Has anyone made the fiberglass box that is shown in the Tech Articles? I really want to make one, but dont know what materials to buy. How much fiberglass mat is needed? Resin? If anyone has built one, please le tme know how much mat and resin you needed. Thanks!

 

you got a link to that article? I cant find it, but dunno which you are talkin about.....

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For those of you who haven't seen it, here it is:

https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/subwoofer.shtml

 

Anyone?

 

could someone please reply to this topic, im intrested too, ive looked at prices for the fiberglass and its like 10$ a quart
and 5 for a mat.
about how much will be neccesary.
and whats the best way to do this???
Thanx in advance

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Email the author of the tech article. I'm sure he could answer your questions.

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There can be only one!!

 

I did email him on Monday, no reply.

 

hmmm.... has anyone ever done the fiberglass box EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHH????????

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I never received an email from you Scott_92RS, and I'll always reply to email anyone sends me.

I don't know which version of the article you saw, but under Materials in the version put up three days ago, I generalized that you'd need approximately a gallon of resin and 5 or 6 packs of mat (and I should have added that you'd need 1 or 2 packs of cloth as well). If you saw the old one, you may want to review it as I went back over many points that I'd previously missed (e.i. lots of the same questions)

What would you like to know? I'll answer as best as I can.

PS. To everyone who has emailed me asking for dimensions for boxes: I have kept your email addresses and as soon as I finish CADing them, I'll email you a copy.
Meanwhile, there ARE blueprints out there somewhere.. I'm not 100% sure but I think Jim85iroc had some for a real nice one on his site.

 

can you add me to the list of people that you are going to e-mail a CAD copy too?

chris1roc@yahoo.com

thanks
chris

 

I personally have never built a fiber glass box but most of my box that houses my 4 12"'s is fiber glass and hits like a motha. If you guys want I can talk to my installer and see if he can give me some instructions on this. Later

- Mike Harvey -

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It's not me that has the dimensions on my site. it's Mark Lock. His url escapes me right now, but I'm sure somebody here can furnish it. I don't give out my dimensions for a few reasons, but the main reason being that they are not a complete set of dimensions. They are just the numbers I need to make the box. A lot of my cuts are made on the fly and from measurements based on the dimensions of the already-built part of the box.

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how difficult is it really ? Ive never done something like this before and i was wondering if i try itwill it come out looking like shiiii Cause if so ill just buy a prefab box and call it a day...

 

did you fail woodshop class? if so it could be quite difficult. It takes alot of patience.

if you get pissed off and become impatient, take a break and come back to it.. because you'll ruin something.

kev

 

Hey Jza, I've got a question for you on the fiberglass box. How many layers of the cloth does it usually take to make it 3/4"
thick?

 

Umm, no way do you want 3/4" of fiberglass...

A solid built fiberglass enclosure should only need to be about 1/4"-3/8" thick at the most. Fiberglassing in a few wood braces in key points (brace between the two longest runs) will help any flexing issues, but since it is mostly contoured to the well, there will be little flexing anyway.

Put a single layer of dynamat super between the enclosure and the metal when you install it into the car and you should be fine.

It will take approximately 3 layers of good weight mat (1 1/2 to 2oz mat) and I would also add 2 layers of cloth at 45degree angles from each other for final strength.

Or skip a whole bunch of steps and go order some Knytex Biaxial from shopmaninc.com. This stuff is basically Chopped Mat with Cloth stiched to it. The mat portion offers the fast buildup while the cloth portion offers the strength.

You would only need one layer of Knytex and one layer of mat added. The only down side is Knytex is not as workable in tight corners, but just take your time and you'll be fine.

Good luck.

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Carl
CarAudio Resources

 

I use kyntex in my own work, but i would think a well based enclosure would need more then one layer. My 4th gen stealthbox style enclosures use 3 layers of kyntex, but it is much more contored then a 3rd gen well.

Kyntex does rock for sub enclosures, and anything that needs to be extremely strong. Once you use it, you wonder how you ever fiberglassed without it!

mike

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Mike,

You're right for the most part. The reason I said only one layer and then a layer or two of build up of regular mat...(actually in thinking about it after I typed that up last night, it should be 5-6 layers of mat for normal or a layer of knytex and 2-3 layers of mat at the most for the high strength version) if you contour that closely to the well so that there is very little room for flexing and on top of that add a few braces at key points, there really isn't much need for a very thick enclosure.

The only places I would think need to be that much stronger is on the long flat runs, all of the short runs and curved areas will build up to strength quickly. Just remember, bracing is our friend I think you've seen MPipes prove that one with his seat enclosure that he is designing. Wasn't it one layer of knytex that he was standing on after it cured?

I guess the bottom line is, you'll know when it's strong enough.

L8rs


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Carl
CarAudio Resources

 

I've heard they sound like crap/

 

Why would they sound like crap? The only thing that would make them sound like crap would be having too much/too little airspace behind the speaker. By using fiberglass, you will most likely get quite a bit more airspace behind the speaker, so you need to either accomodate for that by fillin up that airspace, or getting speakers made to sound best with that airspace. Flex could also be a problem, but only if you dont brace the structure internally, should be rock solid. I plan on making a fiberglass box someday, but I've been spending too much money on my engine. I wonder how this post was found? I created it back in Oct. of last year!

 

www.sounddomain.com Has some user rides pages and I know of at least one guy that posted up how he built a fiberglass box with pics and everthing. Looks pretty useful, if anyone was still looking to build a fiberglass box. I know I'm still looking for the material to put my 12"'s in. I'll probably end up with MDF though..

 

Buy the resin by the gallon - it's cheaper that way. Also, you can use a layer or 2 of fleece (sweatshirt material) to quickly build up some thickness. Remember to cover anything you don't want to ruin with resin - including your hands (wear latex gloves). Bracing is just as important as in an MDF box. The trickiest part is getting the baffle board attached to the rest of the box - so think about this first. The very first time I ever worked with fiberglass was when I built by fiberglass box for my 91 camaro - its not really very hard if you use your brain - and doesn't require any special (expensive) tools. Give it a try.

 

So where do you get this kyntex? And how do you attach the bracing/baffle board, is there a way to do the baffle board from fiberglass first and then attach it to the box, if so would this have to be thicker than the rest or would 1/4-3/8" be thick enough?

 

You can get kyntex from shopmaninc.com
http://www.shopmaninc.com/specialty.html

It's technically called a biaxial.

You would want to do the baffle out of 1/2-3/4" MDF or even better yet, something like baltic burch that will take well to constant screwing and unscrewing of speakers and not break apart on you down the road. You don't want to build a baffle out of fiberglass. Fiberglass will not hold screws like wood will and you will have a hard time getting a perfectly flat surface to seal the speaker to. Always use wood for mounting if you can and just fiberglass to the wood.

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Carl
CarAudio Resources

 

So one final question, how to do the bracing? I mean: what to use for it, how to attach it, just basically whatever you can tell me. Appreciate all the info guys, thanx!

 

To attach my baffle (there may be a better way) I glassed a wood "frame" into the glass portion of the box then just screwed the baffle to the frame.

You could build in bracing in a similar way. For my divider I glued in a board (I guess you could use foam, or something else) with liquid nails then glassed onto/over it. If you don't want a divided box then build in a divider anyway but cut a big hole in it first. The middle of the box front-to-back and the top of the box (baffle board) are the two areas that need bracing the most.