Homemade 12 Subwoofer

So you’re sitting in your office just relaxing and you think to yourself, “Man could I use some speakers right now”. First you think that you’ll just buy some cheap Chinese speakers online but then you realize that you’re an engineer and engineers just love to build things. You think to yourself how you would go about making your own speaker and quickly realize that there is no concrete “How To” for speaker building and then the indecision sets in once more.

This scenario can happen for most any Audio engineer who doesn’t own a home sound system. Just remember that there is always a way to make your own speakers that you can feel proud showing off.

Step 1: Supplies/ Parts List

Before you start make

sure you have the following materials:

Ø Hot Glue Gun

Ø Soldering Iron

Ø Foam Board

Ø Cardstock

Ø 1 inch x 1.5 inch Neodymium Magnet (from magnets4less.com)

Ø .22 gauge wire (from Radio Shack or a similar hardware store)

Once you have these supplies you can follow these instructions to build your own speaker.

Step 2: Making the Voice Coil

Necessary Tools:

Ø 24 Gauge Wire

Ø An old Soda Can

Ø Gorilla Glue or similar Adhesive

Ø Tape

Ø Soldering Iron

Ø Speaker Wire

1. Cut a strip of the soda can bigger than the
circumference of your magnet and use duct tape to hold it together.

2. Make a cardboard tube and wrap around your magnet placing the strip of aluminum on top

3. Mark a line about ½ longer than your magnet on the can, apply a layer of adhesive, then begin wrapping you wire around the can.

4. Make sure to smear glue every two layers to ensure a strong bond. You’ll need 6 layers

5. Take the ends of the wire and glue them to the coil, then tin the edges and solder them to some speaker wire

Step 3: Making the Speaker Cone

Supplies:

Ø Cardstock

Ø Cardboard

Ø Hot Glue

1. Trace an 11 ¾ inch circle onto the card stock, trace a
section that is 1/8 the circumference, and a 1 ¼ inch circle in the center and cut it out

2. You’ll need two

3. Trace these circles onto the cardboard and cut them out.

4. Glue the Cardstock circles onto the cardboard circles with a offset equal to the removed section

5. Glue the two circles together leaving an over hang

6. Glue the section closed

7. Take the slim, angled template and trace it 8 times then cut them out

8. Trace two 4 ¾ inch circles with an inch circle in the center on the foam board and cut it out

9. Glue the angle pieces to the circles with even spacing, then glue them to the cone.

Step 4: Making the Speaker Basket

1. Cut out six circles, one is a 13 inch with a internal circle of 11 inches. Another is 9 inch by 8 inch, and the last is 7 inch by 2 in

2. Trace 8 of template 1, 4 of template 2, and 4 of template 3 and cut them out

3. Glue 2 template 1’s to 1 template 2, you’ll do this for all of them

4 Glue all Template 3’s to the smallest circle from earlier with the magnet in the center

5. Glue the second circle (the one with the 2 inch hole) on the top of this

6. Cut out a 9cm by 24 inch strip of foam board and bend it into a circle

7. Glue this around the edge from the part assembled earlier and cut out 4 slots with a width of 8 cm

8. Glue the block assembly to this making sure that they are all

evenly spaced

9. Glue the 9 inch circle to the assembly followed by the 13 inch circle

Step 5: Making the Spider, Surround, and Dusk Cap

Making the Spider

1. Take a piece of printer paper and fold in in half hamburger style 3 times and cut along the creases formed

2. Fold these sections in half, tape the edges, and fold 1 inch sections in a zigzag pattern.

3. Take 8 of these and glue them to the bottom of the speaker cone

4. Glue the spider to the speaker basket at 8 points making sure that it is centered

Making the Surround

1. On a sheet of paper trace out as many 2cm by 2 inch sections as you can and cut them out

2. Roll each of these into a tight cylinder then get some tape and unroll each piece onto a strip an inch longer on each side

3. Tape these to the speaker basket and spider making sure they fully surround it

Making the Dusk Cap

1. Trace a 14 cm circle onto some cardstock and cut it out

2. Cut to the center of the circle and move the 2 edges together until you get a cone, then mark an inch from the time and cut it out

3. Flip the cone upside down and glue the tip onto the inside

4. Glue this to the speaker cone and you’re done