How to Build Custom Speakers

Step 8 Mark and cut biscuit joints

Like most professional kitchen cabinet makers, I use biscuit joints to hold my speaker cabinets together. They easily and perfectly align adjacent faces, are quick to cut and install, and are super strong.

First, mark adjacent surfaces with a pattern or code of your choosing. I simply assemble the speaker panels into the correct formation and mark adjacent sides with an "a", "b", "c", or "circle", "square", "triangle" code and so on. I then give them a little tick mark crossing onto both sides where I'll alight the biscuit joiner to make the plunge, and draw a long line on the face that will get a groove cut into it, so that I don't get lost and cut into the wrong face. See the secondary photos below to see what I mean.

With the faces all marked up, I clamp the boards down to the table and begin cutting slots with the biscuit joiner.

I generally install two biscuits per joint on the speaker cabinets. This part is a bit tedious, because there are many joints and adjoining faces, but it's worth it when you go to glue because things will line up really well. I find messing around with screws while trying to glue and clamp the cabinets together is just a bit clumsy and certainly more difficult to square up.