Buildin my first fiberglass enclosure!

[rex_runner 0]

Soo pretty much, I've been wanting to do a more compact sub setup for quite some time, and since its spring time, I needed a nice little project to keep me busy! The design I came up with is pretty simple in concept... basically its going to be a fiberglass ported tube enclosure simular to a bazooka tube. I figured these enclosures can offer me a more compact enclosure than a big box, yet still be ported.

Its going to be constucted using a 10" in diameter by 48"cardboard tube used for concrete molding (simular to a sono tube). I'd cut it to the length I need to give me my airspace, create an MDF baffel for the sub to mount on to, use a smaller tube to form the port. Then fiber glass everything.

I've purchased all my materials I will need and am just awaiting a new sub to begin construction. My only concern I have with my design is the port... I duno exactly how I'ma calculate a semicircle port. If anyone could offer a suggestion or an idea on what I can do for that, it would be awesome! If this tube comes out great, then I might do a second tube for a dual setup. I'd push both tubes to the sides of my trunk, and fiberglass a kool lookin amp rack in the middle.

This picture gives ya kinda an idea of what my setup might look like. I couldnt really get down all the curves for my amp rack, but it was only a quick sketch. Any suggestions/comments of my idea would be great... specially if its about the port! Thanks to all who can help!

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[Acidburn 10]

well, the cross-sectional area of the port actually won't be a semi-circle since the bisecting line will also be curved

what's the diameter of the port tube? if you are cutting that one exactly in half, i can tell you how much cross-sectional area there'll be and then we can figure out how long the port needs to be

[rex_runner 0]

Its an 8" in diameter tube, and yup I was thinkin about cutting it in half like you said... Any other info you need, ask and I can say.

Edited March 28, 2007 by Andy

[Acidburn 10]

with an 8" inner diameter tube, and a 10" outer diamater tube, you only get about 13.95 square inches of port

[rex_runner 0]

So now is that takin in consideration the port tube bein cut in half? Or is that if I just used an 8in in diameter port?

[Acidburn 10]

it's if you cut the 8" tube in half and stuck it on the side of the 10" tube

just an 8" tube would have 50.27 square inches

and therefore a semi-circle of that would have 25.13 square inches

[rex_runner 0]

How long would I need to make it to give me about 32hrz or so?

[Acidburn 10]

to figure that out, i'd need to know how long the 10" section will be

[rex_runner 0]

The sub I'm looking at requires about 1.2cuft. I'm not sure if they are including driver displacement so, with a 10.5in diameter tube it will need to be about 24" long. If it isnt including driver displacement, which is .11 cuft, then the tube would have to be about 26" in long.

[Acidburn 10]

with the 10.5" section being 24" long, the port will need to be 27.42" long

[rex_runner 0]

Hmm... aight. Since the port is longer than the box its self, I can continue with an "L" shape inside the main tube right? Kinda like this...

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Also What formula did you use to calculate that? I would like to know so maybe if I need to change something later I can redo it my self... Also thanks for your help! No one else has been able to help me on any other forum.

[rex_runner 0]

lol... damn that lil picture didnt turn out to well haha. This one should be better..

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Edited March 28, 2007 by Andy

[Acidburn 10]

i used http://mobile.jlaudio.com/support_pages.php?page_id=165 and geometry

and yes, you can extend the port into the other tube, but things will get quite a bit more complicated

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

This should be pretty interesting.

[rex_runner 0]

Alright soo I finaly bought my woofer. I ended going with one of tcsounds new TC-10s. And let me tell ya, this thing is impressive! 30lbs of wofferage thats 800watts RMS but is said to take 1000-1200 with just a smile! click hereif ya would like to see what it looks like.

Anyways, with that aside... I AM A need to build my enclosure this weekend. Only thing is when I talked with a tech over at TCsounds he strongly recommended I do sealed instead of ported. He was telling me since these subs are designed to work in such small enclosure (about .5cuft) they sound amazing in sealed. As for ported, he said with such a small volume requirement I would have trouble fitting a port inside. He was like if you should do ported... go with like .6cuft and use a passive radiator.

Im usualy a ported guy soo I dont know if I should just go sealed.. but then again I cant afford the PR now and from how he was talking, didnt seem like going old fasion ported is a good idea.

Either way, I'm still going with a tube enclosure, but do you think I should just make it .5cuft and seal it off? Or try and make the ported tube enclosure work but instead of using the original semi circle huge port I was going to do outa an 8in tube, just go with a smaller 3in PVC pipe, and run it along the side and angle it in to the enclosure to get the port length I'd need?

[///M5 2,833]

If you are really a ported guy perhaps buying a sub that works in a ported box would have been a better idea. I'd run with the recommendation and keep her sealed.

[rex_runner 0]

Well they said I could port it... just a matter of fitting the ports in the enclosure. Someone showed me this site. If I play around a bit, I might be able to make something like that... of course wouldnt be same materials, but itd still be nice.

[bdawson72 0]

When do you think that you are going to be starting the build

[rex_runner 0]

If its sunny, hopefully this weekend. I just need to figure out what I'm doing for the ports before anything..

[tejcurrent 13]

If you have your port 24 inches long, and it should be 26, it really isn't going to make that big a difference imo (at least to my ears it never has). I'd just do the 24 inches you can, and see if you like it. I prefer ported too. I'd try your original plan, just see how it goes. You can always make a new sealed one if you have to.