Cutting 6" PVC for DIY Speaker Cans

For all of you that made your own speaker cans, how did you cut the pvc to make it perfectly straight? Also, what is the link to the DIY page for speaker cans?

I made the cut as straight as I could and then sanded down with the DA sander until it was level.

Keep posting what you do to make those, I'm interested in doing some myself. What are you going to use for end caps?

Here's what I did....I used 1 1/2" tape wrapped around the tube/pipe. If the tape lines up when you go all the way around, you should be pretty close to being square. I then used a jigsaw to cut carefully on the edge of the tape.

BTW, here's a link to a post from last year on my first PVC speakers (this was posted on www.diytower.com, but for some reason the link no longer works for me). Hope this helps.

http://forums.wakeboarder.com/viewtopic.php?p=61898&highlight=#61898


Have fun!!

I cut the ends with a hole saw in a sheet of 1/2" nylon. I sealed it with epoxy and sanded it smooth. When I was done you couldn't even see the seams.

Use a 6" coupler and a 6" end cap. They are already cut smooth on the ends. You can bondo the crack between the two and you won't be able to tell the difference. Plus you don't have to smooth in a back plate. Also, they are a little wider that your average 6.5" speaker which looks better than the speaker being bigger that the can.

Here's mine

BTW, I'm going to sand off the paint and redo it this week, I didn't wet sand and the finish had a lot of orange peel. I'm going to try to get a better gloss this weekend.

Daniel

(Message edited by mississippireb on June 14, 2004)

Daniel
Other than the clamps, they look identical to the ones I built last year.I even used the same speaker.

Eric, what clamps did you use, I'm not 100% happy with my U-Bolts.

Daniel

daniel, those look very nice

Daniel,my company is a distributor for Behringer. They make pipe clamping systems. They're square with S.S. plates on the top and bottom with an aliminum body. I also used them for my home-made rack.

You can take a Hose clamp and put it around the PVC and use the clamp as a guide for your hack saw

Thanks Matt, they were, and still are, a lot of work.

Daniel

Those look great! You can always get some black hose to put over the U-Bolt for a nice clean look for cheap

Why not get a fine tooth blade for a mitre saw? Can't get much straighter and easier than that. Or maybe a cut-off saw or a tile saw.

try some infinity kappas for those who havent purchased speakers yet, well worth the extra money of the explods

You can use a table saw and raise the blade into the PVC. Then you just "spin" the PVC and it should come out perfect.

how did you mount the speakers inside? also how did u get the cap to fit the coupler i saw them at orchard supply. DO you use bondo inside of the tube to hold them together? thanks for the help
nate

Fit the coupler and end cap over a 6" piece of PVC cut about 4" long and butt them together. Glue it with PVC glue and then bondo the crack. As for the speakers, I cut out a round piece of particleboard with the outside diameter the size of the inside diameter of the coupler and then cut out a hole for the speaker to sit in using the template supplied with the speakers. I screwed the particleboard into the coupler and bondoed the holes and the crack between the coupler and the particleboard. Sanded the hell out of it all and then painted.

Daniel, did you cut the end cap or the coupler because if you put them together its about 13inches long. Do you feel that is a little long???

how do the pvc speaker cans sound compared to the aluminum ones?

Or just go get a big pipe cutter. I have used them at work and they cut the pipe perfectly square... They are not cheap but guarantee a perfect cut everytime.

When I was an electrician I used to run lots of PVC in trenches. Believe it or not thin twisted cotton string works great, use a coupling as a guide and pull the string the direction that makes it "walk" against the coupling. This is the kind of string surveyors often use.