Amanda’s a mess with her snotty nose and out of control hair. Such bad parents.


Not sure about the expression.

Alissa on the “rock wall.”

Took some liberties with the editing here.

Alissa is a big fan of throwing the wood chips around.

Here are some random pictures from yesterday.

Alissa riding her tricycle on the tennis courts by our local playground.

Amanda in the kitchen.

Amanda went to town:


Ashley seemed to like in a slightly more reserved fashion:


No surprise, Alissa was also a fan:

With daddy:

With grandparents (and everyone looking and smiling at the same time!)

To go with the amplifier project, I’m building a set of speakers. This DIY community is also very active and has lots of resources available. I chose to build this kit from Zaph Audio and Madisound.

It’s a two-way system with a 7″ reed/paper pulp cone woofer and a ferrofluid cooled tweeter with a pre-coated fabric dome. The kit includes a crossover (this determines to what level what frequencies the woofer should produce and which frequencies the tweeter should produce) as well as all the hardware needed to put them into cabinets.

The cabinets can be bought pre-made, but I decided to try to build my own per the design specified by Zaph Audio. Here’s what they would look like if I had bought the cabinets (for like $300.)

I still haven’t decided the details… but it will either be MDF or plywood or solid hardwood… or some combination thereof. More to come.

1.23.2010
I went to Macbeath lumber today and got a piece of African Mahogany. It wasn’t cheap, so I figured I’d use it for the front, top, and rear panels and just use plywood for the remaining sides. This way, I get a nice two toned look and don’t have to deal with veneer or paint. I’ll just sand and tung oil and be done with it. Need to pick up some tools still, but I’ll probably make some rough cuts on the table saw.

1.28.2010
Got some work done on the cabinets the last few days:

The kit from Madisound came in as well. Everything looks pretty much as expected. Should be able to get a lot done this weekend as well. Still have to cut the holes for the drivers and cups. Then rabbet and chamfer the woofer holes. Then glue the front and rear baffles in before rounding over the edges. After that, I think it’s just sand and put some tung oil on it and they’re done. Except for the actual wiring install of the drivers and crossover.

1.29.2010
Got a little bit more done today. Made a couple small mistakes though.

1. I should have rabbeted the baffles vertically to insure flat surfaces to mate to the cases (my table saw is kinda so-so.) As it is, my glue job may have some small gaps. I’ll have to take a look after I trim and roundover to see if there are indeed gaps and if so, fill in with some sawdust/wood glue.
2. My initial countersink for the woofers was a tiny bit too small. About 0.10″ or so. I didn’t realize this on the first one until after I cut out the thru hole. I was able to sort of kluge together the little circle I cut out back in place so I could use the jig again with some backyard engineering so that worked out ok I think.
3. I probably should have made the countersinks a little deeper. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get the drivers in flush after I put the gasket in. I figure I could always add more gasket to build up to flush if necessary.

Well, hopefully tomorrow I can get them trimmed and rounded over. Then sanded and tung oiled.

1.30.2010
Trimmed all edges and rounded over the front baffles:

2.3.2010
I got them all done today. Soldered the connections up and added the stuffing. Installed the crossover and drivers and voila!

I still have to get them broken in and I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do about speaker stands yet. But I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. And I’m looking forward to setting them up properly with good amplification.

Daddy pedicure.

Not bad form!

Chunky legs.

Chicken legs.

Daddy’s girl.

Mommy’s girl.

Amanda presiding over daddy’s gut.

Alissa’s POV.

How YOU doin?

How a three year old and almost one year old’s play.

Too cool for school.

It was Hello Kitty themed which Alissa really liked. And everyone was very generous with their gifts. We’re going to have to start requesting smaller gifts… no where to keep all this stuff!

Apparently, the Huey’s smile. The Wang’s do not.