# How I made custom speaker grills



## Ge0

The method I use here is a spin-off of of the method Doitor used in a similar tutorial. Only here I believe I've made some enhancements using the tool set I had on hand.

So...

I started off with some surplus 6-1/2" speaker grills purchased from a local stereo shop. This cost me about $10. The grills I bought were a little heavier gage metal than I wished to use (harder to bend and work with), but, they were matched.

Next, I cut a form to bend the grill material with just like Doitor. I left enough clearance for the width of the material between the form and the recessed speaker mounting ring:









Place the grill over the form:









Start beating it down so the edges wrap around the form:









You'll notice in the picture that I nailed the grill to the form so it would not wander around while forming it with a hammer.









Finished bending the grill over the form. Notice I cut some relief into the grill sides to prevent the material from creasing:

















Notice how the "lip" of the sides is not perfectly formed.

Grill removed from the form:

















I decided to create an inverse form:

















More to come...

Ge0


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## Ge0

Freakish partial duplicate post removed...

Ge0


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## Ge0

Next, beat the grill and positive form "through" the negative form:

























This smashes the sides down so they perfectly follow the perpendicular edges of the form. Now the grills fit perfectly inside the speaker rings I created:









Now, adjust the fit to the rings and de-burr using the dremel tool:









Next, paint them, install, and be done. They turned out OK, but, as mentioned earlier the material I used was too thick. The ramifications of using thicker material is that the grills creased a little on the bends. Hardly noticable but not perfect:

























Omitted earlier, the tool I use to cut smaller circles:









I hope this helps you at least a little towards creating some nice grills for your speakers. If you used a lighter gage grill material you could avoid creases while bending the metal over the posiive form. 

Ge0


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## elvisjer

I've seen those tools for cutting circles, they make them for hand drills too now. I'm really wanting one but they are like $100 or so


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## Whiterabbit

Very nice. tips for next time:

Use a roundover bit on the router to smooth the transition from grille top to grille side.

No need to cut the tabs on the sides. this only serves to provide failure points. you used a hammer, and this is good enough. Even without the tabs, we aren't concerned with the perforated pattern on the sides. It bends right over with help from the hammer. This will help maintain that perfect circle you cut out via jig, rather than end up with a lopsided product. meaning theonly jig required is the circle blank the perf metal is stapled to.

The circle jig is $20 at a local woodworking shop. Requires a powerful drill. I prefer a drill press if only because my coordless chuck is too small to use it.


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## Mless5

I like your kickpanels!


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## Ge0

elvisjer said:


> I've seen those tools for cutting circles, they make them for hand drills too now. I'm really wanting one but they are like $100 or so


Bought mine for $15.97 from my local Rockler Woodworking supply store while on sale. Also bought a spare cutter for it for $4.00.

However, these pretty much need to be used with a drill press. So, unless you have a drill press, look elsewhere.

Ge0


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## Ge0

Mless5 said:


> I like your kickpanels!


Thanks. You can see more about them in my Durangos install thread.

Ge0


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## Ge0

Whiterabbit said:


> Very nice. tips for next time:
> 
> Use a roundover bit on the router to smooth the transition from grille top to grille side.


Hey Wabbit,

Thanks for the complements. Actually, there is a 1/8" roundover on the edge of the form. I did not want to go too sharp of a corner but did want to give some relief. Maybe this is not evident from the photo.



Whiterabbit said:


> No need to cut the tabs on the sides. this only serves to provide failure points. you used a hammer, and this is good enough. Even without the tabs, we aren't concerned with the perforated pattern on the sides. It bends right over with help from the hammer. This will help maintain that perfect circle you cut out via jig, rather than end up with a lopsided product. meaning theonly jig required is the circle blank the perf metal is stapled to.


I wish it was that simple. Like I mentioned earlier, the grills I scored for $10 were a rather heavy gage metal. Thicker than you might think. The metal creased pretty bad, thus the reason for the relief cutouts. You'll also notice that the transistion from the top surface to the sides looks a little "rumpled". If I pounded this down to get rid of the rumples, the sides would mushroom out. 

This was a fun experiment. However, even if I did end up making them look perfect, I still did not like the plain look so did not make any further attempts to redo them or improve. Using a lighter gage metal would have yielded much better results.

Ge0


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## Ge0

Here are my gen 2 speaker grills. I lik'em. They mesh with the asthetics of my vehicle better.

Making good use of my circle cutter I cut plastic trim rings from ABS plastic sheets I had laying around:

















Now, cut some speaker grill material to match the O.D. of the rings:









Glue the grill to the plastic rings:









The decorative ring you see in the above photo is made out of thin gage steel sheet stock (6"x18") purchased at my local hardware store. Cost about $4.00.

Cut the rings using my circle cutter once again:

















Sand them up with 100 grit sand paper and then 320 grit. Next, polish them fuggers with the dremel buffing wheel and some Mothers aluminum polish:

















Glue everything together:









Install and evaluate:









I like these. They just look right in the vehicle. I wanted to leave a slight brushed look after finishing with 320 grit paper. However, the surface looked a little too brushed to my eye to belnd perfectly with he rest of the vehicles metal finishes. Since the photos were taken I polished them a few more times. The brushed "grooves" are still there but look much less pronounced. The surface looks more shiney now.

Hope this spurts some ideas of you own.

Ge0


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## Weightless

Very well done! 

Does your dash have metal trim rings on the vents or something?


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## cheesehead

Nice job on the gen 2 grills! much better looking than gen 1


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## CulinaryGod

Yeah def. great job I love how the metal rings look on there


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## Ge0

Weightless said:


> Very well done!
> 
> Does your dash have metal trim rings on the vents or something?


Yes. Look at my Durangos install thread to check that out.

Ge0


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## Whiterabbit

Much better. Doesn't it make you wish you had perfect circles on the kickpanels? 

Tip from George's installer. You can upholster the backside of the ABS with grillecloth that has already been stretched on a jig and treated with scotchguard. Now the grille is opaque, waterproof, and looks like nice metal mesh.

Have you cake and eat it too!


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## Ge0

Whiterabbit said:


> Much better. Doesn't it make you wish you had perfect circles on the kickpanels?


The original rings were dead on. But, then I covered them in fiberglass. Sanding the excess glass back to the original wood surface is a *****. I got it "close enough" and decided to lay down a texture coat and paint to see where things stand. As it turns out, it was damn good. Close enough for me at this time. Sure, the slight imperfections in the speaker recess diameter bug me a little. But, not enough to rip them apart again, sand, and then re-finish. If this bugs me enough it would be easier to make a grill with a slightly larger O.D. on the metal ring to cover up the imperfection.

What bugs me more is how the contour between where the pod meets the floor mat on the passengers side. I was too agressive in sanding this and it turned out kind of funky. But again, not bad enough to force me to rip apart and redo.



Whiterabbit said:


> Tip from George's installer. You can upholster the backside of the ABS with grillecloth that has already been stretched on a jig and treated with scotchguard. Now the grille is opaque, waterproof, and looks like nice metal mesh.
> 
> Have you cake and eat it too!


I'll be applying the Scotch Guarded grill cloth soon. Have some other things to take care of before the weather gets too nasty for this year. I'll glue it directly behind the metal grill material.

Ge0


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## less

Thanks a bunch for this Geo. Its great having a place to come and steal ideas from others who think like you do - and are sometimes several steps ahead of you! I've made a couple sets of grills now the DIY way, including one set for my newly completed kicks... but sadly, the most recent set just isn't going to work out. 

Seeing your TOOL was inspirational in itself ;> I picked one up online for just $20 and I now know I'll find someway to get those 12m's covered and protected from water before the winter is through lol!

Much appreciated and good job!
Less


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## Ge0

less said:


> Thanks a bunch for this Geo. Its great having a place to come and steal ideas from others who think like you do - and are sometimes several steps ahead of you! I've made a couple sets of grills now the DIY way, including one set for my newly completed kicks... but sadly, the most recent set just isn't going to work out.
> 
> Seeing your TOOL was inspirational in itself ;> I picked one up online for just $20 and I now know I'll find someway to get those 12m's covered and protected from water before the winter is through lol!
> 
> Much appreciated and good job!
> Less


Thanks for the complements Less. But, I can't take credit 100% on this one. Other DIYMA members inspired me to try different things. MIAAron for instance for introducing ME to the circle cutter. Bing gave me other ideas, and numerous other folks (too many to mention).

I did take a bunch of ideas to come up with my own creation though. As I would hope you (and many others) will do in the future. Just make sure you post your work!!!

Ge0


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## captainobvious

Ge0 said:


> You'll notice in the picture that I nailed the grill to the form so it would not wander around while forming it with a hammer.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ge0


Geo-

I'd be grateful if you could tell me what material you are using for the rings around your baffles that you stretch the fabric over in this pic. I'm assuming its like the plastic that Bing uses in his installs.
What are you using, where can I find it locally, and are there other substitutions that would work well?

I could swear I saw a thread about this at one point but I cant for the life of me find it...


EDIT: Found it!

Here is the thread for anyone else looking for the same info:
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...how-design-rings-accomodate-custom-grill.html


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## Ge0

captainobvious said:


> Geo-
> 
> I'd be grateful if you could tell me what material you are using for the rings around your baffles that you stretch the fabric over in this pic. I'm assuming its like the plastic that Bing uses in his installs.
> What are you using, where can I find it locally, and are there other substitutions that would work well?
> 
> I could swear I saw a thread about this at one point but I cant for the life of me find it...
> 
> 
> EDIT: Found it!
> 
> Here is the thread for anyone else looking for the same info:
> http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...how-design-rings-accomodate-custom-grill.html


The ABS I used is not the same stuff Bing used. I bought mine from a local install shop. It was VERY tough to work with. Snce then I purchased the material Bing uses AND DAMN, bends like butter.

Ge0


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## makatc

where i can buy online the steel sheet ??


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## Ge0

makatc said:


> where i can buy online the steel sheet ??


Learn to know and love this place:

Online Metal Store | Small Quantity Metal Orders | Metal Cutting, Sales & Shipping | Buy Steel, Aluminum, Copper, Brass, Stainless | Metal Product Guides at OnlineMetals.com

Here is another helpful one I stumbled across:
http://www.reliablehardware.com/custom-speaker-grill.aspx

Ge0


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## DATCAT

Ge0 said:


> The ABS I used is not the same stuff Bing used. I bought mine from a local install shop. It was VERY tough to work with. Snce then I purchased the material Bing uses AND DAMN, bends like butter.
> 
> Ge0


Ge0 - Nice grills. Do you have a link to order the ABS material that Bing uses which you referred to here? Thanks.....


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## emak212

Nice work. Looks fairly simple with the right tools. I just accidentally kicked in one of my speaker grilles, so I might try your tutorial out. Thanks again!


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## banderson

so bad ass. you make it look easy! I am trying to replace my factory ones, because the previous owner trashed them.. I am cheap and am going to try and make new ones myself, bend them to the right shape, etc.


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