- Enclosure Construction & Assembly -
Not to make light of the woodworking aspects of this project,
but this subwoofer enclosure was honestly one of the
easiest cabinets I've built in a long time. Of course, it may
have something to do with the fact that I only had to build
one (aren't subwoofers and center channels great!), and
that since this is designed to go under furniture there was
no tricky veneering or finishing. I opted to wrap the finished
cabinet with a marine vinyl that I picked up at a local fabric
store. Since this is designed to be a hidden speaker, raw
MDF, spray paint, or rolled on paint would definitely suffice!
Part of the simplicity of the design was that the
majority of the cuts for this cabinet were 3-1/2"
wide strips of MDF that I cut on my table saw.
As long as you set your fence once and make all
of your rips at the same time, the cabinet should
turn out near perfect- regardless of whether
your fence is off by a smidgen. The strips were
later cut to length on a miter saw, ensuring accurate and
square cuts.
The main top and bottom panels of the cabinet were simple
24" by 36" rectangles cut from 3/4" MDF. I will admit that I
cheated a bit on this part, and just bought two 2' x 4' MDF
"handy panels" and made one cut to get them down to size.
I don't necessarily trust the width of these pre-cut sheets;
but as long as you are smart about it and aware of their
potential inaccuracy, it is easy to correct for by adjusting
the length of your other dimensions. OK, I might as well
take this opportunity to admit that I am lazy when it comes
to cutting down full sheets of MDF, and I will look for any
opportunity to avoid doing so!
The only portion of the construction that was somewhat
more involved was creating the driver and amplifier cutouts.
The woofer cutouts were no big deal, and could be made
with either a circle jig or a sabre saw. I chose to recess the
frames ever so slightly for more floor clearance and for the
cosmetics of it, but it is not necessary. In fact, be careful
not to recess by more than about 1/8" or so, or else you
will infringe on your clearance behind the woofers.
The amplifier mounting recess was created by cutting a
through-hole to fit around the amplifier in the outer panel,
with a second piece of 3/4" MDF behind that cut to the
"normal" size for the plate amp.
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