Zaph Seas L18/Seas 27TBFC/G DIY

In spite of the apparent popularity of this project, there are scant details to be found from those who have built them. That could be because the information provided by Zaph on his site is very comprehensive - particularly if you are using the suggested pre-made cabinets available from Parts Express.

But a quick enquiry into the shipping costs to the opposite side of the globe proved that I could pay well over the price of the cabinets alone on shipping.

Cabinet Contruction

Dragging out my table saw and crosscut table, I found a few pieces of MDF I had lying around and decided to knock out a quick rough box to see if I had the skill to pull it off. The first frustrating thing I observed was that my MDF was 16mm thick. Here in Australia the common hardware store stocked thicknesses are 12, 16 and 25mm. You can find all the 3/4" laminated particle board you want - at Ikea.

I took a trip to the local hardware store and had a poke around and found some 3mm plywood with what looked like an acceptable looking grain on one side. 16 + 3...close enough to 3/4" and with a little work it could make a decent looking cabinet with some stain.

Knowing that both MDF and plywood are fairly dimensionally stable, I first built a simple butt-joint MDF cabinet, then bevel-cut the plywood and glued it to the outside of the box using normal wood glue applied with a plastic V groove spreader. The baffle holes were cut using a router and circle jig.

The crossover was built on a scrap piece of 3mm ply. Parts were a mixture from Madisound and Parts Express.

Crossover screwed in place and wired with zip cord.

Two ports combined in a double flare per Zaph instructions.

Here's a jig for cutting the port accurately:

All in all a very satisfying design. Many years on the 'veneer' is still stable and aside from a small dent in one woofer caused by a stray phone plug they are still working very well. Thanks to John "Zaph" Krutke for an excellent design and those clever Norwegians at SEAS.