DIY Flat Panel Speaker Love

[benjicon]

Coating the whole panel of XPS will not only add some weight to it but dampen the panel reducing volume out put and sound quality....unless you can dilute the epoxy to where its similar to the 50/50 water glue mixture....That would probably require some type of thinner like acetone or laquer but those type of solvents do not do well on polystyrene due to there corrosive properties.

Thanks for the suggestions and nuggets of knowledge. There is a new type of resin available called "Art Resin" very low toxicity and easy to work with. I can thin it out by placing each of the parts (2 part epoxy) in a hot water bath which will reduce the viscosity of the combined solution. I don't know yet if it will match the viscosity of a 50/50 wood glue solution.. I'll be sure to share the results.

[dawnut]

Acoustic guitars, awesome. I thought of that too. Glad someone did it. Guitars should be roughly same range as human voice. Interesting.

Trying to get the whole setup together pairing them with a small sub, when done I'll dig out a couple of my mic's and try to capture some decent sound video of them to share.

[Roadsterdriver]

Acoustic guitars, awesome. I thought of that too. Glad someone did it. Guitars should be roughly same range as human voice. Interesting.

[Roadsterdriver]

My designs are basically a modified version of Bertagni loudspeakers....Standard Design foundation would require a frame that would hold the diaphragm material in place with a spline to hold the exciter magnet in place as one unit like a conventional speaker basket similar to a BMR driver.

Material of choice is High density (EPS) Expanded Polystyrene. Preferred thickness 1/2-1/4 inch.....size ideal around 20-24inch X 16-18inch.

Frost King rubber foam to attach diapharam material to frame.

Oh, thin material...interesting design.

Do do you have any pics

[dawnut]

Love this thread.. SOOO much to digest.

Do you know if anyone has tried coating XPS panels in a thin layer of epoxy resin ? If I had to guess this might add a little more weight to the panel, but 'm curious if its a viable option. I am an artist and considering putting artwork directly on the XPS panel, if its been tried with no success I'll reconsider my options. If no ones tried I'll roll my sleeves up and have a go.

An alternative could be a water based rattle can spray paint. I know Krylon makes a water based spray paint just for plastics that you could give a thin even base coat with. They also make a primer just for foam products. https://www.krylon.com/products/craft-foam-primer/ That might be a viable alternative to the glue/water mix.. they also make a spray gesso https://www.krylon.com/products/gesso-spray/ . One of the nice things about working with the XPS panels are that they are inexpensive enough to experiment with. Grab a 4'x8' piece cut up some panels and go for it. I used regular spray paint on one of my experiments but you must keep the can a good ways away from the panel and use very light coats or the solvents will eat into the XPS.