A friend sent a video to me a couple of days ago, showing someone making a “passive speaker” on the lathe – one of those horns (for lack of a better term) you place your phone into to amplify the sound.

I’ve had a piece of Cherry sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now for which I just haven’t had the right project. This seemed like a great use.

I started off with this piece, maybe 6″x6″.

After 3.5 frustrating hours Wednesday night, I completed the shape – inside and out. It was an incredibly frustrating experience on my lathe, trying to hollow out the horn into end-grain, when the piece was this long and I don’t have any support other than this small chuck.

The next step, after work on Thursday, was the nerve-wracking step of taking a saw to this nicely shaped horn! It isn’t perfectly symmetrical, but is close enough.

It’s starting to actually look like a thing!

The last piece was to flatten the bottom of the rear portion so it doesn’t roll. I adhered a sheet of sandpaper to some plywood and quickly ground down a flat bottom. Nice and stable.

The best part, finishing, was done with a 1:1 mixture of pure Tung Oil and citrus solvent. I’ve applied one coat so far, and it’s looking great. Sounds pretty good too!