Alternative enclosure material

[robwest]

If you check out the bench the skaters go to after finishing (hug and cry zone) it looks like inch or inch and a quarter plexi. My aunt bought, in the early '70s, a plexi coffee and a few side tables made of it. Wonder how pricey that stuff would be...

[johnnyrichards]

These guys are selling 1.5" thick 48x120 sheets for, oh... 4,368 dollars and 32 cents. You can save a few pennies by purchasing the 1" thick material in a 48x96 sheet. Only a cool grand for that one.

Maybe for smaller speakers, like a 4" two-way, you could get away with buying a sheet of 3/4" in a 48x48 sheet.

This stuff ain't cheap and I am unimpressed with it's stiffness. Granted, all I have ever worked with is thicknesses up to 1/2", (making safety covers and other odds and ends for machines), so stepping up to the 3/4" might bring some resistance to flex. I dunno.

Buy a sheet of the 1.5" and let us know

[robwest]

I was thinking it might be 3 to 4 hundred a sheet, didn't guess it was that high. Probably why you don't see much of it around. There isn't that much raw material to make it that expensive. Must be the processing... think I'll grab a pallet of that 1.5" with some pocket change...(smart alek!)

[Deward Hastings]

Grab the aftermarket intake manifold off your old 400 Hemi (you're never going to drive it again anyway), melt it down, make some molds, and pour yourself some Aluminum enclosures. Make the plug(s) with petrobond and you can cast in any ribbing you want . . . a single wood mold for the outside will probably hold up for a couple pours . . .

If you don't have a junk Hemi then get a couple old Volkswagon blocks . . .

[Chimpkin]

Acrylic amazes me. It seems so flimsy when you just have a thin sheet in your hands but think about large public aquariums. Usually the tunnels you walk under are only 1.5" thick and they are holding back tons of water.

I have a buddy who has a 90 gallon acrylic tank and it's 3/8". That's appx. 750 pounds of water. You do see acrylic used for some subwoofer boxes. Usually in car audio. Cool material.

[sonofagun]

Try here:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/ite...3554&catid=442

You can get acrylic in cut to size pieces.

[robwest]

Try here:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/ite...3554&catid=442

You can get acrylic in cut to size pieces.

Great link, thanks! And their prices aren't prohibitively high. Something to think about...

[johnnyrichards]

I see the one site has Plexiglas tubing up to 8" diameter, hmm....

[MusicForMatt]

These guys are selling 1.5" thick 48x120 sheets for, oh... 4,368 dollars and 32 cents. You can save a few pennies by purchasing the 1" thick material in a 48x96 sheet. Only a cool grand for that one.

Imagine how much money Scotty and Bones DIDN'T have to part with in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" to get 60' x 10' x 6 inches! "Transparent Aluminum??"

[sonofagun]

That was only a movie - it wasn't real.

[evilskillit]

Here ya go.

[DS-21]

The problem with clear plexi is that you can't put any acoustical material inside the cabinet without ruining the effect, so those boxes are going to be bigger and more echo-y than they have to be.

I'll take fidelity over being able to see my wires and the back of my drivers, personally.

[JRT]

Here ya go.

The green color on edge makes me suspect that the upper one may be glass rather than Acrylic. Note the clear color, the lack of color, in the lower picture.


edit: The text that went with the picture clearly states that those loudspeaker enclosures in the top picture are "made of glass, not plexiglass" (sic), aka Plexiglas® which is Acrylic.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives...t8s_glass.html






.

[evilskillit]

The text that went with the picture clearly states that those loudspeaker enclosures in the top picture are "made of glass, not plexiglass" (sic), aka Plexiglas® which is Acrylic.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives...t8s_glass.html

Ahh i just did a google image search. I didnt actually look at the page. Good eye.

[WWWJD]

Here's another source I used for a recent non-speaker related project:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#acrylic-sheets/=60oo3h

the link is for 1", but they sell just about everything. Just look at what you can do to a perfectly good fan with the stuff!

[MusicForMatt]

That was only a movie - it wasn't real.

--Lieutenant Dan to Forrest, upon the latter's reminder that the former has no legs-- thus no "sea legs", "Yes, I knowthat."

All in fun!