Now hear this :
Students developed and presented to me a method to produce a speaker enclosure made of cement concrete beton or any other similar stone material .
The advantage of the method is that the enclosure is to be made one off That will mean no joints , no glue , no any other form of connection between sides Just solid stone .
---Inner and outer dimensions can be made accurate ( CNC level )
---Thickness of the material will be also accurate and same thick allover while even distribution and internal structure of the material will be achieved through high pitch vibrations
---Inner construction can be made with curved or shaped corners at any style
---when the enclosure is ready all drills and cut outs will be pre made and you will just have to screw units on and test
---style of the enclosure can vary and also face can be given any shape rounded Focal style or so .
Guys got me convinced that the method is accurate and also the procedure is really one off so really no screw ,no glue , or any other form of joint for the enclosure .
Question will be anybody things that this will worth spending some time on ?
Do we expect an enclosure made like that to have some advantages next to an enclosure made of wood or mdf ?
Kind regards
Sakis
Students developed and presented to me a method to produce a speaker enclosure made of cement concrete beton or any other similar stone material .
The advantage of the method is that the enclosure is to be made one off That will mean no joints , no glue , no any other form of connection between sides Just solid stone .
---Inner and outer dimensions can be made accurate ( CNC level )
---Thickness of the material will be also accurate and same thick allover while even distribution and internal structure of the material will be achieved through high pitch vibrations
---Inner construction can be made with curved or shaped corners at any style
---when the enclosure is ready all drills and cut outs will be pre made and you will just have to screw units on and test
---style of the enclosure can vary and also face can be given any shape rounded Focal style or so .
Guys got me convinced that the method is accurate and also the procedure is really one off so really no screw ,no glue , or any other form of joint for the enclosure .
Question will be anybody things that this will worth spending some time on ?
Do we expect an enclosure made like that to have some advantages next to an enclosure made of wood or mdf ?
Kind regards
Sakis
I once was tinkering with such ideas as well. The idea was to use a moulding whose inner core is amde out of styrofoam and that will have to be removed as soon as the concrete is solidified.
The advantage would be that it can be easier to build rock-solif enclosures with almost any shape desired.
Regards
Charles
The advantage would be that it can be easier to build rock-solif enclosures with almost any shape desired.
Regards
Charles
Some of the issues with cabinets involve the walls flexing in the normal expected way. Some of the issue though is where the walls vibrate due to contact with the driver frame. This is usually at a higher frequency making it potentially more audible.
A stone cabinet will typically ring at higher frequencies than wood. It should be possible to build a good cabinet either way but I think it is easier to build a good cabinet using wood. (FWIW, I have done both)
A stone cabinet will typically ring at higher frequencies than wood. It should be possible to build a good cabinet either way but I think it is easier to build a good cabinet using wood. (FWIW, I have done both)
Sand is known to be a good material to incorporate into a cabinet. I don't know whether the benefits will be there just by including more sand in the concrete but I think that what you use in the mix should be thought out for a more damped cabinet.
If I were to do it again, I'd probably include a decoupled wooden front baffle on the concrete enclosure.
If I were to do it again, I'd probably include a decoupled wooden front baffle on the concrete enclosure.
Once cast into a solid form which is normal when mixing sand the difference in the dampening is moot. Sand mixed into cement results in a type of portland cement. Now I have seen styrofoan beads mixed that reduce the overall mass. Makes for a nice park bench, far easier to move. If we were to use a pelletized viscoelastic foam perhaps we could have the best of both worlds. Lower mass (easier to move) internal dampening and rigidity.
perhaps for 'ordinary' concrete...
exactly my thinking. Ground rubber? Read that in a thread here a long while back. Glass 'bubbles'? Many options here. However, i was thinking of skinning the internal faces with something that performs WELL under tension (instead of or in addition to loading the concrete mix)
Glass beads = (some types of) Micro Balloons which I use for reducing the weight of epoxy in R/C aircraft. Would require alot! Have a bottle here, measured by volume, the container weighs far more than the contents. We used micro balloons to measure the depth of draw when manufacturing experimental aircraft canopies. Our biggest issue was dust or bugs landing on the still hot plastic (Rome & Haas) causing a pimple, which grossly exaggerates the optical deformation of the material. Micro balloons have such a low mass that we could pour a tiny amount on the hot plastic for an accurate measure eg know when to turn off the vacuum pump for a proper shape without deformation.
Other types are made from resins like epoxy.
Pour some in your hand and you cannot detect it's mass.
Is this really what is happening? I've seen data suggesting that a speaker enclosure doesn't vibrate at frequencies of the panel resonances but at modal frequencies of the enclosed air volume.
I've been wondering about using 1/2" thick curved cement walls, fastening the front and back baffles with threaded rods and covering all surfaces under tension with a couple of layers of mesh fiberglass and resin, perhaps the same for surfaces under compression too. Maybe add some kind of damping layer to the inside as well.
I'm thinking that should take care of cracking and resonance problems nicely. Guess it's going to be a lot of work though but I don't have access to power tools any more nor a place to use them and I'm just thinking small speakers for right now anyways.
I'm thinking that should take care of cracking and resonance problems nicely. Guess it's going to be a lot of work though but I don't have access to power tools any more nor a place to use them and I'm just thinking small speakers for right now anyways.
JReave, you were thinking the same as me
That's interesting.
I've never mixed up a batch of cement in my life so I have some experimenting to do. Again, no access to wood so I'm thinking of doing the framing/molds in foamcore boards.
Maybe I'll start a thread when I get started.
Cheers
My sister had her house exterior refinished and they shaped styrofoam panels that were glued and screwed in place then they sprayed the entire surface with what they called a latex modified stucco. Looked amazing and might be an easy way to make a speaker box.
They also had the driveway done with "patterned concrete" which they said was latex modified concrete and when finished was molded to look like a natural flag stone driveway.
This is one company that makes the products to do what I described, QUIKRETE® - Alphabetical List of Products
To mount speakers to concrete you can make a pattern out of wood, just use clean and smooth wood that has been waxed and it can be removed from set concrete, the pattern can also set T nuts or inserts to mount your speakers.
They also had the driveway done with "patterned concrete" which they said was latex modified concrete and when finished was molded to look like a natural flag stone driveway.
This is one company that makes the products to do what I described, QUIKRETE® - Alphabetical List of Products
To mount speakers to concrete you can make a pattern out of wood, just use clean and smooth wood that has been waxed and it can be removed from set concrete, the pattern can also set T nuts or inserts to mount your speakers.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.