junkyardjeep

whats the best wood to use when building speaker boxes?

xj_maniac_newb

Use MDF, not sure on its cost tho..

no rdplz

x2 on the MDF. It's about $30 for a 4'x8' sheet of 3/4" I used glue and wood pegs (srcews can rip out of the stuff easily) on the last box I made. Make sure you resin it though, cuz any moisture will expand it quickly.

LongArmXJ

MDF for sure. Lowes or Home Depot!

junkyardjeep

Ok mdf it is. What's preferred size? 1/2 5/8 3/4?

LongArmXJ

3/4 for 12s/15s is what i use

96twiggyxj

Balsa wood is cheap and light. . Ha

no rdplz

I used 3/4". Make sure you know before hand whether you want to port it or keep it sealed. Sealed boxes can be smaller (which is nice for XJ's) and give a crisper sound while a ported box needs to be larger and gives a louder, heavier sound. if you plan to do a ported box, make sure you research sub frequency/port size specs before building it.

Mlcantin

MDF. Sturdiest you can get and reproduces sound very well

F1Addict

Depending on the application, I use 3/4" or 1" ULMDF (the "UL" part stands for ultra-light). It's less prone to splitting and weighs in at about 1/3 standard MDF. Make sure to pre-drill all screw holes and keep them in the exact center of the end grain of the piece being attached to prevent bulging or splitout when you drive the screw. ULMDF has other advantages... it's easier to cut and is less taxing on saw blades, it's slightly less likely to feather when painted or primed, it's easier to cut complex shapes with a jig saw because the wood doesn't offer as much resistance as conventional MDF. The drawbacks are that it's more expensive and slightly less rigid compared to MDF. As far as the rigidity goes, I've noticed no difference in sound quality or durability between the two. I recommend using 2 inch screws every four inches on 3/4" material.

I also recommend using a strong, wood glue like Gorilla (urethane based) or Titebond III (water based). Both of those will create a bonding joint stronger than the wood, itself (meaning that if you were to apply pressure to the joint, the wood would break before the glue joint).


Made entirely of 3/4 ULMDF

junkyardjeep

Ok so here's my plans. I wanna put a guitar amp/speaker combo in the chubby hole. Im gonna remove speaker and amp from original box. Speaker box has to hold 8" speaker and amp will fit right above. Tomorrow im gonna dig in and start a build thread for it. For now here's a pic of donor amp im gonna be working with.

F1Addict

Speakers from instrument amps aren't the best solution but they'll obviously work. Just don't expect the same low-frequency response you'd get from a dedicated sub. Will the amp run on 12v? Something else to think about. You might be better putting that box on craigslist and using the money to buy an automotive sub and amp.

junkyardjeep

Sorry for the confusion. the guitar amp combo wont be ran through my stock audio system. Im gonna run a power inverter to power it and it will be used to play guitar only for when I go camping and stuff.

96twiggyxj

Kumbaya?

junkyardjeep

You got it.