Somehow, every subsequent stage of this design takes longer than the one before.  If I use this same design again, I’ll invest in a CNC machine prior to construction.  Constructing the baffles required many steps, each of which required either a special jig and/or hours of routing.  Looking at the steps required to build these things, I think I’m the Rube Goldberg of woodworkers:

1. Acquire curly maple.

2. Plane with router on jig to avoid tear-out.

3. Rout out recesses in maple to limit expansion/contraction issues.

4. Square up corners in recess with chisel.

5. Cut out baltic birch to fit recess.

6. Notice that, due to custom depth of recess, baltic birch also has to be planed to the correct thickness and, since I don’t have a planer, the router method must be used again.

7. Glue plywood into maple.

8. Cut out another piece of baltic birch to be inset into the cabinet.  Oh, and this is a custom depth too because I just kind of cut the depth to what looked right.  So, out comes the router jig again…

9. Align and attach the baffle to the cabinet with piece of birch fitted. Clamp and drill 1/4″ holes where driver holes will be.  Insert dowels to hold alignment.  

10. Glue pieces together, using dowels to align.

11. Cut out driver recesses and holes.

12. Round over, using 7/8″ round-over bit, on all sides.

13. Since I didn’t want to use the router to achieve the final fit with the cabinet (scary), sand until arm is jello.

Pictures of the results:

Curly maple routed out with baltic birch ready to be inset

Clamps…not enough

Results, after step 12

After step 13.  I had to make a deep fence with the round-over bit mostly covered by it because I didn’t want the entire radius of the bit to be used for the round-over.  This way, the curve on the baffle carries into the cabinet’s curve.

Test fit of the drivers, before drilling the mounting holes.  The rear of the baffles will get a 45 degree chamfers on the woofer holes after the mounting holes are drilled.

Next up, I’ll be doing the same thing, minus driver holes, for the rear of the cabinets.  I’m hoping to do these in less than 32 hours.