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Thread: JBL 435(X) Tower Speakers

  1. #16
    Junior Member brucewood's Avatar
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    Speaker Placement

    Quote Originally Posted by Dr.db View Post
    Wow, these are some serious speakers for shure!!
    You have some great woodworking skills and I like your design a lot.

    How far is the 2202 and the 2405 apart from the 2397 horn?
    How did you come up with this baffle-layout?
    The center of the 2405 is 6" above the top surface of the 2397 horn. The positioning of the individual speakers just kind of evolved. I had read that 2 identical speakers should normally be placed as close to each other as possible. However this requirement is not as critical for low frequencies. Separating the 2235 speakers to the top and bottom positions allowed me to place the 2397 horn at optimal ear level (42 1/2"), Westlake tower speakers frequently place the UHF driver below their midrange horn however I just didn't like that look and felt that would place the UHF too low. The chamber for the 2202 has the exact dimensions of the original 4355 cabinet, and the volume requirements for the 2235 speakers (about 5 cu ft/speaker) mandated the height of that section of the cabinet. The 2441 driver is also mounted in a wood cradle that raises it about 1" off of the partition that it rests on. I have included a photo of the mount before cutting it from the plywood stock.
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  2. #17
    Junior Member brucewood's Avatar
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    Continuing Progress on the cabinets

    After completing the basic cabinet (sides, top, bottom and 3 internal horizontal partitions) it was time to start with the front baffle. My previous post describes how the design came about. I made 2 templates, upper and lower, for the baffle from ¼” MDF. I marked the position of the internal partitions as well as the actual positions of each speaker and ports. I left the space between the upper and lower portions about 3/8” greater than the height of the horn. This gave me some “wiggle” room for positioning the horn. In the actual build I built added a 2 layer of ¾” plywood on the inside of the lower baffle then placed a ¼” thick rubber pad for protection of the bottom of the horn. This filled in the extra part of the gap.


    I drilled holes in the baffle templates for center location for each speaker. The 4 port openings and the opening that would contain the 2405 were marked on the templates, I then made a routing template for the ports and one for the 2405 panel. These templates were attached to the actual plywood baffle with 2 sided tape the the router was used to route out the area. Using this template ensured that all 8 port openings would be identical in size. The speaker openings were cut using a router and a Jasper circle jig.
    The port tubes are constructed with ¼” walnut veneer plywood. The ports are 3”x4” rectangular. Since the 2235 speakers are in separate compartments and I was using a rectangular port tube it was necessary to calculate the length of the tubes. I used the same frequency (32 Hz) as the original. I checked the calculations on several different website to make sure they agreed. The ports are about 10”, sorry can’t remember the exact length. The ¼” plywood pieces for the sides of the tubes were cut an inch longer. The plywood was stained and finished on the insides before being glued together. I used the same template for the glue up as I did in cutting the openings in the baffle. I would have a glove fit when attaching the tubes to the baffle. After all the tubes were glued up they were cut to exact length. The finished port tubes were attached to the baffle prior to the baffle being attached to the cabinet.


    In the attached photo you can see the stack of port tubes along with the frames that will be attached to the front of the baffle which will cover the ¼ raw edges of the port tubes. In the upper left corner of the photo is the template used to cutout the opening in the baffle as well as in the glueup of the port tubes.
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  3. #18
    Senior Member Don C's Avatar
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    I really like the finishing details on these. They remind me of high end Tannoys.

  4. #19
    Junior Member brucewood's Avatar
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    Stay Tuned

    Quote Originally Posted by Don C View Post
    I really like the finishing details on these. They remind me of high end Tannoys.

    Stay Tuned! Don't touch that dial! More to follow.

  5. #20
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    Thanks for the info

  6. #21
    Junior Member brucewood's Avatar
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    Continuing to build the cabinets

    As I was working in this phase of the project I realized that there would be no way to run the internal wiring for the bottom 2235 after the baffle and back panels were glued in place. I decided to run a pipe from the lower chamber up to the upper middle chamber that would contain the 2441 and horn where the input jacks would be located. See photo for the 1/2 “ copper pipe.

    By this time I had applied the walnut veneer to the sides, front baffle and rear panels. The speaker openings and ports would be cut after the panels cut to size. I had marked and cut the templates earlier that I would use to mark the cutouts on the walnut veneer plywood panels. I also stained the front baffle and rear panels prior to gluing to the cabinet.
    I had added ¾” square strips to the interior of the cabinet on both the front and rear to provide backing for all for edges of the front and rear panels. Some interior bracing was also added. Since I had plenty of scrap pieces of the ¾ birch plywood, I made some bracing out of 3 layers of the plywood glue together to make it 2 ¼ “ thick and cut to appropriate length and width.
    I Added 1” thick fiberglass insulation to the interior of the 3 speaker chambers prior to gluing the back panels and front baffle into place.
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  7. #22
    Senior Member Woody Banks's Avatar
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    Inspiring

    Great job! You have inspired me to do two things. #1 Clean up my shop. #2 Build something.
    I used to pass through Placerville to get to my home in Somerset years ago.

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