# Question before starting enclosure



## cajun_duck (May 23, 2011)

I will be building the Swope 3-way towers, but I have a couple of questions first. I will be using mdf to build these. First, should I go with screws or a nailgun? I have either a 15ga or 16ga finish nailer at home, would these be too big? Or if I go the route of screws, what size and what type of thread? 

Next question, when you install your crossover, how do you get to it if something fries on it and it is too large to get to through the speaker hole? I was thinking about reconfiguring the layout of the speakers, which is ok to do with this one, and add a small "drawer" at the bottom that would be accessible from the rear, but I think this may make the towers look too tall. What do you guys suggest?

Thanks in advance.


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## fusseli (May 1, 2007)

I'm not sure about your nail and screw question, hopefully a more experiences wood worker can chime in.

I would definitely suggest making the crossover easy to access, if not easily removable in whole. If you ever realize you need to fix a mistake or if you ever want to make any tweaks later you will be glad you did! I have completely torn out and redone the crossovers on my three way towers and my lack of prior planning for crossover removal made that a bigger headache than it had to be. At the same time, since you are making a proven design there wouldn't be a need for later modifications unless you really had the itch...


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## BoomieMCT (Dec 11, 2006)

I build my crossovers on a piece of 1/4" MDF and screw it the the back of the enclosure. If I need to pull it out, I undo the screw and just take it out. 

As far as building the enclosures, I glue mine. Sometimes I use screws on large pieces, but that is more to help the glue set evenly than for actual support.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

cajun_duck said:


> I will be building the Swope 3-way towers, but I have a couple of questions first. I will be using mdf to build these. First, should I go with screws or a nailgun? I have either a 15ga or 16ga finish nailer at home, would these be too big? Or if I go the route of screws, what size and what type of thread?
> 
> Next question, when you install your crossover, how do you get to it if something fries on it and it is too large to get to through the speaker hole? I was thinking about reconfiguring the layout of the speakers, which is ok to do with this one, and add a small "drawer" at the bottom that would be accessible from the rear, but I think this may make the towers look too tall. What do you guys suggest?
> 
> Thanks in advance.


for screws you can use basic #8 screws to go in or I prefer 16 or 18 guage finishing nails if you're using a nailgun. you really wanna glue your speakers together and rely on clamps as much as possible and screws or nails as minimally as possible, used only for support while the glue dries.

as for the crossover. usually if the crossover is too big for the woofer hole then I'd say just pop the front baffle off and extract that way. then re-glue it back on.


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## cajun_duck (May 23, 2011)

It will definitely be glued, but I would just rather use screws/nails to help it out. I was actually thinking of getting some hobby boxes and mounting the crossovers in those hidden behind my tv and run the wires from that point to the speakers. I want to do this in case any of the components go bad or something.


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## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

I would definitely go with screws over the nail-gun. 
Screws allow you to dry-fit everything before final gluing which then allows easy rectification of panel fit issues.


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