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1.
You will need a table saw for this next section, or at
the least a circular saw with a miter gauge and fine cut saw blade. It doesn't
matter how small you table saw is, just as long as you can do accurate miters. A
miter block is a really useful thing to have on your table saw and if you want
to do cuts of more than 45 degrees then you will need a tenanting jig or
vertical work clamp for you table saw. Do not try to cut miters with a jig saw,
I don't care how good you think you are with one you will seriously mess it up.
A tip from Norm Abraham, always wear safety glasses and for MDF especially, wear
a face mask with good filtering. And yes the above panel saw is one of mine. For
anyone interested its a Startrite 12" tilt arbor with 2.6 meter sliding carriage,
the motor is 6 hp 415v three phase. If you are going to buy a table saw to do
some serious work make sure you get as much distance as you can from the blade
to the fence if it hasn't got a sliding carriage. My Startrite has 1.5 meters
from blade to the fence on the right hand table and this is about the most you
will ever need if you also have a sliding panel carriage.
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2.
I find it best when doing miters to hold down the two
pieces of wood that need to be joined and then mark one piece parallel to the
other piece of wood. Its hard to put into writing this bit but the above photo
should say it all. Just cut along the pencil mark on the lower piece of wood for
both of them to miter correctly. When doing miters always make the pieces if
wood that have to have the angled cuts made on them longer that they need to be.
You can see why in the photo above.
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3.
Next cut the angle. I always like to adjust the blade
slightly more than the angle I need. Every time I have set the correct angle at
my saw bench it seems out a bit. If I cut the angle a couple of degrees more
acute than It should be, the panel seems to line up perfectly when I place it
next to the piece it has to miter with. The above photo shows the blade set a
little bit more than it needs to be.
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4.
After the miter has been cut you need to screw it to
the piece of wood next to it. This is the hardest bit to do on the whole cabinet
and takes a long time as well as many cabinets that didn't fit together properly
to get it right. It's best to experiment on some scrap bits of wood first
because if you haven't ever tied screwing two panels of wood together that have
miters on them, you will not get it right first time. The process involves
drilling in at an angle from one panel into the other one you are trying to glue
it to. Just point your drill bit at the piece of wood you are trying to screw
into and drill straight into it. You can see on the above photo the 3 screw
holes that screw the front panel into the panel above and to it's left. Aim your
drill from the front panel to the top left hand corner and drill the clearance
hole s first. Next drill the countersinks, which also have to be made at an
angle. When you come to screwing the panels together you will find that the
panel you are trying to screw into will move forwards a lot. To get round this
push the panel you are screwing into back by about 10 mm so that when it gets
pulled forwards it will be in the right place. Drill the pilot holes when the
panel has been moved back by 10 mm and not before.
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5.
Before you glue and screw the baffle into place you
will need to cut out the hole for the driver. Work out where the driver has to
go on the baffle so that it doesn't get in the way of any other panels and place
it on the baffle. Which side of the baffle you place it will depend on whether
you are going to front load the driver (bolt it down from the front of the cab)
or rear load it (bolt it in from the back or inside of the cabinet). On this
bandpass cab the driver has to be rear loaded so the hole can be slightly
smaller than if it were front loaded. The drivers spec sheet should come with
the size of hole to cut for front or rear loading. After you have placed the
driver onto the right side of the baffle draw round the driver and also mark
where the mounting holes are as shown above. The driver in the photo above is
the awesome 18" Precision Devices PD 1850. And yes, the magnet is about 13"
across.
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6.
Next get a long ruler and mark the center point. Line
the ruler up with two opposing bolt holes and draw a line half way between the
bolt holes. After you have done this with all 8, 6 or 4 holes you're have the
center point.
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7.
After you have found the center point you will need to
mark out the hole. If the hole needs to be 416 mm across, then you will need to
draw out 208 from the center. I do this with a piece of insulation tape that has
been folded onto itself many times to add strength. Attach one end of the tape
with a screw into the center point and pierce the tape at the other end at 208
mm from the center point with the pencil. You should have measured and made a
mark at 208 mm from the center point before you attached the tape, this is so
that you can check the pencil is at the correct distance from the center. Now
just draw round and don't pull too hard outwards with the pencil.
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8.
There are two ways to cut the hole out. One way is to
use a jigsaw. First cut a 10 mm hole with a drill near the edge of the hole and
then make the cut going slow with the jig saw.
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9.
The better way and you knew this was coming is to use a
router with a hole cutting jig like the one I have made in the photo above. This
gives you a hole that even our man Norm would be proud of and if you are going
to do a lot of hole cutting is the only way to go. I have this router setup with
this jig all the time and use another router for other work. You will need a
straight cutting bit for your router and don't plunge in to far with each pass.
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10.
Next drill the holes to accept the 6 mm tee nuts. You
will need to use 7.5 mm drill bit. Make sure you put the tee nuts in the right
side of the baffle before you hammer them in.
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11.
I also like to use a 6mm Allen bolt with a large
washer and tighten it up before I fit the baffle just to make sure the tee nut
is home firmly.
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12.
The next section of the construction guide deals with
cabinet finishing and stuffing. Click on the next button to go to the next
section.
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