[black300zx]

Originally Posted by mgithens

Why not just build a square box around a sonotube??

That wouldn't be as fun/challenging, plus that wouldn't really work with the new design (see a few posts above).

[Celly]

Originally Posted by black300zx

That wouldn't be as fun/challenging, plus that wouldn't really work with the new design (see a few posts above).

I agree with you. As long as you make some really nice templates, this is not that much work. Just make sure you have a good sharp templating bit, and start cutting away..

[black300zx]

For anyone interested, I've posted an update to the CSS / Dayton poject mentioned in my first post Hopefully I'll get to start work on these sub enclosures within a few weeks.

http://www.icixsound.com/vb/showthre...452#post594452

[black300zx]

Wow - 4 months later this project finally begins In case you were wondering, I decided that it would be a good idea to finish up my half finished projects (for once) before starting another.

After my last posts, I picked up a second job which left me working from ~4am - 6 or 7pm a solid 4 days per week, and usually Sunday also. I then spent the better part of 2 months building a TV stand for my room, and then putting the finishing cosmetic touches on my bookshelf speakers (which I linked in my last post).

Saturday I printed out the CAD drawing, glued it onto some thin cardboard (I used a cereal box), and traced it onto some 1/2" MDF. In total I'll need 4 different jigs, one for the bottom two pieces, one for the intermediate non-braced layers, one for the intermediate braced layers, and one for the layer that aren't part of the port. The first one is cut out, and I hope to finish up the rest over the next few days. The biggest hang up will be getting a vehicle to pick up some 4x8 sheets of MDF, since my dad's explorer is currently packed to the gills with other stuff.

Pics of the jig construction will come in a day or two.

[black300zx]

Paper pattern:


Four templates will be used in total. The first template has only have the outer profile and the ports cut out. This will be used for the bottom two layers where the subs will mount. The middle was left in so that I could transfer the center point of the driver cutouts from the paper pattern to the mdf template. The second template has the outer profile, ports, and center cavity cut out. The third template adds bracing, and the fourth has nothing but the outer ring for the top-most layers.

Three of the four templates traced out on 1/2" MDF:


I cut out one template and used it as a template to create the other templates. This pictures shows the first template screwed to another prior to running them on the router table.


All four templates cut out:


After the first layer, I will actually just be using the templates to mark the MDF to rough cut them with a jigsaw. After the first layer, I'll be gluing the rough-cut layer onto the assembly and using previous layers as guide for the flush cut bit.

[joeybutts]

man oh man..I'm not jealous of you now.......


But I'll be **** jealous when this is done!

Solid prep work.

[irq21]

Beautiful looking prep work.

Hope you have a nice respirator, and dust collection system.

[black300zx]

Originally Posted by irq21

Beautiful looking prep work.

Hope you have a nice respirator, and dust collection system.

Thanks. I spent a good amount of time sanding the cuts on the 'master' template before I used it to make the others.

I'm actually going to try to make a DIY cylone separator to use between the shopvac and the dust collection port.

[Hawmps]

More power to ya man... that will be cool.

[black300zx]

One more (hopefully) small delay to this project - I'm building a DIY cyclone dust separator to hook up inline between my shop-vac and router table. With all the routing I have ahead of me, I'd wind up wasting a ton of time unclogging the shop-vac's filter, not to mention the possibility of burning out the motor.

In actuality, I hope to have the separator built by the end of the weekend, and I probably wouldn't have been able to pick up the MDF before then anyways.

[black300zx]

Made some good headway this afternoon. All 28 layers from the first sheet of MDF are rough cut. Right now I'm really happy we splurged for the Bosch jigsaw over a cheaper one. I beat the crap out of it this afternoon and it laughed at it. This weekend I'll start assembly :beer:

The 4'x8' sheet cut down into 7 equal pieces:


MDF carnage:


28 down, ~70 to go


A close-up of the rough cut relative to the pattern:

[Inferno333]

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Did you opt to do the extra layers and the lower tune?

[black300zx]

Originally Posted by Inferno333

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Did you opt to do the extra layers and the lower tune?

For those of you that don't go to ICIX (where I mentioned the extra layers), each sheet of MDF gets me 28 layers. My initial design uses 46 layers per tower for a total of 92 layers, requiring 4 full sheets of MDF. If I completely used the 4th sheet, I'll wind up with 112, so the possibility exists to add 10 layers to each tower.

I sat for about an hour yesterday, and increasing the volume makes the response really peaky in the 20-35hz range. Additionally, adding 10 layers to each will make them taller than I want. If I do anything, I may inset the sub by 5 layers or so to reduce the internal volume, which makes the response peaky. I'll probably spend another hour or so working out various combinations of port/non-port layers to get the response I want.

[black300zx]

Update from the past week:

First two layers glued up and routed flush:


Next layer attached; holes for spikes drilled:




Test fit of the spikes:


All three layers routed flush; sub testfit:






T-nuts for the spikes pressed in:



Fourth and fifth layers glued on:

[black300zx]

13 layers down, 33 to go

[Ben Milne]

Love the dedication to this project How many hours do you think you have in this?

[black300zx]

Not as many as I expected. Until yesterday, I was attaching 2 layers, letting them dry overnight, routing them flush, adding 2 more, letting them dry overnight, and so on. I'd spend about an hour per day, half of that being setup/cleanup. In total, I'd say I probably have 8-10 hours into it, with probably half of that time spent on the first 3 layers and cutting out the first 28 'blanks'.

Yesterday I finally got the guts up to route the layers almost immediately after I attached them, and it went smoothly. I'll be using this method from here on out, so I should be able to send another 30-45 minutes per night and finish 4-6 layers rather than 2.

[Lonely Raven]

What a sic project! Tag for subscription.


I was thinking about doing something similar, but for a coffee table sub that would look like three cylanders joined together...once I calculated the material needs, I dropped that project PDQ.

You go, man! :beer:

[A-007]

Use to have tons of energy & the want to do crazy unique designing and building like the below. But a bazillion sub designs and builds later it's luster has lost a lot of it's glow.

I do enjoy seeing others like Black300zx taking up where many of us have left off.
Going to be an interesting a cool build to check in on as it progresses..

Best of luck cleaning up and sucking all that dust...!!!
Resporator anyone....

Cheers,
Geoff
Adrenalin Audio

Originally Posted by black300zx

13 layers down, 33 to go

[black300zx]

Originally Posted by A-007

Use to have tons of energy & the want to do crazy unique designing and building like the below. But a bazillion sub designs and builds later it's luster has lost a lot of it's glow.

I do enjoy seeing others like Black300zx taking up where many of us have left off.
Going to be an interesting a cool build to check in on as it progresses..

Best of luck cleaning up and sucking all that dust...!!!
Resporator anyone....

Cheers,
Geoff
Adrenalin Audio

Can't say I have a ton of energy, but a lack of time to work on projects while I was in school gave me a craving to take action on a few ideas I had floating around in my head.

This will be the last major project for a while. I will be redesigning the crossover in my bookshelf speakers (linked in the first post) as I have free time, but saving money for a house and finishing the bodywork on my Z will be taking precedence for the next 6 -12 months.

As for the dust, there is definitely alot, however the cyclone dust collector I built has been working like a champ.