Protect wood chassis from heat?

[leadbelly]

Has anybody found the need to protect a wood amp chassis from heat generated by the components? In the chassis I am building, part of the wood case actually does cover the PS transformers, although with several inches of headroom. There will be vent holes in the bottom and rear, but not the wood top. I am using oak.

I thought of lining the wood with alum foil, which isn't too hard, or painting with high temp paint, which is more of a hassle. I'm wiling to do either, or some other idea, if somebody has had a bad experience. TIA.

[tiroth]

I would suspect it will not be a problem unless those xformers are absurdly hot.

[dhaen]

Hi,

If it's mainly convected convected heat you're thinking about, that will come out of the upper holes at the back. What you might do is to "direct" the rising heat with an angled aluminium plate (near horizontal but tilted so the hot air moves towards the rear). It might help with the radiated heat too.

Cheers,

[Lisandro_P]

Here's something i've found out: if you think the wood will be exposed to a lot of heat, don't use "quality" wood. Buy the cheapest wood you can find (often plywood), as it takes the heat much better (well, being mostly sawdust and glue it has little to do with "wood" anyway ). I had these concerns on the top of my previous version of the JLH amp (which had 4 sinks bolted to it and vent holes for other 4 sinks BELOW it ), and it didn't warp at all.

[peranders]

Originally posted by Lisandro_P
Here's something i've found out: if you think the wood will be exposed to a lot of heat, don't use "quality" wood. Buy the cheapest wood you can find (often plywood), as it takes the heat much better (well, being mostly sawdust and glue it has little to do with "wood" anyway ). I had these concerns on the top of my previous version of the JLH amp (which had 4 sinks bolted to it and vent holes for other 4 sinks BELOW it ), and it didn't warp at all.

Plywood, excuse me? No sawdust in my plywood! Did you mean chipboard?

DO USE good wood but make sure it's very dry so you won't get cracks. You can oil the wood so it breathes more, looks nice also. Temp under 50-60 deg C is OK I think and remember wood is a good heat isolator.

[peranders]

Originally posted by leadbelly
Has anybody found the need to protect a wood amp chassis from heat generated by the components? In the chassis I am building, part of the wood case actually does cover the PS transformers, although with several inches of headroom. There will be vent holes in the bottom and rear, but not the wood top. I am using oak.

Oak is a good material, very nice. Look here . Oak is also very stable in every sence. You don't have to do anything except for see to you get good ventilation

[Lisandro_P]

Pardon my poor english here Yeah, you're right. What i meant is that "cheap" wood composed of several parts/layers of wood, glued together and cut to planks. These are usually very cheap and can take heat and abuse very well. The one i used wasn't too thick (arround 5-6mm),and showed only a VERY SLIGHT warp... very, as in completely unnoticieable unless you measured it with a straightedge or something.

PS: I just noticed i said "it didn't warp at all" earlier. Well, it did but so little it's of no consequence. Besides, that was a piece of wood that took a lot of heat, both from above and below.

[Bob2]

Hi Leadbelly

I would try to vent the oak some how, oak is notorious for splitting. I,m talking solid oak here, be it laminated or not. Oak ply might be okay, but solid oak will probably split from the heat.

Bob2