Speaker fabric application

[Craig D Peltier]

Question is about attaching speaker fabric to a door frame.
First speaker fabric is from rockler. What I have done is take a melamine frame 1 inch wide all the way around and cut fabric big an attach to it via contact cement then trim fabric with razor on backside (i tried crazy glue it didnt work, soaked through fabric an soaked into substrate)
Then I was going to tongue and groove the door frame (2 inch wide frame). Groove about 1/2 inch deep by 1/4 wide. Slip it in and call it a day. I dont think from the back its going to look very finished.
What has anyone else done here?
I was thinking of maybe routing out the inside of door like a picture frame and then staple it to the cherry but that may not look to nice and not be very tight, the frame I have now allows me to pull it tight.
Maybe I cut rout out an drop frame I have now in rout and then cover with say some 1/4 cherry strips , that may not be too flat though. So I was wondering what others do?

Thanks

[Bill Wyko]

I'm in car audio and the best way I've found is to use an air stapler and butt the staples right up to each other in a straight line. It's a good idea to make the grill cloth very tight too. Be careful not to flex the frame at the middle though. If that is going to be a problem, add a brace in the center that doesn't obstruct the speakers. Let me know if I can be of any other help.:)

[Jamie Buxton]

Check out the way screen is fastened to screen doors. There's a groove all the way around the opening. The screen is spread over the opening, and a rope-like plastic tube gets forced into the groove, carrying the screen with it and securing it. The excess gets cut off with a sharp knife. It is a clean enough installation that most people never notice it. If you look for the plastic tube in the screen section of your hardware store, it is called spline. There is a handy little wheeled tool which helps roll it into the groove.

[Craig D Peltier]

Check out the way screen is fastened to screen doors. There's a groove all the way around the opening. The screen is spread over the opening, and a rope-like plastic tube gets forced into the groove, carrying the screen with it and securing it. The excess gets cut off with a sharp knife. It is a clean enough installation that most people never notice it. If you look for the plastic tube in the screen section of your hardware store, it is called spline. There is a handy little wheeled tool which helps roll it into the groove.

THanks thats an idea.Ill see if my local hardware store has that here.

[Jim O'Dell]

The other thing to try is to build a separate frame for the grill cloth that will sit in a rabbit inside the visible frame. Staple the fabric to the outside edge, trim flush or sub flush with the back of that frame, then insert it into the finished frame. Shouldn't see the fabric from behind that way.
Other question, how often will you see the back side of the grill cloth anyway? :p Jim.

[Greg Crawford]

I recently had the same issue to struggle with. I eventually made two rabbets along the inner edge, like a stair step, then made a matching L-shaped piece to go over it. I placed the fabric accross the opening then pushed the L-shaped pieces down to stretch the fabric, then used small screws to hold it in place. The fabric I used was linen. It didn't look very elegant on the inside, but the outside came out looking great.

One other problem for me was stretching the fabric evenly. I don't use fabric for much besides covering my body, so I didn't have the proper tools or experience to stretch it evenly in all directions. The linen was rather coarse, so an uneven or crooked stretch would have really stood out. My cobbled-up method also solved that problem for me.

[John Stevens]

The screen is spread over the opening, and a rope-like plastic tube gets forced into the groove, carrying the screen with it and securing it.

Jamie, do you remember offhand how wide the groove should be? I guess I could find out with a little trial and error, but if you can save me the time and effort I'd be much obliged.

Regards,

John

[Mike Spanbauer]

Not Jamie, but I'm 99% certain it's a 1/8 inch groove for the standard rubber channel on a screen door.

I've replaced enough of them, but I just never measured.

mike

[Craig D Peltier]

Jamie, do you remember offhand how wide the groove should be? I guess I could find out with a little trial and error, but if you can save me the time and effort I'd be much obliged.

Regards,

John

The spline comes in 3 different widths at my local True Value Hardware.Its by decimals.I got the thickest one its 25 feet of .165 and only cost $3. The back of package doesnt tell you the groove size anywhere.I assume all screen doors have some standards and people are supposed to just know?