Bones526

Hey, i'm going to be building a sub enclosure for two 12" subs. It will be a simple rectangular box without any funny angles, and with both subs facing straight out one side facing the back of the car. I'd like to build this box completely out of plexiglass, so that you can see straight through the whole box, and see the rear of the woofers, etc.

If anyone has any experience working with plexiglass or building sub boxes out of it, i'd really appreciate any advice i can get. I'd like to know of any acoustic differences between plexiglass and regular particle board set-ups. I don't really have any idea about the cost of building this thing either, other than i know it is more expensive than traditional carpeted wood boxes.

I'm sure some would say that it isn't worth the trouble to pay more for plexiglass and go through more trouble to build it, but my plan is to get a nice big neon tube wired thru the amp or sound activated, and placed either behind or inside the sub box so that i get a nice fluctuating and refracting light effect with my music, and to me that would be worth a little extra work and $.

Thanks!

Bones526

I haven't seen any plexiglass enclosures for sale, except for some that have a plexiglass front window or something, but none that are completely plexiglass. If you know where i could get one, by all means drop a link.

Saucy

http://invisibleenclosures.com/


there ya go

Bones526

Wow! These are exactly what i had in mind. Thanks!

eltonr

build it out of Lexan (polycarbonate) Plexiglass cracks easier. You don't need any special tools to drill holes in Lexan either.

Bones526

My dad suggested lexan. Any idea how much it costs?


Also, does anyone have any idea about the sound qualities of these "nontraditional" materials? I want this thing to look good, but if it ***** up my sound then i'll just make it out of MDF.

eltonr

lexan is considerably more expensive then acrylic....but it has a superiour impact strength..you will probably also find that cutting it is easier then acrylic (because i think acrylic has a tendancy to crack when yoru cutting it, if your not careful). Not sure how the acoustic characterists are like but I suspect if you pick a rather thick material it might preform better....but that's just a gut feeling.

Bones526

Yeah, as a rule thicker is better with sub enclosures, and lexan is sounding better in all respects right now. Would i be able to get that at a hardware store like home depot or lowe's?

eltonr

No i doubt you can buy it from a hardware store you need to try a plastic supplier. look in the phonebook for a plastic "extruder" most of these sheets are extruded.

Bones526

What exactly does extruded mean? I know it's a biased source, but this invisibleenclosures.com site implies that extruded=crappy.

Sorry if that is retarded, but i know nothing about this yet and that is my only source of info so far.

eltonr

Well I don't know any other method they use to make sheet like that.......i guess they could use pulltrusion......but extrusion is the main method....Most lexan sheet that I know of is extruded......I would think that they extrude acrylic to form it into sheet as well........you could injection mold large sheets but that woudln't make sense since the size of the mold would control the size of sheet you could have.....with extursion you can make any size you wanted.

oh yeah i never really answered your question exturstion is just a method of forming plastic where the resin is heated and forced through a die.

Bones526

Well i don't know why invisibleenclosures.com says that it's a bad thing.


It's probably just

ES2.0GT

If i was selling acrylic i'd say extruded was crap too, makes sense really