I had a fun time outside today carving the front baffles. They are 1.5" thick 11.5 x 18.25" layered 3/4" plywood so the plys are parallel to the driver axes. The extra stiffness in that orientation will raise the baffles' resonance higher in frequency, which means less energy, which makes for easier bracing and damping. But it's a lot of extra work. I like the look of edge-on plywood lam although this is a little more wild look than baltic birch seen on Magico et al due to more blemishes on the inner plys. This front baffle center section will be surrounded by normal veneer above and below, with the edges of the side panels of the speakers showing on the front baffle top to bottom and blending in with this center panel in the middle. It looks good in my mind so far...
A picture of the front of the baffle on the left and rear of the baffle on the right. The midrange driver hole has a miter relief on the rear to allow easier breathing into the rear horn. The tweeter waveguide is installed and routed right though to allow some overlap of the drivers and reduce the distance between acoustic centers. The crossover is already designed so the driver geometry has to match the plan. I hate to cut these beautiful waveguides, but that's the design.
My jasper circle cutting jig has minimum 1/16" diameter increments. The wave guide hole was perfect fit, but the mid hole could have been a touch smaller. A CNC would be a nice tool to have...
But I love the woodworking.
The woofer holes are larger than the rear baffle board width, so I must assemble the boxes before I cut those. So the next step,
finally, is assembly! Then internal panel bracing, gluing the Ruberoid membrane, wood finishing, crossovers.
Rich