Acoustic iPhone Speaker in Claro Walnut

I started with a block of walnut 5” x 4” x 2 1/2” (This was actually a cutoff from a local factory that sells bags of blanks for firewood. Since I have strong moral fiber, and cannot bring myself to stoke my fire with Claro Walnut, I rescue as many of the bags as I can.)

Anyway I used a 2” hole saw in my drill press and drilled about an 1 1/2 down on one side of the blank. This will give use the hole for the front and a guide for our speaker ‘bowl’

Next I set up the resaw fence on my band saw. This is something like building a band saw box. You want to cut off the face, or front. I took about a 1/4 slice.

I then took another slice about 1” thick. This should be slightly thicker than the device you will be sliding into it. You should now have two slices of different thickness with 2” holes in them.

Next I carved out the bowl off the remaining blank. I used a set of carving tools that were dull and my skill with them was quite low. I might just use a fornster bit next time and just cleanup the center point with a gouge.

Next I traced the shape of my phone in middle slice, re-traced with chalk for clarity

Then it’s over to band saw. I cut my shape and a channel for the sound to travel to the speaker.

Then I cut a opening on the front slice so I could see the phone buttons but with enough of a lip that it wouldn’t fall forward.

Glue up time.

I then took a 25* cut at the top and bottom to have it sit back and still look symmetrical.

I ended up using one of those cutoffs on the back to give it a bit more stability.

Finish with BLO and add phone…

Here’s a video of the process as well…
http://youtu.be/HE12mMh2rzE

-- Peter Brown - Collector of WD-40 and wood splinters