fibreglass Sub box in process

[HOLEIN1]

How thick should the fibreglass and MDF be? I'm thinking of doing this myself one day too, this being inspiration

id say make your baffle out of some 16mm MDF just to be on the safe side, 12 mm just seems too thin to me

had alot of experience with this sort of thing and have found that 16mm is the way to go or even thicker (sandwich two sheets together with liquid nails) depending on what sort of power you are dealing with... the thickness in the fibreglass section you have made is not as critical however as its curves lead to a majority of its strength...

your fibreglass section looks fine, although its a little thin in some places, however again it depends on what sort of power you are going to be running...

keep it up, will look great when its finished

[Soundofav6]

id say make your baffle out of some 16mm MDF just to be on the safe side, 12 mm just seems too thin to me

had alot of experience with this sort of thing and have found that 16mm is the way to go or even thicker (sandwich two sheets together with liquid nails) depending on what sort of power you are dealing with... the thickness in the fibreglass section you have made is not as critical however as its curves lead to a majority of its strength...

your fibreglass section looks fine, although its a little thin in some places, however again it depends on what sort of power you are going to be running...

keep it up, will look great when its finished

Thanks mate.. I did a water test. it was leaking in some places, seeping water though infact, does it matter ??. I was aiming to have 4 layers of fibre glass perhaps I will have 1 layer just to be save.

Thanks for the tip, I may put 2 layers of MDF, just had an epiphany, everythign is making sense !!!

What i liquad nail ? would that be glue

[HOLEIN1]

Thanks mate.. I did a water test. it was leaking in some places, seeping water though infact, does it matter ??. I was aiming to have 4 layers of fibre glass perhaps I will have 1 layer just to be save.

Thanks for the tip, I may put 2 layers of MDF, just had an epiphany, everythign is making sense !!!

What i liquad nail ? would that be glue

quick answer, yes. water leaking out of the mould is definitely what you dont want. if you leave it like that your sub will sound terreble and you will b3e hating yourself for wasting the time, effort and money in the project. i had a look at your pics again and there seems to be some large air pockets underneath the fibreglass which diminishes its overall strength considerably and further affects the sound.

not all is lost though as you have made a good start, if i were you i would put some more layers on it to both seal up the holes and to fix any possible strength issues wich will ultimately ruin the end result.

when you add some more layers try not to overkill the catalyst as this will give you some more 'work time' and allow you to get rid of any air bubbles. i also noticed that you havent been using enough resin as you can still see the matting fibres clearly. good way to avoid this is to slap on a layer of resin, throw down your matting and then another coating of resin, and so on. to remove any air bubbles i usually wait a few minutes untill the matt/resin combination goes soggy (you will see that the matting fibres go transparent) and then 'dab' at the air pockets to get the air out. with fibreglass the strength comes from the resin, with the matting acting as a reinfocement (to a certain extent)

id also watch catalyst levels to minimise the chance of the mould warping. my general rule is if its still stinks badly you run the risk of the fresh resin reacting with the old surface and causing it to lose its shape slightly. same can happen if you dont have enough resin and have to wait hours or even days for it to cure. its all trial and error, but perhaps put the mould back in the car to minimise the chance of this happening

yes liquid nails is a form of glue, looks like a brown mess and you can get it in either a handy tube or a caulking gun size (works out much cheaper this way). its great stuff, and sticks to MDF like ****e to blanket!

be proud of your efforts so far as fibreglassing takes some getting used to, and with a little more work im sure you will be impressed with the reults

what sort of sub/power combo are you planning to install, that may help others to steer you in the right direction...

keep up the good work

[Soundofav6]

HOLEIN1
Thanks heaps of your input. I kinda jumped into the project with out much facts only knowing it is enough volume running the sub and "how hard can fibre glassing be? " also only relied on a simple DIY on the web. I was so wrong.

2 ultimate questions

1. I understand what you mean about not enough resin, I only got the hang of resin : catalyst at the end. Do you think I should slap 2 more layers of fibre glass to cover up the flaws ?

2. So essentically the strength of the base and water leaks are most critical ? In this case, should I redo the base as to my flawed handywork? If I was to redo the base should I use MDF or stay with fibreglass if time & material is not a constraint?

For the power I am running is not much from what I was told, honestly I am not sure the specs actually works. I only know it is more than enough for my personal pleasure.

MY current set up.
Front speakers from Amp
Rear spreakers from head unit.
The Sub is bridged, running off the Amp.

The specs from what I know..

Amp 200W
10" Subwoofer 150W

[ScienceVR6]

I wouldn't bother using two layers of MDF, i'd just get some 18mm sheet. It's the minimum i'll make a box out of.

[HOLEIN1]

I wouldn't bother using two layers of MDF, i'd just get some 18mm sheet. It's the minimum i'll make a box out of.

sorry i wasnt clear when i made that point was i was at work and was in a rush yher as Sciencevr6 has said its much easier to use just a single sheet of 16-18mm Mdf rather than sticking two thinner peices together. what o originally meant was to use this method with two thick peices if he was running a much higher powered sub

Thanks heaps of your input. I kinda jumped into the project with out much facts only knowing it is enough volume running the sub and "how hard can fibre glassing be? " also only relied on a simple DIY on the web. I was so wrong.

2 ultimate questions

1. I understand what you mean about not enough resin, I only got the hang of resin : catalyst at the end. Do you think I should slap 2 more layers of fibre glass to cover up the flaws ?

2. So essentically the strength of the base and water leaks are most critical ? In this case, should I redo the base as to my flawed handywork? If I was to redo the base should I use MDF or stay with fibreglass if time & material is not a constraint?

For the power I am running is not much from what I was told, honestly I am not sure the specs actually works. I only know it is more than enough for my personal pleasure.

1) yes you will definitely need to seal up those holes, and fibreglassing them would be the way to go. not only will this seal them up but also provide more strength to the enclosure. you may want to add more than just two, however its hard to see from the pics you have posted up and depends on whether your box is flexing. two should be enough for your needs, but you may want to add few more for good measure while you got the glassing materials out

2) Im not sure what you mean by the 'base', do you mean the baffle which is basically the bit that you secre the sub into, or the actual bottom of the enclosure? if its the latter, i dont see any need to as you have already got most of the glassing done. if you are talking about the frontal side which the sub is screwed into it depends what sort of look you are after. if you use MDF you will end up with a flat faced box. another option would be to cut just a ring out, dummy it up into the position that you want, cover this with some stretchy material, and the glass over the top. this is more work, but gives you the opportunity to angle the sub slightly and a bit mmore bling.

have a look at this link, gives you more of an idea what im talking about...

http://www.girlsnmotors.co.uk/car-mo...s-sub-box.html

just an idea

[Soundofav6]

The base as in this, because it has 2 bubbles, should I cut it out and redo it with MDF or Fibreglass again? Should I bother ??


Also thanks for the DIY always wanted know how they make those shape.

[rayray086]

It looks very neat Louis!

[HOLEIN1]

The base as in this, because it has 2 bubbles, should I cut it out and redo it with MDF or Fibreglass again? Should I bother ??

no i wouldnt bother, its not that bad and the fibreglass will fit to the car better than just a flat section of mdf, just slap a few more layers on and seal up those holes

[Soundofav6]

no i wouldnt bother, its not that bad and the fibreglass will fit to the car better than just a flat section of mdf, just slap a few more layers on and seal up those holes

Thanks mate. just slaped 2 more layers on, took your advise and used minimal catalyst and soaked fibre glass in resin before wackin' it on, now and there were are no more holes, much more easier to work around with

Managed to make the frontal part yesterday. Took me a while to figure "how to get started. I founds a massive piece of sylvine. Just prefect for the job as it can be easily carved out and strong enough to stand also use as a templet for the MDF.

Pics update.