# How to diy speaker grill



## VaVroom1 (Dec 2, 2005)

I need to make some grills for my door pod and kick mounted drivers. Any pointers?


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## evan (Dec 2, 2006)

If round will work you could just use the ones from PE. I picked up the 8" 2-pc steel mesh speaker grills and I'm going to be using them in my glassed door pods (eventually).

Here's a pic to compare them with the JL grill.


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## VaVroom1 (Dec 2, 2005)

i did search partsexpress but all it showed up was only subwoofer grills!?? My midbass driver outside diameter 181mm and midrange 93mm. Possible to help me with a linky?


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## bobditts (Jul 19, 2006)

selectproducts.com sells the grill mesh material. all you hav eto do is shape it then.


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## ocuriel (Oct 7, 2005)

evan said:


> If round will work you could just use the ones from PE. I picked up the 8" 2-pc steel mesh speaker grills and I'm going to be using them in my glassed door pods (eventually).
> 
> Here's a pic to compare them with the JL grill.


I would avoid those if possible. They rattle like hell. But then again it was a sub, so it might do ok for midbass driver. Maybe.


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## phatbassturd (Jan 2, 2007)

http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage...oup_ID=141&SO=2&CFID=7035402&CFTOKEN=62280677


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## squatchie16 (Jan 29, 2007)

If you type grill into search on PE it will bring up your results.


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## hc_TK (Jan 18, 2006)

i am also wondering how to make grills for my peerless exclusive 8"..Any good ideas?


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## scott_fx (Mar 31, 2006)

you could get a piece of mdf and cut/sand out a design you want then cover it with speaker grill cloth (maybe a metal mesh under the cloth for protection) or you could experiment with making a wooden 'blank' with a nice routered edge then get some grill material and form it with your hands then pound away with a rubber mallet just an idea


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

There are a billion ways to make grilles. I bet I can think of five or six off the top of my head of varying construction right now. And even then Theres always room for methods other folks come up with, such as the ABS plastic grille formed over an MDF blank.

But these methods tend to be designed with integration in mind. That is, the baffle is shaped to include a grille much like they tend to be shaped to flushmount drivers rather than trying to flushmount drivers as an afterthought.

it sounds like your pods and panels are already built. This changes construction methods entirely and greatly limits your options.

if your drivers are surface mounted, I would use the two piece grilles as already mentioned. I too have experienced problems with these grilles rattling. They are also prone to denting from sticky fingers. But here is a trick to help you with that:

nab a bottle of contact cement and some grille cloth and upholster the grille. if you only apply the contact cement to the outer ring, then any dents made by dumb friends will be invisible. Furthermore, sinc eyou will contact cement the outer ring on the outside and inside, this means a layer of grille cloth will always seperate your two metal rings for your two piece grille. this should effectlive prevent any rattling short of metal mesh related rattles, which can be taken care of via silicone before the upholstery process.






..........now! if you have flushmounted drivers or even better if they are countersunk, youve got totally different options open, and especially combined with the use of a router you can make passable solutions for those drivers as well. do you have any non-photobucket pictures of yoru pods and kickpanels?


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

scott_fx said:


> you could get a piece of mdf and cut/sand out a design you want then cover it with speaker grill cloth (maybe a metal mesh under the cloth for protection) or you could experiment with making a wooden 'blank' with a nice routered edge then get some grill material and form it with your hands then pound away with a rubber mallet just an idea


this is how I made my own kickpanel grilles. I like this method because it allows me to make a grille for an uneven surface. (a flat surface may as well have a flat grille)

This assumes I have started with a countersunk speaker behind a non-flat panel (my stock kickpanels are rounded). I then cut a blank of .75 (inch is better) MDF the EXACT size and shape of the trim hole (easy for me, it was round) and run it on my 1/2 inch roundover bit on the router.

I then take my perforated aluminum and lay it over. I ended up using six screws to hold the metal in place, and this worked very well.

From there I used a hammer to smooth out the aluminum over the roundover. The perforated holes were more than enough to allow the metal to form smoothly over the compound roundover, and with a grinder to cut off the excess (tinsnips would work very well) I had a very passable grille.

a coat of black paint (grille cloth is not totally opaque) and two layers of grillecloth later, I have a fantastic grille to integrate into my kickpanels.

Im not sure something like this will work for your (original poster) situation, depending how your speakers are situated.


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## scott_fx (Mar 31, 2006)

very cool... do you have any pictures?


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## hc_TK (Jan 18, 2006)

heres a piture of my door.








it to late to change design on it. the door is slmost finished..


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

none!


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

yeah, thats why I ask for non photobucket pictures. I'll post some ideas if I dont lose this thread later tonight when I am away from a computer that limits usage.

By the way, almost complete or complete doesnt mean you can't have an integrated grille. Alphakenny1 wants a more integrated grilel look in a finished doorpod, and because he is willing to rewrap the panel we are able to modify the existing structure without rebuilding it, enough where we will be able to add an integrated grille.

especially if you have not made it to the upholstery stage yet, its not to late to add material for the purpose of adding a grille.


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

What's the best way to affix the grill metal to the MDF trim you make? I can make a small MDF trim ring to go around the opening, vinyl cover it or something like that, but how the hell do I get the grill itself on there without it looking ugly??


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## evan (Dec 2, 2006)

ocuriel said:


> I would avoid those if possible. They rattle like hell. But then again it was a sub, so it might do ok for midbass driver. Maybe.


Good to know. I'll keep that in mind when I design the pods.


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## scott_fx (Mar 31, 2006)

MarkZ said:


> What's the best way to affix the grill metal to the MDF trim you make? I can make a small MDF trim ring to go around the opening, vinyl cover it or something like that, but how the hell do I get the grill itself on there without it looking ugly??


i guess that depends on how the grill sits against the mdf ring. you could simple extend two 'tabs' that drop down a bit further. bend those tabs and adhere it with some glue or staples on the back side. if you describe the grill a little more maybe we can come up with some solutions that are specific to your application.




evan said:


> Good to know. I'll keep that in mind when I design the pods.


 doesn't sound like anything that a bead of silicone wont solve though


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

scott_fx said:


> i guess that depends on how the grill sits against the mdf ring. you could simple extend two 'tabs' that drop down a bit further. bend those tabs and adhere it with some glue or staples on the back side. if you describe the grill a little more maybe we can come up with some solutions that are specific to your application.


Still seems to me like it would end up ugly, because the grill metal itself (eg. selectproducts) would be sitting on top of the MDF.

The problem is basically this: car door skin with hole. The hole is kind of a funky shape, and there isn't much room AROUND the hole (the hole goes about a half inch up to the edge of the door skin). Need a grill to go over it. I could cut a thin piece of MDF to basically trace the outside of the hole, cover it in vinyl or something so that it meshes with the door ok, and then affix the grill to the MDF piece. But it's not clear how to get the grill metal attached to the MDF and still look like one piece. You'd still see the edges of the grill metal over the MDF, and that stuff is too strong to be able to bend it all around to hold its shape.

PS - don't mean to threadjack...


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

MarkZ said:


> What's the best way to affix the grill metal to the MDF trim you make? I can make a small MDF trim ring to go around the opening, vinyl cover it or something like that, but how the hell do I get the grill itself on there without it looking ugly??


very, very easy. take that MDF trim ring and rabbet out the inside about an 8th inch down (thickness of the grill metal/abs). Cut your perforated material so that it sits in the rabbet, then silicone in place (silicone prevents rattle).

spray black then cover with two layers of grille cloth.

or you can forgo the perf metal and just wrap in grillecloth rather than vinyl.

Does that make sense?


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

god DAMN it. two posts got eaten up by this forum crashing. This is even worse than ISE. I even copied the last post thinking there might be failure and ctrl-V did jack squat. How ****ing frustrating.

Mark, make your "small trim ring". Vinyl it and install it in place. But rabbet the ID 1/2 inch deep and 3/8ths around before vinyling. This will give a place for the grille metal to sit.

once that is installed and ready to go, cut a piece of 3/8ths stock (1/4 inch stock will work but be flimsy) also in a ring to fit within the rabbet tightly. this will be friction fit when we are done. rabbet out this ID 1/8th inch deep or whatever thickness the grille metal is. silicone in place.

spray, grillecloth, and friction fit in place.

done.


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

Very helpful. Thanks.

Thing is, I don't want this ring to be THAT thick. It'll protrude a bit too much. Should I just use two 3/8" pieces sandwiched together, so that the grill metal will fit in between (with the rabbet on the top piece)? I guess I don't understand why you're saying rabbet the first piece.

Also, I should just grill cloth the grill itself, right? If so, I probably don't need that expensive selectproducts grill metal. What should I use?


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

you can stratch the cloth tightly and use nothing at all if you want.

the rabbet in the original trim is so that the grille sits flush to your vinyl piece and does not "stick out too much"

the alternate to mounting a .75 inch thick piece of trim on top of your doorpanel is to sink it underneath, or sandwhich the doorpanel between two thinner pieces of wood. All are wonderful solutions and work extreemly well.

But without that rabbet, you are left surface mounting your grille on top of your trim.


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## VaVroom1 (Dec 2, 2005)

wow you guys are simply fantastic. just a couple of hours and it's 3 pages of solid informative discussion.

my flush mount pods and kicks are not made yet. the drivers have been staring at me for the past weeks while i scratch my head how to make grills for them. 

with all these great ideas here, guess i will go this route:
1 route a 1/2" MDF "mold" and round the edge
2 screw down flat grill to mold.
3 hammer away with a rubber mallet until grill sides are nicely formed.
4 trim edge 
5 use http://www.trimco.info/edge-trim.html to go around the sharp edge

i hope to snap fit it into a counterbore. 

there are 2 things i like to avoid though:
1 painting tends to peel off
2 my home stereo tells me grill cloth makes a sonic difference


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## scott_fx (Mar 31, 2006)

you could have the aluminum grill anodized black as another option


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

not an issue in a car where the noise floor and phase response are so out of whack anyways that grillecloth could make any realistic degredation in the quality of sound.


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## VaVroom1 (Dec 2, 2005)

Great idea scott, how come i didn't think of that? 

Whiterabbit good point there which kind of change my mind a little.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

to change your mind the rest of the way, grillecloth can help protect a tweeter from dirt that passes through peforated aluminum (which won't color the sound any "more than or less than" grille cloth, right?) after your dumb friends put their foot on the tweeter grille, right?

you know they are going to put their feet on the tweeters, right? 

going for a dash install? grillecloth can hide potential targets from driveby thieves, or prevent light based reflections from being annoying while driving! (ever put a piece of paper or CD on your dash and try to drive around? )


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## VaVroom1 (Dec 2, 2005)

you made a very compelling case! makes alot of sense for A pillar or dash mount tweeters. my plan is for A pillar tweeters but these come with grilles already. even so, i wouldnt mind if my high mounted drivers are naked. being so near to the equator where i reside, except for rare instances, most of us have windows up and aircondition cranked. dust is very much minimised.

it is my kicks midrange and door midbass that need the grilles. now we dont need toes imprinted cones or a crooked phase plugs do we? those random "customised" drivers may sound excellent but i have zero desire to try it


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

if they come with grilles you can always grillecloth right over the grilles they came with


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Whiterabbit said:


> if they come with grilles you can always grillecloth right over the grilles they came with


Seems to me the best combo of protection/theft deterence.


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## thekl0wn (May 31, 2006)

GlasSman said:


> Seems to me the best combo of protection/theft deterence.


Best deterrant is to take a set of blown factory mids, and lay in your rear deck with the wires exposed... Has that "I've got a mullet, but my sound system kicks ass" look to it...

Here's my issue: ABS vs. Aluminum on the grills. My original plans were for ABS, but now I don't know...


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## vwtoby (Oct 28, 2005)

what guage Al do you use below? also, any pics of the backside once the cloth is applied?


> I then take my perforated aluminum and lay it over. I ended up using six screws to hold the metal in place, and this worked very well.
> 
> From there I used a hammer to smooth out the aluminum over the roundover. The perforated holes were more than enough to allow the metal to form smoothly over the compound roundover, and with a grinder to cut off the excess (tinsnips would work very well) I had a very passable grille.
> 
> ...


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## andycph (Dec 21, 2005)

http://www.audiogroupforum.com/csforum/showthread.php?t=62867&highlight=Speaker+Grill


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## jj_diamond (Oct 3, 2007)

^nice.

anyone have any ideas how to make a nice clean grill like the one in that thread for say a speaker mounted on the dash....? instead of mounted from behind the panel. 

something like these would be tits..http://www.chokes.com/mghd.htm

but i need it to be a 3 1/4" diagonal mounting screw. they don't seem to have any that small.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

I know of two tutorials on this forum on how to do what you want. One of them is this thread.

Already described how to do what you want.

the Other guy posted in tutorials and used a heatgun and abs instead of aluminum.

good luck!


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## placenta (Feb 2, 2008)

subscribe! I need to make some kind of grill for the hole I cut in my rear deck. But I dont want it sticking up too much, I want it almost flush.


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## jj_diamond (Oct 3, 2007)

Whiterabbit said:


> I know of two tutorials on this forum on how to do what you want. One of them is this thread.
> 
> Already described how to do what you want.
> 
> ...




this one?

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26352

didn't see the ABS one. i guess i didn't ask the right question...


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

first thing I would do for that rear deck is cut a piece of 1/2 inch MDF via router to make a perfect circle just a touch larger than the hole you already cut.

I'd use construction adhesive to glue it to the backside of the rear deck. Then I would use a pattern makers bit or flush trim bit (dont forget to pad your router baseplate if you use a flush trim bit) to buzz the rear deck into a PERFECT circle.

Or even better, use a rabbet bit with the depth guide set about 1/4 inch and buzz a perfect rabbet. Then come back with a paintbrush on the MDF to paint it black.

That gives you a great start for making a rear deck grille. What I did after that would depend on the "burr" left by the router. no burr means I can make a flushmount grille. a burr means I need a little overhang. say, 1/8th inch above the existing rear deck.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

IMO no tool is as important as a router for making custom grilles.


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## placenta (Feb 2, 2008)

Whiterabbit said:


> first thing I would do for that rear deck is cut a piece of 1/2 inch MDF via router to make a perfect circle just a touch larger than the hole you already cut.
> 
> I'd use construction adhesive to glue it to the backside of the rear deck. Then I would use a pattern makers bit or flush trim bit (dont forget to pad your router baseplate if you use a flush trim bit) to buzz the rear deck into a PERFECT circle.
> 
> ...


You mean my pics? I have no idea what any of the above is, nor do i have tools. i was gonna put a Focal grill or something on there with little bolts thru the deck material. Or I'll just buy a new rear deck and forget about it.


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