‘better’ I mean ‘cosmetically acceptable’ would be an improvement for me, so I thought lets build a standmount cabinet for the neofones but get some decent tools this time.

So, the aim is to learn how to use woodworking tools I’ve never used before, make use of speaker units gathering dust and hope it turns out well enough to use upstairs, or at the caravan. I bought a plunge router and various bits, a Jasper circle jig, a biscuit jointer, a better saw plus various assorted small items.

Before starting on the neofones I got some practice in by building some seating for the summerhouse and it went well enough to go into use, I also made a suitable height sowing table for the SO and she’s requested other things to help her with organisation of her own hobby.

So far, so good, and now the neofones...

I’m listening to them right now and I’m happy with the sound. The cabinets are far from perfect but are much better than last time. I used plywood and there is some break-out but I’m happy with fit of the speakers and the circle cutout, the flush rebating of the neofone to the baffle, joining it all using the biscuit jointer and fitting the terminal block and round port.

I don’t know where I’m heading with this. Maybe a diy speaker to beat the KLS3...

All good fun regardless. There is just something satisfying about creating something out of wood that works.

Here are some pictures.











 
Yeah - looking good!

I had a go at a similar project during lockdown for Tannoy HPDs, and also went the plywood route, initially with cheap hardwood ply, with the expectation that i'd get around to making some better cabinets once i'd settled on the dimensions with more expensive birch ply. As it is, i've had so many other projects and birch ply is so expensive that i've still got them in my initial 'give it a go' cabinets.

Rather than butt joint the corners, I cut them at 45 degrees and glued them with some internal bracing. I've then cut the corners off to reveal the ply, based on the sort of style on Shahinians, and this ended up being easier than I expected, and hid some not great joints.

Xphuqaq.jpg
 
They look good, an altogether larger scale by the look it, the neofone is a 5”.

I’m thinking of rounding the edges even now, all part of experimenting with the router bits.
 
They look good, an altogether larger scale by the look it, the neofone is a 5”.

I’m thinking of rounding the edges even now, all part of experimenting with the router bits.

Yeah, that might work. I presume you've got the joints on the top edge, so rounding the front edges will reveal the layers of ply? You might find there are a number of voids which isn't great, but if you do, you can stick wood filler in and a go with sand paper and a seal and they'll look fine.

I cut the bevel with an electric planer. I just counted the cuts needed to produce the width that looked right to me, then repeated that number of cuts on all edges. You end up with pretty points roughly in the middle where the edges meet. I had some voids, filled with wood filler and sanded, then these have a light coat of an osmo oil, not sure which one, I had some lying around from attempting to reseal the kitchen table that was a bit knackered (to be fair, it still is, didn't do a very good job of that). With a close up you see the lack of quality in the ply I used, the wavy look wouldn't be there with a higher quality ply.

WKTorBV.jpg
 
Rather than butt joint the corners, I cut them at 45 degrees and glued them with some internal bracing. I've then cut the corners off to reveal the ply, based on the sort of style on Shahinians, and this ended up being easier than I expected, and hid some not great joints.

Xphuqaq.jpg

They look fabulous...

I used a biscuit joiner for my speaker build, very strong and very simple.

2007_07220247.resized by Garf Arf, on Flickr
 
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Cesare-very nice work, I have always loved the ply cabinets and how Shahinian does the edges. Yours look amazing! Oh to have some decent wood working skills without losing fingers, thumbs etc.!
 
Ground to a halt for now, I had to return the router due to a stuck collet.

It's good of amazon to give me a refund after 4 months but the same one is now a lot more £££ given I originally bought it in a sale.

I had a Trend router arrive yesterday but that is going back because the plunge depth step setting thing isn't right. Not sure what to try next so I can't copy the rounding of the speaker edges for now.
 
Have you seen the Katsu trimmers on eBay?
They are very cheap and work very well.
They are a bit poorly finished a have few rough edges but nothing a bit of time and a file/wet and dry can’t sort.
Failing that makita or hitachi are very good.


Pete
 
Ground to a halt for now, I had to return the router due to a stuck collet.
Surprised this happened. My Bosch one is made so that after you loosen the nut, you turn it further and it tightens against a collar on the collet. You then turn it further with the spanner and it pulls the collet out, releasing the cutter shaft.
 
Have you seen the Katsu trimmers on eBay?
They are very cheap and work very well.
They are a bit poorly finished a have few rough edges but nothing a bit of time and a file/wet and dry can’t sort.
Failing that makita or hitachi are very good.


Pete
Thanks, I’ll take a look.

Surprised this happened. My Bosch one is made so that after you loosen the nut, you turn it further and it tightens against a collar on the collet. You then turn it further with the spanner and it pulls the collet out, releasing the cutter shaft.
Mine was the POF 1400. When I removed the nut the collet remained in place and I was unable to budge it. Overall I quite liked the router and given the sloppy quality control of the Trend there is a chance I will buy the Bosch again but I’ve really got to suss out how to remove the collet if the nut leaves it behind. The other 2 of the set of 3 collets both have the collet seemingly fixed within the nut so I expected the whole thing to come out as one when trying to remove the pre-installed nut/collet.
 
Surprised this happened. My Bosch one is made so that after you loosen the nut, you turn it further and it tightens against a collar on the collet. You then turn it further with the spanner and it pulls the collet out, releasing the cutter shaft.
The same with my makita and elu routers, my hitachi are different they uses a cone that the collet gets pulled into compressing it.


Pete
 
Interesting. Mine is the pof1200 so next model down. Light DIY use for 10 years. Only problem I had was dust getting in behind the gaiters on the legs so sometimes difficult to plunge. Bit of a pig, but managed to clean the worst of it out.
 
Have you seen the Katsu trimmers on eBay?
They are very cheap and work very well.
They are a bit poorly finished a have few rough edges but nothing a bit of time and a file/wet and dry can’t sort.
Failing that makita or hitachi are very good.


Pete
That's what I have (plus another 3 bigger ones!) and the plunge base. It does the job with small stuff.
 
@James

I already had those terminal blocks in a box from an earlier idea for the neofone that uses it with a treble unit, so I decided to make use of them rather than buy new.
 
Nicely done, Brian. It's always satisfying to enjoy the fruits of your own labour - especially when it involves making sawdust.
 
This Hikoki M12ve landed today. It looks and feels decent, I'll start with it tomorrow.
 
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