DTQWT, built by John Copyright 2011 © Troels Gravesen
Hello Troels, I am John Middleton, and I am from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  I finally finished my DTQWT project today. I am listening to them as I compose this e-mail. The project has taken me almost two years to complete. The DTQWT project is the third project I have completed using designs from you web site.  The first project I completed was the SEAS W15CY001 + Fountek NeoCD3. I felt they were a small enough scale for me to explore my abilities at constructing a speaker. I attempted a piano black finish on the speakers, and this led into the second project. I did not get the finish quite right due to errors before I started painting, but I definitely figured out the process and got close. I will have to strip the finish on these speakers and refinish them. Now that I am getting quite the collection of speakers I will not have to worry about interupting my music listening.  The second project I attempted was ScanSpeak W1500/97. I made less errors in construction of the cabinet, and I was able to successfully complete a piano black finish on them. After I had two realatively successful project complete, I felt more comfortable attempting a larger more complex design. The DTQWT project is the one I picked. The cabinet was a very challenging cabinet for me to complete. I build the cabinet out of birch plywood. The front and rear faces are solid red oak. Originally I had hoped to build this cabinet in a way that I would have fairly invisible seams, and I would just stain and clear lacquer the entire project. I had hoped it would be my easiest finish yet. Things did not go quite as I had planned. This was my first attempt at trying to get 45 degree joints at the corners. Well, I definately do not have the technique. I then came up with a plan to salvage the situation I was in. I found this cabinet to be quite challenging for me to build. In the past I had been able to set up all of my joints, so that the cabinet would square up as I glued and clamped it. This was not possible with this construction, so I did not manage to get things as square as I would have liked. This required extra extra finishing work, and I am happy with the results.  My previous projects were done with MDF, so this was the first project where I used real would. Working with the red oak presented some challenges, but I felt it turned out very well. The red oak is very easy to finish. I wet sended danish oil into the red oak to get my finish. The information I researched suggested this would get a nice even result and fill the pores are the same time. I then sprayed clear lacqeur. This is my first endevour where I created a masking line when spraying, and I am happy with how it turned out. I did not attempt a high polish finish this time around. I have attached the pictures I have taken just today for the DTQWT project. I have additional construction pictures if you are interested. Thank you for your wonderful website. I am certain I will attempt another project in the future.