Solid walnut subwoofers project

[Village Plank]

Ok the quality of veneers here is now so bad and getting so feindishly expensive I've decided to go down the solid wood route. Before anyone says "don't, It will split" I suggest they do a little research. I'm building a pair of 12s using PD12SB30's
The solid walnut in question is this... Walnut Worktops
Designed for use as kitchen work tops. This stuff is 40mm thick! and I dbout will need any bracing whatsoever. We have thick 27mm solid beech bedside dressers that are over 20 years old and have never split, warped nor moved.
There are so much more possibilities and benefits with solid wood than veneers.
1. Vastly reduced labour time
2. much eisier to machine and work with
3. constructed properly, MUCH stronger and likely to last a lifetime.
4. can be easily repaired if scrached or dented.
5. Solid wood gives a real presence of quality and beauty.
6. Most if not all quality solid wood peices only increase in value with time, Veneered MDF is all but worthless the moment it leaves your workshop.

The walnut is raw and unfinished, I will be sanding it down to 1800 grit and applying a liquid beeswax finish as a moisture barrier and to create a near mirror like finish.

Some will say I'm brave, stupid but hey.... who cares!

[richie00boy]

Look forward to how you get on. Just remember that your dressing table isn't totally glued together and requires to be airtight

Thanks for the link, those prices are fantastic!

[Dr.EM]

It sounds cool and I really hope it works out, should be beautiful

Those drivers look to be excellent quality, they should give good transient response with thier comparatively light cones and huge magnet system. How do you plan to implement them? Sealed/vented/LT sealed, or something else? These are designed for PA use and don't play very low in typical alignments, since they have high power handling LT sealed makes good sense

[Village Plank]

I'm going vented, did an MDF test first and they sound great. Vented, 20" x 20" x 17" (17 x 17 x 17 internal dimensions) external dimensions with a 22" x 19" x 3" solid walnut base!


MDF test boxes!

[oublie]

Getting rid of vibration is darned difficult.

I've just built a test baffle from an old piece of Solid mahoghany 45mm thick 5 foot long 2 foot wide i have mounted one of the 4 skytronic 15 inch subs that I will be using open baffle (2 each side QTS 0.92 fs 30hz xmax 6mm ) and the thing rattles like mad with freq's below 50hz and this is with 20watts. Not thread stealing but it seems to me that clever bracing is the way to go.

[Village Plank]

That thickness of mahogany should'nt rattle if you drive a bus into it!

Chances are its the god awful skytronics making the sound... Skytronic quality....... you may as well bash a kitten against the side of a van!

[oublie]

Originally Posted by Village Plank

That thickness of mahogany should'nt rattle if you drive a bus into it!

Chances are its the god awful skytronics making the sound... Skytronic quality....... you may as well bash a kitten against the side of a van!

Tried it with a dayton dvc as well 15" same thing happened its definately the wood moving

[Village Plank]

mabe theres a hidden crack in the wood or you've substantionally weakend the baffle cutting four holes in it for x4 15s. Woods increase upto 7 times in strength when formed into a box. Even my test 18mm MDF boxes didnt buzz or rattle and I didn't brace them!

[Dr.EM]

These drivers do roll off quite early in a vented alignment (-10dB @ 48Hz simmed), but also roll off a bit slower than most, so factoring in room gain it should be possible to get decent extension. You'll certainly get good 'slam' with these around 60Hz

Do you notice any port noise with the test boxes? It seems quite a small port for a driver this size.

[Village Plank]

Originally Posted by Dr.EM

These drivers do roll off quite early in a vented alignment (-10dB @ 48Hz simmed), but also roll off a bit slower than most, so factoring in room gain it should be possible to get decent extension. You'll certainly get good 'slam' with these around 60Hz

Do you notice any port noise with the test boxes? It seems quite a small port for a driver this size.

Nope, perfect.... sorry I forgot to say, the PD12SB30's are custom, had them made with 4.5" coils and xmax is 17mm one way they are almost perfectly flat to 29Hz