Burlap Speakers

I want to make my own speakers out of the burlap composites, it's cheap and very strong. After some researches on how speakers work in terms of airflow and speaker placements, I quickly found out that most of them are just in boxes with different air channels. I decided to go with something less boxy looking, a speaker that shapes like an old speaker cone. Internal air chambers and corners would help you create a richer sound, I am not a sound engineer, but you can probably test out with a cardboard model.

I design and printed the model with a 3D printer with a very thin wall. I will be using this as the mold to lay the burlaps on, so it doesn't need to be too thick, we are going to take it apart when de-molding anyway. I also made the base with the 3D printer, both are ready for vacuum molding.

I used the laser cutter to cut out all my burlaps, the trick is not to set the laser cutter on fire by lowering the power, or have the laser at higher speed, or cut twice.

I used Johnson Wax, Release Fabric and Mann Release Technologies Ease Release (yes, all of them, might be over kill) in between my 3D printed mold and the composites layer (burlap and Epoxy Resin by Entropy Resins). The holes in the Release Fabric helps the bleed / white sponge material to absorb the extra resin. I spread the clear Entropy Resins (2 part A and 1 part B) onto each burlap and stack them layer by layer. They are extremely runny. I then vacuums it with a vacuums plastic, designed to store clothing. It was pretty easy to break the mold apart, and take out the 3D printed mold. I then trim and sand the pieces to size. All the sanding and cutting leaves the surface white and rough, so I coated it with another thin layer of resin, using it as paint. I had to wait for about 12 hours before I can do anything with it.

I use laser cutter to cut out the supporting material, in my case, plexiglass, for the speakers. The wiring was pretty tricky since I am working within a pretty tight space.

With some hot glue, the speakers are in position and ready to wired up with an Amp. The speaker wire jack makes it easy to attach and detach. You can buy different styles of wire attachment.

The speaker doesn’t have the richer bass and deeper sound that I was looking for, so I did some experiments by covering the front air vent with plexiglass. The speakers sounded a lot better after I cover the front vent, the one directional airflow makes it sound louder with much better bass.

What would I do differently
I should pay more attention with the 3D model and how it unfolds before I cut the burlap with laser cutter. I would make the speaker cone 2 times larger so it would produce better bass. I should do 2 part compression mold to get better surface on both sides with burlap composite, now it looks like dumplings ...