07 May 2016

I’ve wanted to make a bluetooth stereo for a long time. Finally, here they are!

How to make them

First, I needed to get some speaker drivers. I got mine from a $15 set of speakers from Goodwill.

Perfect for this experiment. You will also need to obtain a bluetooth receiver and amplifier, the Nobsound integrates both into a single device.

The whole purpose of this project was to create speaker cabinets using techniques in Lamination and Joinery.

I started with the cabinets. These are pretty straight forward. I cut two 7.5" x 5" and two 10" x 5" pieces of Ash wood. Then cut the tops and bottoms at 45% angles, stuck them together with wood glue and clamps. Once glued together, I ran them face down through the jointer to make sure they had a flat surface to place the faceplate on. I also ran each side through the jointer using the flat surface as reference, this makes sure each side is square to that surface.

On to the faceplates. Using the straight lamination technique, I glued a strip of Walnut between to pieces of Ash and clamped them together. Once the glue set, I scraped the excess glue off and ran one side through the jointer and the other through the planer to create equal thickness squares. These are approximately 3/4" thick. Ash has such interesting shades and grains, I tried to maintain an interesting combination for a complex yet elegant face. The Walnut strip is off center, creating asymmetry, a touch of darkness, and a transition to the solid Walnut bluetooth receiver.

The speaker drivers are 4". I offset them 2" from the top by setting the center of the circle at 4".

Using a compass, I drew the circle with a 2" radius.

From there, by drilling the center of the circle I could then use a jigsaw to cut out the circle without having to come in from the sides.

The next step was milling the bass cavity using the 1" bit. Starting at the center and slowly moving side-to-side removing a thin layer of wood on each pass.

That is essentially it for the faceplate.

The interface

I chose to strip everything down to the essential interaction, the volume knob. This meant removing the excess functionality from the interface (usb, auxiliary input, even the power switch). To do this I made a new case which highlighted the interaction I wanted to emphasize and tied it all together aesthetically.

The decision to use Walnut for the interface came after the speaker faceplates were roughly finished. For a moment, I thought of using a lighter wood like White Oak, but this would have introduced a new set of colors and patterns that would have broken continuity in the set. Walnut has a strong character that calls attention to it, so it’s the appropriate choice for the interface.

I started by carving a 3x3" cavity using the mill.

Then cutting off the excess wood with the band saw.

Then using the drill press to place the knob dead center. I tested a few sizes on some scrap wood before finding the exact sized bit for the potentiometer to fit snug.

After gluing the faceplates to the cabinets, it’s almost done.

For the finishing touches, I rounded all of the edges on the table router, then power-sanded with 180–320 grit and viola!

All that was left was fitting the electronics in the case.

and adding the speaker drivers to the cabinets.

The speakers looked a little crappy (and they are) so I cut up some dark brown socks to make a screen. Here is the final setup.