Ted's Main Monitor Build

I'm a bit useless with electronics so I don't contribute much to this forum, I get a mate of mine to make my stuff! I thought my latest project may be of some interest though.

Ever since I got into joinery a few years ago I have always wanted to build some main monitors to replace the Tannoy DMT MkII ones I have currently.

Anyway this year I finally decided it was the time and I have brought all the bits for the project.

This thread will not be updated very often as I got married a few weeks ago and am finishing our house. We are currently living on the live room floor so as you can imagine that?s quite a priority!

I have set myself a target to have them finished by the end of the year and will post on here whenever I do some more for those that are interested.

I got all the bits from Wilmslow Audio who also designed the cabinets and provided CAD drawings. They are loosely based on their own Prestige 2 loudspeakers but with different cabinets and 15? bass drivers.

The parts list is as follows:

Volt R3863 Bass Drivers
ATC SM75.150 Midranges
Seas Excel Crescendo Tweeters
Wilmslow Audio Tweaked Prestige 2 crossovers with Hofland Musicap upgrade

I?ll be driving them with 3x Hill Audio C800 power amps.

I am making the cabinets out of 18mm MDF bonded to 18mm oak which came from a tree that fell on my farm and has been air drying for the last 5 years. I bond the oak to the MDF using a vacuum press which I will include photos of when I next make a panel. The oak boards are biscuit jointed together before bonding to the MDF.

I made a start a while ago before I got a digital camera and have cut the oak to rough sizes and have also made the 4 top and bottom panels.

Anyway now for the photos!

Any questions please just ask.

Oh crickey how on earth do I upload photos onto the site

Hey Ted - you can't directly upload pics to the forum, as you can say at Gearslutz but you can hotlink to images hosted elsewhere...

Depending on how many pics you got - I can host them for you and link them in this thread. I've been interested in your project since you mentioned it on GS.

I'd love to build something similar soon, working with some SCM50s has convinced me of that dome mid - wow!

PM for email. There is also a GroupDIY webspace somewhere which I cant remember right now - you could host pics there.

To hotlink pics you do {img}http://picturesurl.jpeg{/img}. Except switch out the {} brackets for these [].

-Tom

Cheers for all the advice Tom. I'll have a go see if it works, I found a free image hosting site.

The bits, 1

The bits, 2

Oak boards glued together after machining

The 18mm oak glued to the 18mm MDF

I pinned a strip the width of the rebate to the area to be rebated and then followed it with a straight router bit.

The router bit.

A finished panel.

A dry run of the panels, I'vestill got to route a groove for the internal braces before I glue them up.

One of the joints close up.

The rebates for the back panel.

Good job Ted - are you soffit mounting these? The wood will look gorgeous when stained / polished. Whats the volume of the box?

Cheers Tom

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Great work - I'm greatly appreciative when people are prepared to do a "photo essay" of their work as I find it very inspiring!!! :grin: It's looking great so far. Thanks for taking the time to post these pics.

Out of interest - what are the dimensions of the speaker boxes? The photos are so "up close" that I'm having trouble with perspective

Tom - Yeah these are going to be soffit mounted. I can't remember exactly but I think it was around 155 litres. I have got it written down somewhere but I'm building a house at the moment and things are stored in boxes everywhere!

Astrovic - The speakers are 850mm x 550mm x 485mm (H x W x D) and will weigh in around 40Kg each so they are fair lumps!

I forgot to include the picture of the vacuum press I use to bond the oak to the MDF. It's an amazing piece of kit that apparently applies 7 Tonnes of pressure!

I've got on well lately and done quite a bit. Here are the rebated panels and braces.

All clamped up.