How To Seal Off Sub Box when making it?

[Eldoggo]

it's quite difficult to get my cuts absolutely perfect. What do you guys do to completely seal off the small crevices between sides? I understand the box needs to be sealed pretty tight, so how do you guys get there? Any sealant I need or something?

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[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Wood glue. Some guys use caulk or fiberglass resin. Just depends how bad your cuts really are. BTW, if you do use caulk, allow it 24 hours to cure before installing the subs, as some types of caulk will harm some types of surrounds with off-gassing during the curing process.

 

[Marve_Lous]

Plenty of wood glue, and then some wood screws will suc the boards together really tight.

 

[Eldoggo]

Wood glue. Some guys use caulk or fiberglass resin. Just depends how bad your cuts really are. BTW, if you do use caulk, allow it 24 hours to cure before installing the subs, as some types of caulk will harm some types of surrounds with off-gassing during the curing process.

Good to know. Im using wood glue to put the box together, and probably will use a nail gun to. Me and my grandpa really fixed up the cuts, but theres bound to be some small cracks.

 

[Marve_Lous]

Good to know. Im using wood glue to put the box together, and probably will use a nail gun to. Me and my grandpa really fixed up the cuts, but theres bound to be some small cracks.

I highly recommend wood screws. And pre-drill the holes for the screws because sometimes the wood will split without pre-drilling first.

 

[Bobbytwonames 5,000+ posts]

Good to know. Im using wood glue to put the box together, and probably will use a nail gun to. Me and my grandpa really fixed up the cuts, but theres bound to be some small cracks.

I also ran clear silicone on the inside of the box.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

I second pre-drilling. It's critical for dense materials like mdf. I usually used 3 bits. One for predrilling the screw into the mating piece, one for predrilling the clearance hole, and one for the countersink. Or 2 bits if you have a multi-bit for countersink.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Wood Glue works Great.. Screws seem to hold better than Nails IMO. I use Caulk on entire Internal cracks and crevices. You can use Liquid Nails if youd Like as well.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Screws are vastly superior to nails in this situation. Nails are better at containing lateral forces, but screws are superior in a linear stress situation like the fasteners in a speaker box predominantly experience. In short, nails will pull out, and screws will shear off.

 

[Ridinhi 5,000+ posts]

Good to know. Im using wood glue to put the box together, and probably will use a nail gun to. Me and my grandpa really fixed up the cuts, but theres bound to be some small cracks.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Wood glue + sawdust from your cuts makes a superior woodfiller to generic brands imo. And one less product to buy. Just sayin.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

If I'm doing something quickly and/or relying on the big box stores to do my cuts I'll just use liquid nails or PL adhesive on those joints. Otherwise a router with flush bit or sanding can square up most stuff if you want to take your time about it. Wood glue properly applied and good clean mating edges is best but I'd still use some caulking around the seems because a tube of DAP is like a buck and small change and it definitely can't hurt.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Wood glue + lots of pressure on the glued joints/sides. Clamps are your friend, don't even need screws if you clamp it very well and let it dry.

We used to use clamps and 15 gauge nails to make boxes quickly.

Wood glue the best to use because it actually chemically bonds the wood together.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I mean we had like 20 48" clamps or something like that.

 

[Bobbytwonames 5,000+ posts]

Small crown staples will hold much better than brad nails.