I purchased a nice pair of 21" subs and I would like to put them to use. Unfortunately pretty much every high-quality cab I can find is physically too small, meaning narrower than the driver itself, which has a frame OD of around 21.5". If I want to go vented the cabs would be huge, so I may just opt for sealed. Even so that would have to be at least 8cuft if possible.
What are my options for ready-to-build cabs, if anything, or should I just build the pair from scratch myself. Did I mention I am a terrible woodworker? These will be going in my living room, so they need to have a relatively nice appearance.
I live in southern Michigan, so if there is anyone within a few hours of here that can build something for me I would love to hear about it. I am open to all ideas at this point. Thanks.
-Charlie
What are my options for ready-to-build cabs, if anything, or should I just build the pair from scratch myself. Did I mention I am a terrible woodworker? These will be going in my living room, so they need to have a relatively nice appearance.
I live in southern Michigan, so if there is anyone within a few hours of here that can build something for me I would love to hear about it. I am open to all ideas at this point. Thanks.
-Charlie
I'm sure you can design what you need. So take that to a local kitchen maker that has a large saw table and have them cut it up for you. I used to do this all the time at the local kitchen place and a couple of sheets was about $A50 plus the wood.
I tried to do that a couple of years ago and the result was a little disappointing. As long as I wanted what was essentially a kitchen cabinet made with kitchen cabinet plywood and with a kitchen cabinet door screwed on it, they were happy to take my money. Otherwise there was no interest in a custom design. Bracing? Double thickness front baffle? fuggetaboutit.
Because of the size, the assembled thing will weight a ton and will not be all that "transportable". So I probably have to assemble it in place and make it myself. I can assemble finished panels into a rectangular box of some kind, and can cut the thru hole with a jig, so I am realizing that this will probably be up to me and my two left thumbs to pull off.
Because of the size, the assembled thing will weight a ton and will not be all that "transportable". So I probably have to assemble it in place and make it myself. I can assemble finished panels into a rectangular box of some kind, and can cut the thru hole with a jig, so I am realizing that this will probably be up to me and my two left thumbs to pull off.
I never said for you to get them to make it, just use their facilities to make accurate cuts for large panels. You turn up with a cut sheet and leave with a pickup full of pieces of timber. I made 4 LABhorns this way. The guy thought I was strange for wanting all these weird shaped panels cut with all sorts of angles on them, until I used the PA for an event and I showed some construction pics.
After that I made a whole bunch of other speakers the same way, more conventional type boxes and they went together easily, far, far better than me trying to cut them on sawhorses in the driveway on my own.
I'm moving back to that town soon and plan to do the same as I scrapped all the rough unfinished mdf boxes I used here. When the CNC arrives, if it does, I'll simply rough cut to size and let the machine do as much of the work as possible. My new subs will also be large, about 300L/10.6cf net internal and there are to be 4 of them. I'll assemble in the living room.
After that I made a whole bunch of other speakers the same way, more conventional type boxes and they went together easily, far, far better than me trying to cut them on sawhorses in the driveway on my own.
I'm moving back to that town soon and plan to do the same as I scrapped all the rough unfinished mdf boxes I used here. When the CNC arrives, if it does, I'll simply rough cut to size and let the machine do as much of the work as possible. My new subs will also be large, about 300L/10.6cf net internal and there are to be 4 of them. I'll assemble in the living room.
Ah, OK, I missed that. I see what you mean now.
If I end up making something myself I'm considering building something that uses the 2x4 foot panel as a building block. I can use four of those to create the sides, and then half panels for the ends. Add a little internal bracing and you have a basic big box on the order of 2x2x4' = 16CUFT minus bracing, wall thickness and driver cone volume that will come down a few cuft, so maybe 14 CUFT net. Would be a perfect size. I would just mount the driver in one of the ends I guess. I should be able to pull that off and as long as I use panels that have a nice surface I can finish them with something basic like wipe on poly. The particular install location would only have two of the 2x4' sides visible (the other two are hidden against a wall in a nook) and the top will also not be visible. So I can just make sure those two sides will look good and that should be good enough.