Freshly veneered bass bin almost ready for final sanding...

Bass bin (B) waiting for it's turn to be veneered...

A pair of veneered tophats...

A general idea of what the final product is going to look like...

And finally an explaination of what's going on here...

A few months ago I bought a pair of "beater" La Scalas. I paid WAY to much for them in a moment of weakness when I really wanted a pair of La Scalas. After listening to them fo a while and doing a lot of reading here I began to formulate a "plan".

I cut the tops off and built a pair of tophats. The bass bins have been flipped over and a 2" riser added. The bottoms have been cut out of the tophats such that they sit on the bass bins and by way of foam weather stripping will seal to the bass bins. In the top of the tophats is a "port shelf". It's installed such that I can easilly change the depth of the shelf. The backs of the tophats will have slot ports.

The cool thing about the design is that they can be configured 6 different ways. (1) conventional by covering the doghouse opening (2) conventional with the BB facing backwards (3) slot ported (4) slot ported with the BB facing backwards (5) much larger volume cabinet by installing a solid TH back (6) larger cabinet with the BB facing backwards.

It'll be another week or two before they find their way back to my living room. Hopefully by the time that happens I will have raised the coin for a sweet tube amp to drive them with. If not they'll just have to get by being driven by a Marantz 2240. How bad can that be?

 Those look awesome, the Marantz 2240 is not bad at all.  Cheers.

Very nice work, what finish did you decide on, oil, clear ? I really like the idea of the tops separate, kind of like a split industrial but much fancier looking with the full top.

Thanks all!!! What you're seeing represents a LOT of hours of work. Especially considering that this is my first attempt at veneer work. So far everything is turning out better than I expected it to. I'm actually getting better at it as I go along. I think I'll end up with one so-so veneer job and one pretty nice one.

I'm really hoping that they sound as good as I think they will.

When I'm done (who am I kidding, we're never really "done") they'll have Crites woofers, Crites tweeters, GotHover fastrac horns, and ALK crossovers. That's a few months out though. I have to add the various bit's and pieces as the budget allows. Makes for a fun "long term" upgrade project. 

The jury is still out on finish but it's looking like Watco Danish oil. I've got scraps of veneer with different stain colors scattered all over my garage. What I'm liking best at the moment is Watco "Cherry" (one coat) with 2 or 3 more coats of Watco "natural". Of course there will be some manner of wax after the finish is well set. We'll see...

These look fantastic. Which ALK X-over are you planning to use?

Herb

Those look fantastic, I am glad you decide to split them.

 Did you flip the bass bin over for the port mod or cut the dog house, and I see you are slot ported, any info on it? A buddy of mine wants the exact sme thing done in black.

Dave Harris

You're doing a beautiful job on them! Keep posting photos as you continue.

hklinker:

These look fantastic. Which ALK X-over are you planning to use?

I plan to use one of the "Universal" crossovers to start. Perhaps with the 4500 change. I costed out the parts and it adds $107 to the cost of the kit. We'll see... I'm not entirely sure the "ES" upgrades are cost justified in a DIY La Scala.

GotHover:

Did you flip the bass bin over for the port mod or cut the dog house, and I see you are slot ported, any info on it? A buddy of mine wants the exact sme thing done in black.

The BB is flipped over so the original opening up. Of course this made for a few "challenges". Since the bottom was now the top all four corners of both cabinets were in pretty bad shape. I don't like Bondo. I don't want it in my cars and I don't want it in my speakers. What I did instead was carefully cut away several layers of the original plywood and inlay thin strips of oak. You can spot one of them in the second picture. I'll try to get a shot or two of some of the others before they get veneered over. A lot of work but better than expected results.

As for the ports, all of the design work was based on info gleaned here. The shelf is 7" deep. I'm assuming that shelf depth and port length are equal. But if that assumption is wrong it's very easy to cut the shelves a different depth. They're held in by small "L" brackets and very easy to remove.

I've cut a pair of slotted backs for the THs but I'm not happy with them so I'll be cutting different ones. In the first version the ports are 9.25" long and 1.5" wide. The ends are round. That dimension gets me to within .06" of the total ID of 4" PVC pipe. Since the shelf is 2" down from the top cleat the next version will be 2" wide ports. I don't recall the length without consulting the drawing but obviously they'll be shorter than the 1.5" ports. I've also drawn up a single 2" port version. I'll decide which way to go soon.

I'm getting really anxious to get them drug in to the living room and give them a listen... More to come...

Job well done!!

Are you going to put grillcloth on the front of the bass bins, sort of like a Belle?  Looks to me like you are.

Coytee:

Job well done!! Are you going to put grillcloth on the front of the bass bins, sort of like a Belle?  Looks to me like you are.

Thanks for the encouragement!!! 

Grills? Yep... That's the plan. I have yet to paint the inside of the BBs. I'll need to finalize the color and starting on finishing just as soon as the last of the veneer goes on the La Scalas.

When it's all said and done (many months from now) I'll end up with the La Scalas in oiled oak, a pair of 83 HBRs re-veneered in matching oiled oak and an Academy re-veneered in the same oiled oak. The Heresys already have the crossovers rebuilt but they'll get CT125 tweeters. I've got a new titanium diaphragm and a crossover rebuild kit for the Academy but I'm reserving that project for when the Academy is out of service during refinishing.

I'm not sure what I'll do to entertain myself when that day arrives... I suspect I'll figure out something...  

New pictures... Veneer complete. 1st coat of Watco oil applied.