help!subwoofers enclosures and crossovers!

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If you're gonna paint MDF (that's what it is right?), you'll probably want to use a primer. What I've found works good, is to sand it very well, then prime it, let it dry and the primer will make little "hairs" of MDF sick up. Resand it again, cover the resanded areas with another coat of primer and then paint over that. Should give you a nice finish. If you're not that patient you could use laminate too, there are some really nice looking gloss black ones I've seen people use.
 
thanks Dustin Haug for the painting tip!

well kelticwizard i dont think i will add any more bracing....
sence i added the steel brackets this enclosure is sterdy as a rock.....this sucker is also heavy! very heavy......
in my applucation of this enclosure i think additional bracing would be a wast of time due the the enclosures supreme sterdiness already.....

thanks for the advice though.......

looking forward to what you have to report next.....

thanks alot for what you have provided me with so far...
 
If you're set on painting it sanding is critical. Don't get too aggressive with the belt sander (if you use one). Any waves in the sanding will show up when it's painted. Just take your time and do most of it by hand. Make sure that it's sanded as perfectly as you can, cause it'll make all the difference in the world in your how your finish coat looks. Put on thin coats and sand lightly in between coats then you may want to even put a clear coat on last if you want it to be really glossy.
 
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Joined 2001
Slicemaster:

Called Blaupunkt tech support. The PCwg-120 woofer has .25 inch excursion measured from the center to the front, and .25 inch measured from center to back. This is the way it should be measured, but many speaker companies measure excursion from front-to-back. This yields a figure twice as high.

Blaupunkt, however, measures it the way it should be. It is .25 inch center to front, or .5 inch front-to back.

I Emailed them for some frequency response charts, to to see how high up the frequency scale the subwoofer can be used. You won't need to know this, because you are using it for a subwoofer only. But I will post the response if I receive it, since someone might want to use this as a normal woofer, instead of a subwoofer.
 
If you want to do a glossy finish, use Krylon. I used Rustoleum, and got a can with something wrong (I researched, asked around, checked and rechecked, and yes, it was the paint), so it alligatored up after the sixth coat. So stick with Krylon if you're using spraypaint. Make sure your primer and paint both have the same base, too, or the paint will crinkle.

Use just enough bondo/filler to fill the holes. A huge glob isnt necessary, and it will just make more work later. Also, I would use at LEAST 4 coats of primer. No, this isnt overkill. MDF is VERY porous and soaks up paint, particularly along the cut edges. If these edges look differently than the rest of the enclosure after initial priming, DONT apply any finish coats yet. I assure you, it will look terrible, I found out the hard way some time back...

Also, wet sanding between coats might be useful, and I agree, that for better gloss/protection, use a clear enamel afterwards.

Oh, and you might want to tape off the sides you arent painting while waiting for the others to dry. If not, you get drips; your worst nightmare.
 
ok thanks.....
but what do you mean by the primer must be the same base as the paint?

and what is wet sanding.....
also howmany layers of primer would you put on the sucker if it were your progect....and how many layers on paint.....and howmany layers of enamle?


also what type of primer, paint, and enamle should i use(brand,flat,gloss?,color)?

and how do i wet sand? detailed instructions.....

thanks,
 
As far as crossover setting you'll have to play with that some and see where it sounds best. It'll depend on too many different factors for anyone to accurately say set it to this many Hz. The frequency response of your mains will have a large effect as will sub placement. But Start it right around 80 Hz or so and listen to it at different settings till you find what you consider to be optimal.
 
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