chungus subwoofer
It was winter of junior year, my two bookshelf speakers needed something to support the low frequencies. Subwoofer time! Again, being an engineer, size, shape and marketing was never a concern. The dayton audio DCS385-4 15" classic subwoofer went down to 19hz. I think I can do better than that. Plugging in values to WinISD gave me a -3db of 17hz! Nice! Time to empty my wallet. 1 week later I got this box:
I went and bought a sheet of 4 x 8 1/2" thick MDF, and had home depot cut it for me. Surprisingly, it only took me one sheet. dimensions were 2' x 2' x 3', with an outer volume of 12 cubic feet. Assembling it was a whole another circus. I used wood wood glue and did the sides.
To brace the box without another trip to home depot, i used wooden curtain rods (boy was my mom mad when she found out)
The braces were going to take up lots of vibrations. Chemically, PVA isn't a very strong glue. but when bonded with wood fibers, it is stronger than wood. This is how MDF is made. To replicate the process, I gave the garage a sweep and kept the sawdust. Mixing it with PVA gave me a moldable glue, similar to epoxy, except in the wood world.
This later turned out perfect, tapping on the box gave a very solid tick tick sound rather than thud thud. I tried to make a jig to cut the circle for the transducer.
Well that didn't work. The blade just catches, bends and goes straight instead.
Plan B: freehand time. Should have trusted in myself instead. I have enough hours on the jigsaw that I can cut a straight line without any markings.
Cut the holes for the ports:
Dual vents baby! I applied some liquid nails to the seams. Decided on downward facing sub to have a smaller footprint. Installed legs onto it.
I read online damping simulates a bigger box space. the attic had some insulation leftover. mmmm sushi. I tore of the paper backing to prevent rattling around.
I went and bought a sheet of 4 x 8 1/2" thick MDF, and had home depot cut it for me. Surprisingly, it only took me one sheet. dimensions were 2' x 2' x 3', with an outer volume of 12 cubic feet. Assembling it was a whole another circus. I used wood wood glue and did the sides.
To brace the box without another trip to home depot, i used wooden curtain rods (boy was my mom mad when she found out)
The braces were going to take up lots of vibrations. Chemically, PVA isn't a very strong glue. but when bonded with wood fibers, it is stronger than wood. This is how MDF is made. To replicate the process, I gave the garage a sweep and kept the sawdust. Mixing it with PVA gave me a moldable glue, similar to epoxy, except in the wood world.
This later turned out perfect, tapping on the box gave a very solid tick tick sound rather than thud thud. I tried to make a jig to cut the circle for the transducer.
Well that didn't work. The blade just catches, bends and goes straight instead.
Plan B: freehand time. Should have trusted in myself instead. I have enough hours on the jigsaw that I can cut a straight line without any markings.
Cut the holes for the ports:
Dual vents baby! I applied some liquid nails to the seams. Decided on downward facing sub to have a smaller footprint. Installed legs onto it.
I read online damping simulates a bigger box space. the attic had some insulation leftover. mmmm sushi. I tore of the paper backing to prevent rattling around.
I went in with a staple gun and bolted the insulation down.
Box was then sealed up:
Drivers installed and binding posts put in.
Sounds great and looks nice. This has specs of a SVS sub, for around a cost of $200. Crank it up when parents aren't around, it shakes the whole house.
As of right now it sits in the garage because I don't want to get evicted from my apartment, and my dad hates it for being too big. 2 more years of college before I can get a house and run this beast. This was built to be decently neat, so I can put a piano paint finish on it in the future.
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