Thinking up different ways to cover a very large box

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Well I am finalizing my plans now for my next project and have almost all of the dimensions and calculations complete but have come to a stopping point. What to cover the box in? The design is quite different so I want the whole shebang to be different. Something that wouldn't be terribly hard to do and make look nice. Don't get me wrong I don't mind a challenge...

The box is going to be quite large with around 11.5 ft^3 and enough bracing to support the Eiffel Tower :) Rough dimensions are 5 ft tall, 3 ft wide and 3ft deep.

Some of the ideas I have been throwing around:

1) Tile. Slap some tile in a variety of patterns, shapes etc.
2) Wood. Not original in it's own self but I was thinking something more like the look of Plank wood flooring with beveled edges around all of the planks.


Now looking for more ideas...

Ethan
 
Fur! Not only does it look novel, it also feels nice and it can even improve sound quality by reducing diffraction:cool: It comes in just about any colour and pattern, but I have a thing about cows for no good reason...
 

Attachments

  • speakers2.jpg
    speakers2.jpg
    11 KB · Views: 370
You can actually buy sandstone textured paint: http://www.rustoleum.com/Product.asp?frm_product_id=15&SBL=1&dds=22

It might be fun instead to whip up some papier maché and make it look like an Easter Island statue:

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Me? I'd probably be ultra-boring, and throw on some hardwood veneer and stain it to look like rosewood.

Either that, or cover it in tin foil and tell people it was a robot.

Wes
 
I did think about covering it in the faux rock paint, that is what I did with the last one. Last one was 6 ft^3 covered in the granite type. It is really easy to work with because it is so thick you can actually paint straight onto raw MDF without any base coats as this stuff will not absorb.

Under the couch? Naw, my couch moves around too much and I don't want to haul around the box....

Now the Easter Island idea, that may be interesting... but would papier mache hold up to normal abuse? Gosh it's been years since I worked with any of that stuff.

It's not that veneer is boring, I have some great ideas for that too but I don't trust my veneering skills. I don't have any :D I would hate to ruin a lot of veneer by screwing up. It's not a simple square box so it may be a bit of a challenge for a first time veneer newbie.

Thanks for the input guys!!!
 
I haven't done papier maché in a number of years, either. But Monster Garage made a float with a giant Santa out of it, the Santa swung up and down with a hydraulic lift and looked very durable.

They build it on top of a frame made out of steel wire or something. I'll bet Chicken Wire would work well for the form required to make the nose and such. Also, if you painted with truck bedliner (or some black rock paint), it would look a lot like the statue and you'd only need to decorate the front half of the enclosure -- thick enough paint would probably make for a seamless transistion.

If do you this, you are hereby ordered to post photos. I gotta see that. ;)

Wes
 
Well dadgumit.

This whole easter island monoliths, or as I have now found out are called moai, has got me bugged. I have been wrecking my brain to figure out driver placement in such a monstrosity.

And another aside... instead of the papier mache, I also thought about foam. Sculpting foam as they use to make movie sets etc. After all this will be a 15" EBS subwoofer. Eventually dedicated to nothing up to about 80hz max...

Dang, you guys are a bad influence... why do I hang out here??? :D

Actually I am a single man with my own house and I have been looking for a design theme in my living room and this might just push it a certain way...

Keep the ideas coming!

Ethan
 
Fiberglass is indeed good stuff, but I would worry about it affecting the sound significantly if you hide the speakers.

OTOH, if you make the speakers part of the statue (eyes and mouth?), that may not matter nearly as much.

In addition to doing fiberglass sheets over a form (styrofoam), Don't forget that you can build mass with long fiberglass fibers mixed with whatever resin you'll choose. I'm assuming you'd choose polyester resin for this job; if that's the case, you can use Bondo-brand fiber glass filler from the autobody shop for that sort of stuff. Comes already mixed and ready to roll (just add hardner).

Also, if you DO do this in glass, I can provide *some* additional guidance down the line. I've done lots of glass repair work (but no construction).

Wes
 
Well to answer your question about the box size itself, the design that I started off with that I am taking all the measurements from I had done up some small models as shown here:

Original design

That design combined with the matrix type of bracing ends up at about 11.5 ft^3. The box itself as long as I have done the calculations correctly should yield roughly 12.68 ft^3 before factoring in bracing, ports, driver volumes etc. This is by no means a square box I'm starting out with :)
 
I would either hide the box or emphasise it. I'm about to build a subwoofer which is about 100 L (3 ft^3). I'm going to disguise it as a cabinet. Doors and handles are going to be the same as in the real cabins that I have in the room.
If I would wan't to emphasise the box I would probably paint it walldesign style and maybe continue the patterns to the walls:

http://www.walldesign.se/
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.