I decided to rip them up into tapered strips and glue back together using PVA glue tinted with powdered pigments. This allowed me to not have to run every strip on the jointer. It worked pretty well with some dark grey glue showing in some areas. Drivers will be rear mounted for maximum wood exposure. The rest will be made of double refined 3/4 MDF. This will be a simple slim cabinet with a front port down between the legs. Drivers are Fountek FW222 8inch woofers and Dayton CF50 and CF18 matched pairs. I plan to spray paint the woofer cones to make it all matchy matchy. This will be all passive. I would also like to incorporate some workbench casters for ease of moving.
If you spray-paint the woofer cones, you will add mass and change their frequency response in unpredictable ways. I think they look perfectly fine as-is, if you can live with them.
I like the overall appearance and shape. This project will be groovy.
I don’t see anything wrong with what you show in the photo. Front mounted and not color matching looks good. I guess the large color variation in the wood allows for the variation in the drivers.. to me atleast.
If you can’t live with the cone color. Yes, paint would alter mms and potentially have other effects. I wouldn’t be too scared to try painting cones myself as long as the paint is very watery and do the lightest mist coats to slowly build up the thinest layer required, in order to minimize changes.
I was thinking of painting a paper cone woofer white and did some research on the “lightest” spray paints. I found this paint is a favorite of those making model rockets…
I’d be a little cautious of that particular paint maybe? It’s kind of hot. Never tried it in your application so have no practical experience. I’ve used it on plastics.
Model paints are pretty cool in that they tend to have very finely ground and high concentration of pigments. Maybe look for something with less hot solvents? I’m pretty sure Tamiya (and similar brands) have some acrylic paints that might be a better choice? Not sure, just a considered thought.
The soft parts and the addhesives would be my biggest concern. Learned that in the car audio industry. Had silicone fumes cause issues a couple of times.
I think if you use very light mist coats the solvent should flash off very quickly. Any softening should be limited to the very thinnest portion of exposed surface. Also as a coating gets built up it can act a bit as a barrier. I have sprayed styrofoam this way.. with stuff that should have melted it.
According to winisd a round port tube should not be closer to any internal wall than its diameter, yet a slot port is typically all the way down to the bottom. I am considering a front slot port 1x9 by 6.75 long Internally it will be at the bottom but due to the backward tilt it will be 1.75 off the floor. Any better ideas out there in speaker nerd land?
