using one piece of solid wood for an enclosure

[Jared]

I was thining about using a maple log I have about 18" diameter and 24" long as a sub enclosure. Does anyone know of a way to get a hole about 15" deep and 13" diameter bored into this without buying expensive tools? So far my only idea is to use a drillbit many many times and a wood chisel to clean it up afterwards. A mostly round but irregular surface might be a good thing on the interior of the enclosure too, right? Will solid hardwood (maple I think) be rigid enough or should I go with a smaller driver and thicker walls? anyone have any links to other projects involving one solid piece of material for the enclosure?

 

[till]

simple way is chain saw. Other way is larger bandsaw. I build little boxes this way to sell them. Will make a pic tomorrow and post it...

 

[Jared]

but I dont want to cut the wood at al, just make a hole in it deep enough to provide the needed enclosure volume.

 

[till]

with the chain saw it is a little dangerous but possible to make a hole.

With the bandsaw you need to cut throug material you have to glue after you finished.

You cut like this:

 

[pinkmouse]

The easiest and safest way I can think of is to use an Arbortech blade on an angle grinder, they carve wood like nothing on earth and are much safer than a chainsaw.

However you may have problems over time with your log splitting as it dries out, espaecially if you make the walls too thin

 

[TNT]

Hi!

Consider this once more before You put too much effort into it! The DO split / crack for shure. I have seen it myself.

Maybe if You live in a very humid place it is OK!

/

 

[till]

it will crack in case you use it not dry enough and put it in the house.

You need to use an piece thats allready dry (some years laying around at a dry place)

The easiest way for a big hole is to find a piece of a tree thats allready has a hole because of illness. If the wall is not to thick and dry slow enough the forces in the material are not so strong and it will have only small cracks.

 

[kneadle]

Michael Barnes at norh carves his initial line of speakers out of a single log.

 

[Kongen]

I think I read somwhere that this kind of enclosure isn't very good when it comes to resonances - something about the vibrations won't be damped as well as in an enclosure made from several pieces of wood glued together... I can't remember where I read it but I believe it was in an article about sonus faber in which it was argued that the multiple pieces glued together as in their speakers keeps vibrations lower than if they used one big piece. I do see the point - to not equally sized pieces of wood - perhaps even different in structure - glued together would help dampen vibrarions due to different resonances of each piece. anyway i'm not a scientist so maybe i'm wrong...

 

[jan.didden]

solid wood

Hi,

It is not clear to me why you would want to use a single log this way. Surely it will have asthetic appeal. If you however do it from a point of construction strenght, be aware that a conventional, well-glued joint generally is STRONGER than the wood itself.

Jan Didden

 

[till]

aside from the aesthetical value, we don´t need much strength in the construction because it doesn´t take any force like a constructive part when building a house. What we need is a sealed box, and not to much resonace in the band the speaker should be used in. The massive block will be possible to seale from inside, and you are enabled to make a part with very thick walls and high mass. Thick walls means good dampening and high mass is advanageous too. I think the problem is to find a really good pieve of wood, else the idea is fine.

 

[till]

cut with bandsaw

 

[jan.didden]

solid wood

aside from the aesthetical value, we don´t need much strength in the construction because it doesn´t take any force like a constructive part when building a house. What we need is a sealed box, and not to much resonace in the band the speaker should be used in. The massive block will be possible to seale from inside, and you are enabled to make a part with very thick walls and high mass. Thick walls means good dampening and high mass is advanageous too. I think the problem is to find a really good pieve of wood, else the idea is fine.

Well, large books have been written on the selection of the right material with high internal damping. Just taking a large thickness of an unspecified piece of wood will not necessarily lead to better damping. What it will do for sure is shift the vibration frequency of the enclosure up. But I am sure you guys know that, so that is why I assumed this was being done for asthetic reasons.

Jan Didden

 

[Jared]

yes, the main idea was to preserve the incredible color sworls n the growth rings of this particular log. I am not too overly concerned about eh sound quality for a home theatre subwoofer, so long as it is still better than commercial mass market crap. I wold asume that an 80 lb piece of wood would have enough mass to not resonate too strongly in the 10-100hz range?

till - now that I think about it, I have sen the guy who actually vut this og for me do some plunge cutting with his chainsaw and not have it kick back. It is definately not something I want to try.

It is just time tho, so I will give it a shot with a 1 icnh wood drill bit and the drill press. If it splits it will be disapointing, but I can just glue it back together and deal with it.