Bigpete123

Nah, I actually think I'm going to get a small truck. Woodworking has become a big hobby for me so being able to pick stuff up at the hardwood supplier easily would be nice. I bought a 2005 BMW 3 series wagon a few months back, so the MB has become the secondary car (and is hardly driven). It has 210k miles on it and is 20 years old, so like any car that age, things just start failing. But the parts and labor are super expensive... The car's only worth like $2,500, so there's a point when I just have to let it go. I've put way too much money into this car already, and if I were to get into even a small accident the car would be totaled and I'd lose a lot of money.

Hi Everyone. It has been a while since I've posted here... You may (or may not) remember my build log (start on page 5ish) The old Mercedes has reached a point where I need to sell it. It's sad after all of the work I've done, but it's getting too expensive to maintain. I spent a lot of money on the audio gear in that car, and I'm sure I won't get anything near its value when I sell it. So my current plan is to remove the audio gear and replace it with inexpensive stuff. I don't have a car to transplant the gear into, so I was thinking that maybe I could make a nice little stereo for my woodshop using my 3 way front speakers, my sub in a new sealed enclosure, and my JL Audio 500/5 Amp. I've never done anything like this before. My question is how to convert 12v DC power to 120v AC power while meeting the amperage requirements of the amplifier. In the car installation, the amp requires a 50 amp fuse. I'm not knowledgeable when it comes to electricity, so I don't know how to determine the equivalent amperage requirement in a 120v AC configuration. Is it still 50 amps, or does that value change when you go from 12v to 120v? I know that amperage drops by half when you double voltage (from light experience wiring my woodshop with 120v and 240v breakers/etc), but I don't know how AC vs DC plays into it. Has anybody done this before? Can you point me to a good power converter that will work in my situation? Thanks! Peter

Good luck with the sale. Yeah, I think you're both right. I guess I could just sell the HU and the amp and get a cheap 2ch receiver and Dayton sub amp. It's going in a woodshop so it's not worth spending much money on since I'll be wearing ear protection much of the time I'm out there anyway!

Awesome project. If I might throw in my $.02 on your sub box. The bracing looks really good and the joints in those braces are seamless. My concern is that you have glued the end grain of the dowels to the sides of the box. The end grain never forms a good glue bond because it soaks up the glue, so typically you would want to reinforce those joints. This issue is made even more critical in this application because those huge subs are going to be pushing the sides of your box outwards when they hit, potentially pulling those joints apart. I think you've done the right thing by reinforcing with fiberglass, but you may want to get creative with using some L-brackets and screws or something. At the very least, I'd recommend a few more coats of FG at all dowel intersections. I'm not pro on bracing at all. I run an infinite baffle setup in my system. But I do a lot of woodworking and I've had a lot of end-grain butt joints fail on me! I'd hate for you to have to pull your setup out and redo all of that fancy bracing because your subs pushed those joints apart. Again, great looking project. I love the baltic birch. You should stain it and do a gloss finish with some edge-banding where the plywood end grain shows. Maybe a dark gray stain with a high gloss finish??

great woodwork! I agree with another poster. The first enclosure looked really good with the natural plywood! Could've been a great candidate for a nice stain and high gloss finish!!

Guys, I have a really dumb question that I'm a little embarrassed to ask. I'm in the planning phase of doing a sealed fiberglass sub enclosure for a friend. My personal sub setup is infinite baffle. I did one sealed enclosure like 5 years ago and have since forgotten the answer to this question. When the sub manufacturer gives you the cubic footage for a sealed enclosure (in this case, .75 cu ft), does this INCLUDE or EXCLUDE the displacement of the sub itself? In other words, do I need to add to the .75 to allow for the space taken up by the magnet/etc, or do I simply make a box that has .75 cu ft of air space? If the answer is that I have to add the displacement of the sub to the enclosure size, I'm a bit stuck. The owner's manual says nothing about the sub's displacement. Sorry for the noob question. But I want to do this enclosure right. Thx all. Peter

cool thanks man. I don't remember the exact model number. I know it's an MB Quart 10" sub. I think it's the PWE 252. I'll have to ask my friend and get back to you.

So I'm no pro when it comes to enclosures. All I've ever done is a sealed enclosure and infinite baffle. I've never seen anything like this before. What is the advantage of such a box vs a regular ported box?

Another tip with painting MDF- don't use water-based primer (like Latex). MDF is extremely absorbent, not just on the end-grain. The water will soak into the mdf and create a rough texture. The crappy thing about oil-based primers is the cleanup (paint thinner). But no matter what, if you want a smooth finish you're gonna need to sand after priming.

Me too- It's hard to tell from the Google Sketchup pics where the box is fully enclosed and where it isn't. I assume that it is only open where the port comes out at the top (by the woofer)? And if you are making the box self-contained (i.e. all out of MDF), what is the purpose of the fiberglass? It looks very creative either way. I'm interested to see how this comes together!

keep it long like that. When you upholster it, the seam will be up and out of your line of sight.

Looks like it will do the job. A little sanding and priming before paint would've drastically improved the results. But it's gonna be behind your seat so who cares?

all this for some bass!! lol Looking good dude. I bet you're sick of this project by now.

Excellent work!!! Fits perfectly!

Looks good, man. A little fine-tuning and it will look great! It's definitely easy to mix too much hardner in there, especially in hot weather.

You should be able to find color-matched rattle cans for your car. Try www.towerpaint.com

Love how you used the grommets... Very clean install. I like installations where everything looks stock much more than ones that stand out and look custom. It takes much more effort to create that seamlessness.

Holy crap, man. I don't think I could even run the speaker wires into my doors if I did that on my car. how are you going to pull that off?

Man my highschool didn't have a shop nearly that nice.

radial arm saws scare me for some reason... I just always picture chopping my hand off without even realizing it until afterwards! lol

in 65-70 degree weather, regular yellow wood glue should be fine after 4 hours or so. If you are using screws, that should provide PLENTY of pressure for the glue to set. I.e. you would be fine skipping the clamps altogether.

Wow, that woodshop is incredible! You must know somebody!

I can't imagine you being able to effectively seal the enclosure without using fiberglass for those other pieces. Question- why didn't you build a regular/cube-shaped/geometric box and simply make trim panels to fill the gaps around the box for asthetic purposes? would that not have given you enough cubic feet for your enclosure? It seems like doing it this way really added a lot of extra work and will make sealing the joints much more difficult.

Looks awesome man. I feel like a lot of the extra craftsmanship you do for your builds goes unnoticed since it hides behind the carpet. Have you ever done work with plexiglass or anything to show the internals? Do you ever do a high-gloss paint on your boxes instead of carpet? I feel like that would really show off your impressive work. Of course it all depends on what the customer wants. Anyway, looks fantastic as always!

I was gonna say- you might be sacrificing some structural integrity by cutting out that metal! That sure was a lot of hard work just to get to square one.