Best material for battens?

I am working on a diy speaker and want to make the back removable. My plan is to have a .75"x.75" batten to screw the back panel into.

What is a good type of wood for this application? I happen to have oak, poplar maple and pine on hand. Our I could use baltic birch scraps of which the cabinet is made of.

Any opinions? I first thought the oak would hold the screws well but oak appears to be quite porous and maybe not the best for a airtight seal. I will most likely use a foam gasket.
 
Battens can comprise of either pine or hard woods

I suppose it's a just matter of drilling the appropriate diameter pilot holes for the screws.

The sealing is taken care of by the foam strip, I don't see the type of wood being a problem in this respect.
 
+1 on Cal's comments. I've built more than a couple of enclosures requiring backs to be removable and would also suggest using a contiguous strip of PSA backed closed celll weather strip foam as gasket. If aesthetics require back to be perfectly flush when installed, then you'll need to experiment a bit with exact of recess of the fixed batten / ledger strips - if not, then just go total honey badger and don't give a shirt.
 
+1 on Cal's comments. I've built more than a couple of enclosures requiring backs to be removable and would also suggest using a contiguous strip of PSA backed closed celll weather strip foam as gasket. If aesthetics require back to be perfectly flush when installed, then you'll need to experiment a bit with exact of recess of the fixed batten / ledger strips - if not, then just go total honey badger and don't give a shirt.

Chris, for me a removable back automatically means incorporating a gasket. Thank you for the reminder that this sort of thing is learned and shouldn’t be assumed as common knowledge given the varying levels of expertise here in the forum. Kudos! :cheers: