Wooden floor standing speakers

Today I will show you an older project: our first attempt at building a set of two wooden floor standing speakers. We designed it because we wanted to use all the oak scraps. The only thing we had to do was to transform the scraps into wood strips and then use them to make DIY projects.

This project is one of these projects:

Table of Contents

The shape of the wooden floor standing speakers

We started building the speakers with two wide oak wood panels for the front and the back of the speakers. Both panels were built using the same method:

I took some oak wood planks
I planed and squared all the faces
I built the two panels using our 4-way panel clamps
I planed the two panels on the wide faces
I cut them to size: the length of the panels would become the speakers height and their width would become the speakers width

When the two oak wood panels were ready, we started drawing the shape of the speakers:

first, I drew the middle of the speakers. I didn’t want to make the sides of the speakers straight

I drew the shape of the speakers on one of the two oak wood panels — Drawing the shape of the speaker

second, I decided to round the corners, so I drew the shape of the outer corners

I drew the shape of the wooden floor standing speakers — Drawing the shape of the floor standing speakers

When everything was drawn, I started to cut the two panels.

I cut the corners using the jigsaw. At that moment our workshop was not equipped very well. I didn’t have a lot of useful woodworking tools to make my work easier. But, now I can say that such cutouts could be done easier with the bandsaw.

we rounded the corners of the wooden floor standing speaker — Rounding the outer corners of the speakers

The middle cutouts were also made using the jigsaw. So, in the end, I obtained this shape.

this is the shape of our diy wooden floor speakers — The shape of our wooden speakers

In fact this should be the position of our floor standing speakers.

I rounded the outer corners to make the speaker look better — Rounding the outer corners of the wooden speakers made it look better

In order not to make the drawings again, I used the first panel as template for the second one. I drew the lines and I cut it using the same jigsaw.

we used the first cutout panel as template for the second one — The first panel of the speaker used as template to cutout the second one

The oak wood pieces needed for building the sides, the top and the bottom of the speakers

As I told you before, I used some oak wood scraps to make strips. I used those strips to build the sides of the speakers. I cut them to length (two different sizes) so I was able to cover the entire height of the speakers, as you can see in the images below:

the oak wood strips used for building the floor standing speakers have the same thickness — The oak wood strips used for the sides of the speakers

1. I cut a lot of oak strips and I arranged them on the first oak wood panel, so I easily decided what depth the speakers should have in order to look and sound as good as possible.

we arrange the oak wood strip to know the depth of our floor speaker — Testing the depth of the speaker

After that I put the second panel over the stack.

setting the sizes of the speaker by putting together all the needed pieces — Setting the sizes of the speakers

We had all the pieces needed, except the top and the bottom of the speakers.

I will fill the top and the bottom of the floor standing speakers with some oak wood strips positioned with the end grain visible — The top and the bottom of the speakers will be filled with other oak wood strips

2. For the top and the bottom of the speakers I decided to use other oak wood planks with the thickness equal to the width of the strips used for the sides of the speakers.

these are the wide boards needed to cut strips for the top and for the bottom of the floor speakers — The wide panels used for the top and the bottom of the wooden speakers

I wanted to cut some strips so that their length was equal to the distance between the side walls of the speakers.

3. I cut them perpendicular to the edges, so we could use them with their end grain visible.

we cut strips using a wide oak wood plank to build the top and the bottom of the speakers — Cutting the strips for the top and the bottom of the speakers

I arranged the strips like this as I liked the way they look.

these are the strips used for building the top and the bottom of the wooden speakers — The oak strips used for building the top and the bottom of the floor speaker

Building the wooden floor standing speakers

Now I really started to build the entire floor standing speaker. I had to make them layer by layer:

first, I arranged one layer of strips

matching the first layer of oak wood strips, before gluing it up and screwing it — The first layer of oak wood strips

I applied water based adhesive and I clamped the strips

I glued up and I tightened the second layer of oak wood strips — Gluing up the first layer of wood strips

I drilled holes with a 3 mm drill and I countersunk them

before drilling the holes and countersinking them, I clamped the oak wood strips with F clamps — Drilling and countersinking the holes

I secured the strips with 4 cm screws

I also used screws when gluing each layer of narrow strips — I used screws to tightened each oak strips

I put the second panel up on the layer of strips

i used the second oak wood panel as template to be able to cut the small oak wood strips — The second panel used as template for drawing the shape on the oak strips

I drew the shape of the panel

we drew the shape of the speaker on the glued oak wood strips — Drawing the shape on the glued strips

I cut the excess with the jigsaw. Now I would use a top and bottom bearing flush trim pattern router bit to do that, but that moment I didn’t have so much experience.

we cut the excess of oak wood strip after the glue has dried — Cutting the excess of oak wood strips

That’s what I got after cutting the excess.

the way the shape looks after cutting the excess of the oak wood strips — The shape after cutting the excess of wood

Before going to the next layer of strips, I marked the position of the screws used for the previous layer, and then I followed the same steps from the first one.

I marked the places where I used the screws for tightening the previous strips — Marking the places of the previous used screws

That was the second layer.

I glued up the second layer of oak wood strips of the wooden speaker — The second layer of strips was glued

We followed these steps until we built the entire speaker enclosure.

Building the final enclosure and installing the accessories of the speakers

1. Before gluing the front of the speaker, I applied a layer of polyurethane primer, to give the speakers protection over time.

I applied a layer of polyurethane primer before gluing the soundproof system of the floor speakers — Applying a layer of polyurethane primer

2. I cut some sheets of soft foam.

I used universal adhesive to glue up the soft foam on the interior walls of the floor standing speaker — The adhesive used to glue up the soft foam

3. I applied the adhesive on the inside walls of the speakers

we applied the glue on the interior walls of the wooden speakers — Appling the glue on the interior walls of the speakers

4. I spread the adhesive to be sure the soft foam will be very well glued

I used a spatula to spread the adhesive all over the interior walls of the speaker — I spread the adhesive with a spatula

This is the way the foam inside the speaker looks.

we used 2 cm thickness soft foam to build the soundproof system — The 2 cm thick soft foam

5. Now, I was able to glue up the second panel.

i glued the second panel of the speaker, tightening it with a lot of large clamps — Gluing up the second oak wood panel of the speaker

Completing the wooden floor standing speakers

1. The next step was to sand the speakers:

I sanded them with the belt sander and with the orbital sander using 80 grit sandpaper
then I used 120 grit sandpaper to make all the surfaces smoother
I applied wood putty to fill all the wood cracks and the knots
I sanded again with 120 grit sandpaper to remove the excess of wood putty

2. I finished them using polyurethane primer and varnish. So, this is what I got in the end:

this is the way the top of the oak wood floor standing speaker looks after applying the polyurethane primer and varnish — The way the top of the wooden speaker looks

this is the way the sides of the oakwood floor standing speaker looks — The sides of the floor speaker

When the varnish dried, I cut the holes to install the speaker accessories. For each hole I drilled a 10 mm diameter hole, to make the cutout with the jigsaw. It was a workaround. This time I would make templates for each hole and I would cut out them using the router with a template router bit.

the speaker port tube

the speaker port tube I used for this floor standing speaker — The speaker port tube

the speaker wire spring terminal

this is the speaker wire spring terminal I used for this speaker — The speaker wire spring terminal

a wide range woofer and the speaker grill

these are the classic woofer and the speaker grill I used for this oak wood speaker — The wide range woofer and the speaker grill

So, after all those steps, these are our oak wood floor standing speakers:

the oak wood floor standing speaker — The floor standing speaker made out of oak wood

this is our floor standing speaker after installing all the needed accessories — The oak wood speaker after installing all the accessories

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