Freud Quadra cut are nice bits but shouldn't matter that much as long as the bit it relatively new. Take no more than a 1/4 inch off at a time. For your next-to-last pass, leave only 1/8 to 1/16 inch, therefore your final pass is taking off very little material and should not cause any tear out.
Without knowing just what the mode of failure was, I'm guessing at some of this. 1. Birch is a fairly hard hardwood and all the plys in Baltic Birch are hardwood, unlike domestic plywood. Couple to that every other ply has grain running 180° to the adjacent plys. BB ply is splintery and it's easy to get a sliver that tears along face grain, I've done it many times.
I’m not an expert by any means, but I’ve found Whiteside and Amana bits to be of good quality. They are pricy though. I use them for my flush cut bits. Although I will say, the Bubinga veneer I’m using is putting them through thier paces.
I'm guessing the bearing on your roundover cutter fell into driver rabbet? But for the one area dipped out there, it could be salvaged with corner inlays or cutting chamfers, but it would be considerable work. I'd be inclined to use glazing putty to fill the defects, sand and trim flat, then paint. Plywood takes more work to prep, but certainly can be painted successfully. I'm a little surprised to see the innards installed prior to finishing, but that's me.
Bingo. I should have placed the router on the baffle instead of the sides.
I had never planned on creating roundovers. I had already applied a coat of polyurethane and tapped up the port and drivers. With the power of ADHD, you can ruin anything at a moment's notice. I'm currently in the process of using Bondo to patch up the cabinet.
Do you have any photos of chamfered edges with Baltic Birch? I would love to see your painted work as well
Do you have a link to the simulation?
If you're limited to aerosol cans, I think high build primer and topcoat from the automotive world would work best. It's going to take mulitple prime coats and subsequent sanding to get plywood ready to topcoat. Be careful though, not all spray can products have compatible formulas and solvents. If you decide to spray with a gun, Benjamin Moore STIX primer and Command Urethane topcoat is what the contrasting panel cabinets in last photo were done with. I suppose you could consider something like Duratex, although I'm not a fan.
Thank you, good feedback. Leaning towards sealed, smaller cabinet volume so I can decrease depth of cabinet…the (relatively) deep cabinet is limiting factor in my intended placement.Do you have a link to the simulation?
Yes, group delay improves due to the lower slope of the cabinet-induced high-pass filter. Of course you lose low bass, but then the subwoofer takes over. Coupling to a subwoofer is probably a little less complicated with a closed satellite speaker.
Depending on the level requirement, I nevertheless build satellite loudspeakers, i.e. those that I develop for combination with subwoofers, in bass reflex. The port then contributes a portion of the level at the crossover frequency, so that the bass-midrange driver is relieved of some of the load there.
Speaker development is a bunch of compromises.
