When I was making speakers for Acoustic Research the internal baffles were set into dadoes like yours. But they used 3/4" thick material and the dadoes were .705 I think. On the parts that would be put into the dadoes there was a deep slot cut into the center of the edge that made the part be able to flex and squeeze into the slot. It was always a tight fit that was acoustically sound.

Thanks for all the responses!

Alan and Bill,

I've never done miter folding before, but I read up a little on it this morning. Do you suggest cutting all the way through with the V bit, adding tape, then folding? Or just cutting almost all the way through?

I'm selling complete speakers, so no issues with getting paid or low margins associated with kits.

Chris,

Thanks for the suggestion on the lamellos, I will look into it. Also, yes, I am aware of the issues with rattles. I was previously making a molded plastic speaker with a bunch of electronics inside and there were all sorts of problems with connectors rattling and air chuffing through holes.

Leo,

I think it's pretty neat that you made cabinets for AR. AR and NHT used to be headquartered near me in Benicia, CA, after they both got acquired by Recoton around 1990. I used to dig in their dumpster for discarded speaker parts!

When you made AR cabinets how did you cut the miters and clamp them? Did you rely on the baffles to keep the miters aligned? or something else to ensure registration?

I'm pretty sure I don't want to use a lock miter because of the aesthetic of the joint.

We had a jig that kept things in place and the glue we used was super thick. Just used bungy cords to hold things together until the glue dried. Weird tapered angles with a fully tapered cap.

I redesigned the whole thing and sent them a sample because the miters were a pain to work with. Then they came back with a drawing of my redesign with another guys name taking credit for it. But it used dadoes instead of miters. This was a tall skinny rectangularish speaker with some kind of fuzzy paint material on it. Kinda neat.

We miter fold on a flat table CNC, we tape before we fold, a fold across the grain needs to be close to through so it doesn't splinter, it varies by veneer.

You can pick a used dedicated feed through machine up for about 7k at auction. Or you could have a local company make a custom metal frame and use some 3HP routers, one fore a rough cut and one for a finish cut.

Otherwise you could set up a shaper with a 0 cut and miter the ends and then tape and glue.

Do you have any concerns about the STC of the different material types?

We did some speaker boxes almost 40 years ago, when I asked the woman who wrote the checks why they always bounced, she didn't understand it, she called the bank every day to check the balance before she wrote any more checks.

I would call their bank, go an get cash or cashiers check and then deposit it.

Somebody that got tired of not getting paid advertised their house for $150 a month in the local paper, no deposit, with just the address and come any time. It was a 3000 sq foot home, 5 bedroom with a pool, near a college. They had people ringing their door bell for a month asking to rent the house.