In my last ICE post I mentioned the Elemental Designs subwoofers and the Infinity Reference 6012i speakers.

Well, look what arrived in the post a few days ago!

Infinity Reference Speakers

Yep, the Infinity Reference 6012i speakers. Rated at 60 watts RMS per speaker they have a revolving tweeter to allow the listener to aim the sound stage. We got so excited when they arrived that we bodged them into my Caliber amplifier to see what they’d do. I always thought that the standard Rover speakers weren’t too bad. These blew the standard speakers not just out of the water but into a vacuum where they disintegrated in a huff of humiliation.

So, with them packed away safe and sound it was time to figure out how to put them in the car. I decided to go down the fibreglass custom pod route. They look better than the Custom Consoles speaker pods that I have at the moment and will allow me to aim the speakers at the ears rather than at the knees!

To be able to create the fibreglass pods the first thing I would need was a pair of mounting rings. These would give me something to screw the speakers to when the pod is finished. I looked around the web, like you do and very quickly came to the decision that I would be best off building my own. I couldn’t find any exactly the right size and the cheapest were £10 + postage. Screw that!

Making the rings was so much easier than I first thought. If you want to do this, here’s what you’ll need:

  • 12mm MDF. I used waterproof (the green) as it’s what I had. Ordinary MDF will be fine.
  • Jigsaw with a wood cutting blade. The finer the teeth the better.
  • A strong working surface at a height you can stand over to move around. I used my workmate.
  • Something to secure the MDF during cutting. I used panel clamps.
  • A pencil to mark out the template.
  • The template. I cheated and used the inner and outer circumference of the speaker mount.
  • A drill and drill bit big enough to take the jigsaw blade.
  • Fairly fine sandpaper
  • An old rattle can. A spray paint can will do. It has a better form to sand the inside of the mount.

SAFETY NOTE: MDF is horrible when cutting and sanding.

ENSURE YOU WEAR FACE AND MOUTH PROTECTION!

Step 1 Unfortunately I forgot to take the photo as I was marking the template. Using the drill put a pilot hole through the MDF JUST INSIDE the inner line on both sides of the circle. This will allow you to cut half the circle away and take a break to re-position the wood before doing the other side. You can see the drill hole at the bottom of the semi-circle I already cut away.

Important notes:

  1. Do the inside cut first or you will not be able to secure the wood later!
  2. Do not drill the holes for the outer cut until you are ready to do the cutting. The jigsaw will snag on the “swarf” left by the drill bit when you’re cutting the inner ring and drag the cut off line.
  3. Make sure you secure the wood to the bench to stop it moving before you start cutting. If you don’t there’s a danger you will slip and cut straight through the mount.

Turn the MDF round, re-secure it and cut the other side. It’s best to work in the same direction (eg Clockwise) each time so that you aren’t trying to get used to a new position while cutting.

Step 2 - Cutting the Outer ring. In this photo the inner ring has been cut and the holes drilled for cutting the outer ring. The procedure is exactly the same as cutting the inner ring. Again, make sure that the MDF is secure before you start cutting.

Obviously, if you have two speakers you will need two mounting rings, one for either side of the car!

Two rings and the template

The above photo shows two rings, completed and sanded just to get rid of horrible rough edges (crap cutting with the jigsaw) and smooth the inner and outer rings. The black ring on the right is the speaker mount that was supplied with the speakers It is the largest part and as I want this over the top of the ring I used it to draw the inner and outer template lines. Saves measuring and time with a pair of compasses!

Next up is starting the fibreglass backing for mounting the speakers. That’s coming up in a couple of days so keep checking back.

Of course, you could pick the RSS feed for the blog too! Let me know if you would prefer to subscribe by email and I will sort something out.