Building the cabinets required several steps:

1. Cutting the panels
2. Assembling the front panel
3. Assembling the rear panel
4. Preparing the center brace
5. Gluing and trimming the cabinet
6. Damping the cabinet
7. Attaching the front panel

Refer to the Cut Plan (Sheet 3).

I'll repeat a common bit of woodworking advice. It's more important for matching pieces to have the same size than for their dimensions to be exact. For example, it's OK if you cut the side panels 9 7/8" wide (instead of the specified 10"), as long as the other side panel is also 9 7/8" wide.

The best way to achieve this type of matching is by minimizing the number of times you adjust the table saw's fence.

1. Set the saw's fence for 10" wide cut, and cut four long strips. Each of these strips will form a side panel plus a top/bottom panel.
2. Set the saw's fence for a 7 3/4" wide cut, and cut four long strips for the outer front/back panels.
3. Set the saw's fence for a 6" wide cut, and cut four long strips for the inner front/back panels.
4. With the fence still set for 6", finish cutting the top and bottom panels from Step 1. The top/bottom pieces are now exactly the same width as the inner front/back panels. (From Step 1, their length is exactly the same as the width of the side panels.)
5. Set the saw's fence for a 6 1/2" width, and cut two long strips for the vertical center brace.
6. Make all of the crosscuts that cut the long panels to the correct length.
7. All that's left are the plinths and inner/outer access panels. It might be easier to cut the access panels after you've cut the matching holes in the inner/outer rear panels. (You can cut the holes, then size the panels to match, in case the size of the holes is slightly off.)

First, glue the inner and outer front panels to form a single, double-thickness panel with a rabbet on all four sides.

1. Don't use any glue yet. Center the smaller inner panel over the larger outer panel, and clamp the two panels together. Because the outer panel is oversized, there should be 7/8" (3/4" + 1/8") of exposed outer panel surrounding the inner panel.
2. Insert guide pins that will prevent the inner panel from sliding out of center when you glue the two panels together. With the outer and inner panels still clamped together, drill a small hole (just large enough to let a finishing nail slide through, snugly) near each corner of the inner panel. Drill all the way through the inner panel, and just into the outer panel. Hammer a nail into each hole so the nail penetrates 1/4" or so into the outer panel.
3. Remove the guide nails and unclamp the pieces.
4. Glue the two panels together. Before clamping the panels, insert the guide nails through the inner panel into the matching holes in the outer panel. The guide nails will make sure the two panels are aligned properly.

The larger, outer part of the panel is 1/8" too large on all four sides. The next step was trimming the top and bottom edges.

1. Cut a thin strip of scrap 3/4" MDF (say 1/4-1/2" wide by 8-10" long). Position this strip in the rabbet at the top of the panel with the 3/4" side touching the back of the outer panel. Temporarily fasten it in place with two small screws. This scrap provides an edge for the flush trim bit's bearing.
2. Flip the glued panels upside down, and use your router's flush trim bit to trim the excess length from the front panel. Later, when you assemble the cabinet, the top edge of the outer front panel will align perfectly with the top panel.
3. Repeat the previous two steps for the bottom edge of the outer panel.

The next step was cutting the driver holes. Before I started this project, I worried that cutting perfectly round holes would be difficult. The Jasper circle jig makes it simple. Note that the woofer hole is wider than the inner panel, so it splits the inner panel into two pieces (which doesn't matter, because everything is glued together).

I debated whether I should cut the holes at this stage, cut both the holes and recesses, or wait until the cabinet was fully assembled to cut either. I decided to cut only the driver holes during this step. I waited until the cabinet was fully assembled and veneered before cutting the recesses with a rabetting bit.

I decided to do it this way for several reasons.

• If I made a mistake, all I would need to do is build a new front panel, and that wouldn't take much time or cost much money.
• I wouldn't know how deep to cut the recesses until after I had applied the veneer and acquired the actual drivers and gaskets.
• My straight bit is only 1" long, so I had to cut the hole partially from the front, and partially from the back.
• I wanted to taper the back side of the woofer hole, and that would have been difficult to do after the cabinet was assembled. (It would be impossible to do with a router.)
• Cutting the holes in the finished cabinet would fill the cabinet with sawdust that would stick to the damping material and generally be a pain to vacuum out.

Note that the outer front panels will still be a bit too wide (1/8" extra on either side). You'll remove this excess width after you glue the cabinet.

The final step was tapering the back edge of the woofer hole with a 1/2" chamfer bit. The ends of each chamfered semicircle were ragged (it's hard to describe) and needed to be cleaned up (squared off) with a utility knife and sandpaper.

Back of the front baffle showing the rabbeted edge and the chamfer around the back of the woofer hole (to reduce the tunnel resonance).

Assembling the rear panel is similar to assembling the front panel. The only tricky part is cutting the access panel holes. I did that before I glued the outer and inner panels.

The procedure for trimming the top and bottom edges is the same as for the front panels.

After gluing and trimming the two pieces, I cut the access panels. To make sure the panels would fit properly, I dry fit the pieces, then drilled pilot holes for alignment pins for the two parts of each panel, just as I had done for the front and rear panels themselves.

My Jasper jig won't let me cut a hole as small as the port hole, so I used a 2 1/8" hole saw and drill. That was time-consuming, because the saw kept gumming up (it seems to burn the MDF as much as cut it) and binding. I had to cut about 1/4" depth, vacuum out the sawdust and wipe the residue off the saw teeth, and repeat until I had cut all the way through. It would have been much easier if I had the small Jasper jig.

The rabbets on the front and back panels, plus the dadoes in the side panels, made all of the pieces fit together very well. I could dry-fit the entire cabinet (with its back panel on the floor) and have all of the pieces stay together well enough to let me see how the final cabinet would look.

I wasn't sure how I should glue the cabinet together--all at once, or in steps. I opted for the all-at-once method. That was a bit nerve-wracking, because I was hurrying trying to get all of the clamps in place while keeping everything square. To help with the alignment, I put the front panel in place (without glue) while I clamped, then removed it once I was convinced everything was square.

I didn't have as many clamps as I really needed, so I also used 2" finishing nails to help "clamp" the pieces. I left the nails in after assembly, used a nail punch to drive their heads beneath the surface, and filled the holes with wood putty.

Once the glue dries, all that remains is trimming the excess width from the front/rear panels and the excess height from the side panels. Dry-fit the front panel (which will fit very snugly); then use a router and flush trim bit to remove all the excess. When you are done, all of the matching edges should be flush, straight, and neat.

Assembled cabinet (minus the front baffle.)

Front view of the same cabinet.

I considered using Black Hole 5 or Whispermat to damp the cabinet, but I had already spent quite a bit of money on the project, and the effects of those somewhat expensive materials are the subject of some debate. (See the Links page.)

I read about using a combination of vinyl tiles and acoustical foam, and I decided to try that. The tiles were about a dollar per square foot, and the foam was inexpensive too, so the cost was minimal.

Some of the self-stick tiles didn't stick as well as I wanted, and I didn't want any pieces to fall off inside the assembled cabinet, so I resorted to using small nails and screws to secure the tiles. If I had to do it over again, I'd opt for non-self-stick tiles and use some type of adhesive to attach them.

I used hot glue to attach the foam to the tiles. That was easy and fast.

I fully lined the top, bottom, sides, back, and the lower part of the front panel (the part below the woofer) with this two-layer mix.

The only remaining damping material, a thin layer of polyester batting, is attached later, right before the drivers are installed.

Cabinet lined with self-stick vinyl floor tiles. Note the nail heads.

Cabinet lined with acoustical foam over the vinyl tile.