Wooden Ring Baffle Idea

[tubeswell]

FWIW there was a discussion over at the SG101 forum about ring baffles, to whit I devised a concept for a simple DIY wooden ring baffle, (which I shall try on my next sealed cab). 2CW

[loudthud]

Looks like it would work, but how are you going to tune the box? Change the baffle spacers?

[J M Fahey]

Interesting, looks like a space saver, will try it.

[loudthud]

Here's an idea to make the baffle adjustable from the front. T-nuts in the rear baffle ride on screws thru the front baffle.

[Bill Moore]

I have the plans for a tone ring cab, and a local welder owes me some cutting on his CNC plasma machine. Trouble is he's a gonna for over a year now!
Tubeswell's idea would work great, just have to make the grill cloth removeable.

[tubeswell]

TFT loudthud. Thats a better idea than the wooden tone ring!

@Bill - simplest way I can think of at present is a removable velcro'd-on grille cloth frame

[Kazooman]

Here's an idea to make the baffle adjustable from the front. T-nuts in the rear baffle ride on screws thru the front baffle.

The basic idea is fine, but tee nuts work best when they are applied on one side of a board with a bolt firmly attaching another part through the board. The tightening of the bolt keeps the prongs of the tee nut tightly driven into the board. A tee nut pounded into the board with a bolt attached as shown would easily vibrate loose, especially in a well driven speaker cab. Crank it up to 11 and the baffle falls off

Your idea could be implemented in many other ways such as a carriage bolt through the face of the ring baffle with a washer and nut capturing it in place and then having the bolt go through the rear baffle with jam nuts and washers on each face.

You occasionally see metal tone rings offered for sale, but they are pretty expensive. I have a 1 X 12" Bandmaster cab with the tone ring, but I couldn't tell you if the ring really makes a big difference.

[loudthud]

The basic idea is fine, but tee nuts work best when they are applied on one side of a board with a bolt firmly attaching another part through the board. The tightening of the bolt keeps the prongs of the tee nut tightly driven into the board. A tee nut pounded into the board with a bolt attached as shown would easily vibrate loose, especially in a well driven speaker cab. Crank it up to 11 and the baffle falls off

I agree with you, T-nuts need some help to stay in place. But the idea is to be able to tune the cabinet without having to take the rear baffle out to change the spacers. Once the tuning is established, you could lock the baffle down with additional nuts in the rear.

[Kazooman]

I agree with you, T-nuts need some help to stay in place. But the idea is to be able to tune the cabinet without having to take the rear baffle out to change the spacers. Once the tuning is established, you could lock the baffle down with additional nuts in the rear.

Yep, that would work. I was concerned that someone would build it that way thinking it would stand the test of time without subsequently locking the bolt down. I still like the carriage bolt from the front concept implemented some way. It would give the minimum profile on the front towards the grille cloth and would present a nice smooth surface. Another possibility would be to use threaded brass inserts instead of tee nuts, but I am not certain that even those would withstand the vibration.