# Rear Surrounds: 10" Coaxial {PART II}



## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

I've scrounged three dining room table leaves from a local thrift store. 
No Charge! 8) 
The wood, type unknown, is a measurable 1 1/8" thick. Nice stuff.










Today will be spent preping the wood. That includes removing the hardware that makes the leaves fit together, and a few minutes with a belt sander on the back side to remove the glue. My goal is to preserve the nicely finished face.










Since I've only got one shot at this (can't go get more leaves); I'll do a rough outline of the cuts I'll be making with masking tape. Just want to make sure I've "got it right", you know. Measure THREE times, cut once.










This weekend I _should_ have a nice set of baffles hanging on the wall.
I think my biggest obsticle will BE the hanging. I think these babies are gonna' be heavy. :? 
Rough measurements will be 12.5" from wall, 12.5" wide, 21" tall.
Eventually, I'll make grill covers for the exposed bottom section. But for now, I'll be thrilled if I can get them hanging and playing.

More to come...........

Bob


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Nice looking wood Bob! I can't wait to see how these turn out. That's actually a great idea I'd never thought of... pick up cheap used furniture (with salvageable wood) and cannibalize it!


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## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

Hi Owen,
Yup, the Augie baffles (the four identical one's you see in my avatar) used to be somebodys kitchen table. Over one inch thick solid maple butcher block. All for the low, low price of _FREE_!

This time I didn't get so lucky. The table leaves turned out to be laminated on both sides, and heavily varnished on the ends, so I didn't know what I had until I smelled the HDF burning from the circular saw.
Oh well. Turned out halfway decent anyway.

Here's my "official story" I wrote on the Hawthorne Forum:

I've got one baffle (left rear) finished with the exception of a cover for the lower front half. But it's hanging and operational, enough to give you an idea of my intentions.
The wife and I watched a relatively new Clint Eastwood movie, "_Bloodwork_" last night. The movie opens with Clint walking around a crime scene. In the five channels you can hear helicopters flying overhead, and police photographers snapping pictures. I noticed a distinct difference in the left rear channel compared to the right. As the actors moved past a photographer on the left side of the screen the 'snap' of the camera was noticeably louder and sharper than on the right channel. Very impressive. As they walked by photographers on the right, it was barely noticeable and muffled in comparison to the left. The difference I noticed when comparing my old speakers to the 10" coaxials in the previous baffle was amazing. Althought I see bright things in my future, it's a little hard to tell what these will do for a few reasons. #1 I've never seen this movie so I have no reference point. #2 I've only got one new driver in this, the newest, alignment. But I have VERY high hopes based on last nights film. Of course today will be spent building the other, then refering to my reference films to compare.

Very exciting! Darrel Hawthorne gets "Honors" for these puppies!!

Not as proud of the build as I intended. The veneer over 1" HDF has some form of clear material applied over the wood. Presumably something to protect the wood from the perils of liquids or heat from hot plates. The edges of the wood chipped in the cutting process. Actually, it wasn't entirely the woods fault, it was this "clear coat" that did most of the chipping.
The cavity is open enough to experiment with stuffing. That'll come later.
Also, the driver is bottom mounted on the 1 1/8" thick top plate. This plate is covered in screen and Velcro keeps it held to the rest of the structure. In some of the photos you can just make out white in the seem under the top plate, but in real life, you can't see it unless you stick your nose against the unit and squint. So it doesn't look as bad as the photo suggests.
Anyway, enough chat. How about some photos:









A view from below. Me squatting looking up into the cavity.












A top view. The camera held high over my head.
(Couple spots I need to touch up......)











Straight on, normal height.











A horrible fuzzy view of the inerds. 
Sorry, the camera wouldn't focus when it's stuck into a dark cavity. :wink: 

I've since built the second one, and it's playing.
Last night was, "_Bad Boys II_". Fantastic movie for surround effects.
Bob's a happy boy!

More pics to follow....................

Bob


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## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)




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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Bob, you're making me jealous here. I haven't had a project to work on since I did my surround, and these look like they were fun to build. It also sounds like they turned out great, so nice work! There's nothing better than improving your setup noticeably with something you built yourself!


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## JCD (Apr 20, 2006)

What an awesome idea? Scavenging wood from a thrift store is truly DIY genius! :T:hail:

JCD


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## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

Thanks Owen and LCD. 
I've been living with these for a week and a half now. 
Life is good. I mean life is _GOOOOD_








I still haven't made any changes to the cosmetics, stuffing, or placement but I could 'almost' die happy with these. Have gotten a few suggestions I'll implement (time permitting) this weekend.
One is to cover the ugly lower half. I've got a few sheets of 1" dense foam rubber I may use.
Also, stuffing.
And rotating the drivers so they're aimmed at each other instead of "12 O'Clock".

I'm dying to try these drivers in a radial configuration (like a top mounted sonosub....kinda') but time and cash are a rare commodity. May wait on that, but no hard feelings as I'm VERY happy with the sound.
I just have a bad case of "DIYitis/Tweakitis". :bigsmile:

....and Yes LCD, nothing better than free wood. lol.

Bob


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