Speaker cut-out trim suggestions

[torridpsu]

Hey guys,

I'm in the home stretch in terms of the physical construction of my arcade cab, and I need some help.  I am trying to figure out the best way to trim around the cutouts i've made for my speakers.  I routed 2 3x6 holes through the wood, then routed an extra half an inch around the inside for a place for the speaker to sit.  I bought some perf metal off of amazon, cut, and spraypainted.  The outside side of the wood is laminated. 



So what I have is a 6x3 cutout with about 1/4" of exposed wood.  The cuts aren't perfect either.  I was thinking about trying to rout some 1/2 mdf into a square shape with an L lip, but I anticipate alot of difficulty getting all of the cuts straight.  I also got some L wood trim, but it's 3/4 wide, I don't have a table saw to get it down to 1/2, and I enjoy my fingers so I ain't trying it with my miter saw.

So, with all of that said, does anyone have any good suggestions?

Thanks!

[EwJ]

I'd just touch up the exposed wood with black paint and see how it looks.

[BadMouth]

You could make a little frame out L shaped aluminum that is 1/2" on one side and 3/4 on the other.  The 3/4" side should cover a lot.
Use a hacksaw and a plastic miter box to cut nice 45 degree angles where they join on the corners.

Since the 1/2" side includes the thickness of the aluminum, you will probably end up with a 1/16th toward the back that it wouldn't cover, but it should be barely noticeable if painted or gone over with a sharpie.

EDIT: You could also move the perforated metal to the outside and make some kind of flat trim to cover the edges.

[Afterburner]

Have you considered making a fiberglass insert?

Make a wooden male mold.  Cover the wood with pieces of clear packing tape and wax the tape with car or boat wax.

Cut fiberglass cloth into suitable size strips and buy some boater's epoxy or other suitable two part liquid epoxy.

Lay a strip of cloth down and pour a little epoxy on it.  Spread the epoxy around and into the cloth with a spreader or old credit card.

Do this and build up several layers of cloth and epoxy.  I recommend around 1/8 thick.  Try to work out any and all air bubbles and keep the cloth smoothed with no wrinkles.

If you really want a super good part, once you have built up the part and are ready for it to cure you can vacuum bag it to get any remaining air out. 

To do this, take a plastic grocery bag or other suitable plastic bag and poke a bunch of small holes all over it to perforate the bag.  Put the whole molde in there.  Then cover the outside of the perf bag with some rags, old towel, etc.  Put all of that into another plastic bag and seal it as airtight as you can.  Hook your shop vac up and suck all the air out of the outer bag.  It should suck down onto the part and help squeezw out any air that may have been trapped.  Keep the vacuum on for 5min and then try to keep the bag airtight if you can.

Leave it overnight and let the epoxy cure.  After it's hardened, remove the bags and very carefully remove the part from the mold.  If you did a good job with the tape and wax it will come right off.

Now you can cut the edges on the miter saw to straighten them out and sand/shape/smooth the corners.  If there are voids or other surface blemishes you can fill those with epoxy filler and sand smooth.

Once you are happy with it, rinse it with water, dry it well, and paint to your liking.  If the fit is good you should have a great looking trim ring.

[torridpsu]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.  I'm going to regroup this weekend and see what I can pull off with these suggestions

[Cynicaster]

I'd just cut some rectangular "frames" out of, say, some 1/4" plywood and stretch some speaker grille fabric over them.  They could be mounted with velcro, magnets, those little nipple things that some speaker grilles use, etc.

[capsule]

I've used expanded metal and aluminium plates to cover the whole speakers zone on my WIP cabinet to cover the old centered hole and make 2 new holes for stereo. Since the perforated or expanded metal is on top, from a normal angle and without flash (my photo is terrible, sorry, but you clearly see how it's made), you can't say there are holes behind it.