Big for half blind dove tails

[Chris321]

I'm looking for advice or help. I would like to make chests or cabinets at least 45" to 48" long. Is there any way to get a dovetail jig to accomplish this or am I going to have to modify a few togeather?

[freedhardwoods]

Do you mean you want drawers 45" to 48" deep? I've never seen one that deep. The length of the drawer has nothing to do with your dovetails.

[wdwerker]

The Keller dovetail jig only makes full through dovetails but you can shift it to join as wide as you want.  I strongly suggest practice on poplar ( or something cheap). Something that wide or deep in solid wood will have considerable wood movement so keep that in mind. 

[Chris321]

4 hours ago, freedhardwoods said:

Do you mean you want drawers 45" to 48" deep? I've never seen one that deep. The length of the drawer has nothing to do with your dovetails.

I'm looking to make cabinets for speakers.

[freedhardwoods]

There are people on this forum that know a lot more than me. Maybe they can help. I don't understand where you want to put dovetails.

[wdwerker]

Do some research. I've never seen high end audio speakers made from solid wood. Particleboard and veneer or Baltic Birch & veneer are common. Maybe MDF but I'm not sure.  

A client brought me plans for these speaker housings.  The shape wraps a very large speaker horn into a compact space. I took the picture before the final side was put on. 

The woofer fires up into the narrow passage and the sound expands as it travels around the baffles.  I can cut and assemble all the strange angles but the acoustics are beyond me. The client installed the speakers and finished the cases.

[wtnhighlander]

Speaker cabinets are made from particle board or mdf to reduce audio artifacts caused by the enclosure. Natural wood has variations in density and tensile strength that make it good for PRODUCING sounds, while manufactured products are uniform and essentially made of bonded fibers, which dampens vibrations.

Dovetails would NOT be my choice of joinery for such cabinets. Glued and screwed butt joints work great with pb or mdf. You can veneer the outside with something nice, and make some faux dovetails in it, if you choose. All you need is a razor knife and a straightedge.

[drzaius]

Particle board & MDF are more acoustically dead than solid wood. Baltic birch is also used, mainly to save weight on larger cabinets. 

I'm in the middle of building a sub-woofer cabinet for my home theater that will weigh about 400 lbs when it's done. It's made of Medex, which is a water resistant MDF. It is also harder, stronger & less prone to splitting than regular MDF. In hindsight, BB may have been a better choice.

[gee-dub]

There was a company back in the 80's that made clear top-coated sound reinforcement speakers with finger jointed or dovetails plywood cabinets . . . Bag End maybe???  They were around the same era that Community Light and Sound were doing creative things with fiberglass cabinets.  Maybe be is going for that look?