Sony Speaker Upgrade

I got tired of looking at the boring ol' black Sony stereo speakers in my living room so I decided to break them down and rebuild them. I decided to use 1/2" walnut plywood for the shell of the cabinets and 1/2" hickory for the front face. Since there is a science to the dimensions of a speaker cabinet including depth and where the bass port is, I decided to keep all the specs of the original cabinets. The only change that was made was I decided to include feet to raise them up from the floor. They are finished with a heavy coat of boiled linseed oil and couple coats of Deft spray lacquer. This is one of my favorite projects because I finally get to build something for myself that'll enhance my living room.

The scariest part of the project was plunge cutting into the Sony speaker cabinets with my jig saw.

I’m using 1/2” walnut plywood for the cabinet shell. Here I’m cutting 45° miters on all the edges.

Using blue painters tape as my clamps, I glue up the cabinet shells.

I drill out the mid-range and tweeter holes on the drill press and go back to the jigsaw for the woofer hole.

Here I’m gluing and clamping the face into the cabinet.

Using my pin nailer I attach the face frame to cover up the plywood edges.

Since my speaker will stand on the floor I’m added walnut feet.

And then I wire it all back up and attached the back panel.