# Step 1 mill the waveguides



## evilskillit (Oct 7, 2008)

I am working on a pair of Zaph Waveguide TMMs. I got my waveguides milled down and am pretty happy with the results. I wish someone would have had a nice thread showing how they did it so I didn't have to fly by the seat of my pants so I'll post how I did it for future builders of this design, or anyone working with a waveguide for that matter. Just my way of saying thanks and trying to give back some.

First I cut the threads off of the back of the waveguide using my chop saw. I screwed the WG face down to a box to get it nice and horizontal on the saw.





For this part be careful of the brass threads. I hit them a bit with my saw and the blade didn't seem to care one bit, your mileage may vary. A hacksaw would work too, if you have one, and a bit more time on your hands.

For the Zaph WG make sure not to cut into the first rib, you need to make sure you cut before that with a few MM to spare or the thing will be too short and the hole will be too big.

Next I screwed the WG face down inside of a U-shaped thing to mill it with a router. I stole this great idea from Collo over at www.subwoofer-builder.com Just make sure the vertical rails are nice and flat otherwise your milling will be all wonky. Put a nice flat piece of wood under your router and go to town with a spiral bit or straight bit.




Really, thats all there is to it. Including waiting for glue to dry, it took me an hour or 2 to make those 2 jigs, then maybe an hour to get the waveguides done. Would have gone quicker if I hadn't accidentally destroyed 2 of em, and if I had a router with a 1/2" bit instead of 1/4".

So how well does this work? Zaph says the hole has to be EXACTLY 1.5" lets see how close I got.



This is the depth I got after milling.



I found that to get the right size I had to mill right down to the first rib, taking off maybe 0.05" off of that rib to get the hole size right. Start slow and work towards that, measuring periodically, don't go too far or you have to start over.

Here is a picture of happy matt reminding you to always wear safety gear. The dust is nasty and the chips get in your eyes very easily. Also not visible, ear plugs. Want to be able to hear your new speakers, right?

Those ABS shreads got everywhere, you can see em in the collar of my shirt, I found some in my belly button an hour later. Wear a shirt with a tight collar.

Finally, comedy: Smashed my finger good, bloody mess, we were all out of bandaids so I made a mandaid. I bet we've all been here before.


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

looks like you have discovered the hidden cost of DIY speakers:T


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## BuddahX (Jan 6, 2010)

Nice work. LOL on the mandaid. sorry about the finger. but It will be worth it in the end.


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## jeremy7 (Feb 7, 2008)

ha...mandaid...thats hilarious

nice job so far


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## 1Michael (Nov 2, 2006)

"so I made a mandaid."
Been there, done that hundreds of times cause regular bandaids wont stay on...


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