Metal grills for Ascent Woofers?

We have 2 cats, and no way to really effectively keep them away from my speakers.

I'm considering getting a pair of Ascents (to replace the Sequels), but the fabric woofer covers have me a little concerned. I'm afraid that if the cats don't pick them all to hell, at the very least, they will become HUGE fur magnets, and I'll have to vacuum them daily...

So I was wondering if anyone had ever made replacement grills for their Ascents using some sort of metal mesh, so that they sort of match the ESL panel? How are the cloth grills mounted? Do they use the standard sort of plastic ball-peg mounts that most speakers use?

I'm pretty crafty, and have LOTS of tools, so I think the hardest part is going to be finding some perforated metal that looks something like ESL panel grids, but once I've located similar-looking sheets of the stuff, I figure bending it and painting it to match should be pretty simple...

Help??? Ideas???

--Richard

http://www.mcnichols.com/products/perforated/

here some pix of their offerings:

http://www.mcnichols.com/eCommerce/...ated&productType=Round Hole&displayType=thumb

but you might try this as well:

http://www.safepetproducts.com/product.asp?specific=jnnpenc0

thanks for that source! Now I just need to get out my calipers and rulers and figure out the hole diameter and center spacing on the Ascent (if I get them). I think I can probably get a near-perfect match from them...

Thanks,
--Richard

I think there may be a market for metal grills in general.

I too have cats and would love metal grills for my Claritys. I also think it would give them a cleaner look. That's one thing I did like about my old Scenarios, metal grill all the way down. I also like the Summit, Vantage, Vista with full metal grills.

Could there be a business opportunity here? I'd buy.

Yes, my Sequels have metal grills all th ewya down too...

I would love to make metal grills for other folks, but there are two difficulites I see with that:

1) I don't know the dimensions of other speakers that I don't own, and would probably need folks to send me one of their grills, to get the fit right,

2) ML has changed the hole size and patters slightly over the year, so what looks good on an Ascent might not be a perfect match for a Clarity.

Other than that, I suppose I could attempt to make grills for other folks. Let me get this whole Ascent thing going, then we can discuss it. I'm still not entirely sure I'm going to get the Ascents.

--Richard

I guess mcnicols will drill you any freaking pattern of any size and shape of holes into any material you can think of, at any distance you might like.

Dreamer,
You might also want check: www.mcmaster.com

Do a search on perforated metal. McMaster-Carr deals with the public and will take credit cards. You might have difficultly with industrial/commercial perforaters as they want to deal in volume.