Speaker cabinet material

[byteboy]

Hi,

I'm thinking of using a board material called High Pressure Laminate (HPL), used for countertops in kitchens etc.

This is MDF board of 28 mm thickness with a durable toplayer of some sort (formica like)

Advantages to me are:

- Nice thickness (anything above 22 mm MDF is seldom in stock)
- One side is rounded off nicely already (for use at front of cabinet)
- No need to paint, lacquer, veneer etc.

I want to try to put the panels together using 45 Deg. cuts at the sides of the panels.

Anybody tried this before? What (sonic) results?

Henry.

[byteboy]

I must be crazy trying this...

No posts?

Henry

[leadbelly]

I guess nobody's tried it. But what you're describing is very low risk...I can't imagine laminate on the OUTSIDE affecting the sound much....so it's like making an MDF cabinet.

Just make sure it IS MDF, and not particleboard. Although some people often make the mistake of calling particleboard MDF, it is much lower quality, and really doessn't even look the same.

[faustian bargin]

well, if you don't feel it's thick enough you could always glue & screw a layer of mdf on the *inside* face of the HPL, just to add mass. it could only help, takes just a little more work, and you still retain the benefits of the p-lam on the outside.

[Gary Angermeier]

The sides can overlap the bottom, At the top the fit would be very unforgiving. Use glue blocks with Liquid Nails or the like.

[JOE DIRT®]

quote>>>Just make sure it IS MDF, and not particleboard. Although some people often make the mistake of calling particleboard MDF, it is much lower quality, and really doessn't even look the same.


I wish speaker manufactures knew also

[Sch3mat1c]

What *is* the difference between particle board and MDF? Is it the stuff halfway towards OSB, hardboard (that appears to be made from very fine sawdust), or what?

Tim

[planet10]

It should work fine... the laminate on the outside will stiffen things up -- i often built cabinets with 1/2" MDF laminated inside & outside -- a lot of work thou.

dave

[Pete Mazz]

It sounds to me like the material is postformed countertop. It's usually made from particle board with some MDF used at critical bends. You better have a panel saw to do a miter cut across it with any accuracy, tho.

Pete

[leadbelly]

What *is* the difference between particle board and MDF? Is it the stuff halfway towards OSB, hardboard (that appears to be made from very fine sawdust), or what?

Yes, that is how I would describe particleboard, halfway between strandboard and MDF. You can still see the wood chips as such in particleboard, it does not look like sawdust in MDF. I've even heard it called LDF, low density fiberboard.