Phase 3 – reflective panels
Glenn had made a great job of designing something I could make as an amateur woodworker, that would be cheap and would look good (not to mention have a positive impact on the sound). He designed two panels, one larger and one smaller, and I would need to make 5 of the smaller ones and 5 of the larger ones (technically 4.5 of the larger ones as the bottom would be cut off to make space for the heater).
The panels comprised a piece of 12mm plywood with slots routed in at predetermined spacings, with 18mm thick plywood sections of predetermined sizes glued to the front, to both look good and create an element of diffusion.
On paper this sounded easy enough, and luckily B&Q will cut 8’x4’ sheets of ply into smaller chunks in store, so off I went to B&Q for some 12mm and 18mm ply. I got the Titan table saw my brother-in-law and I co-bought (for £89) back to the house and set about cutting lots of strips of 18mm ply. As with most cheap table saws, accuracy is not its forte so I had to use some clamps and extra bits of wood to ensure the fence was actually parallel to the saw blade.
I ended up with 2 piles of 18mm thick strips of wood, ready to glue on once I’d routed slots in my 12mm panels. Little did I know that cutting the 18mm strips would be the easiest bit….
I studied a few youtube videos about cutting slots and knew I could route them consistently by making a jig.
I did own a little handheld router, which I’d used for the odd jobs during the build like installing door hinges but it wasn’t great and didn’t have a plunge mount. Makita have recently released a cheaper line of products, made in china I think, so I got their new plunge router for £60.
I made a jig that would allow the router to slide left and right with end stops to ensure the slots were all the same length. I then installed wood guides to the underside so the jig could slide up and down my panels.
WHAT A MESS! The large panels had 19 slots in them. I think the first panel took over an hour to route all the holes, covering my drive in sawdust which of course got blown around by the wind. I very quickly realised I needed to wear a mask, and earplugs.
I probably spent a whole day making the jig and routing the one first panel. And I had 9 more to go…
From routing the slots, I then took my 18mm strips which needed sanding to remove rough edges etc (about one hour per panel’s worth) and then finally these could be glued to the panel.
Glenn’s design suggested a French cleat to mount the panels, so they could be removed if required, so I also used the table saw to cut some lengths of 40mm x 70mm wood at 45 degrees.
Finally, this was screwed to the wall and back of the panel, with a strip of 40mm wood lower down the panel to space it from the wall, and the first one was mounted.
All of the above took place over several months, as with covid out the way life was back to its normal set of commitments, as well as a 4 day a week job, bits of studio client work and the odd gig.