Crazy idea, any thoughts?

[Tachyon]

Hey gang,
Last summer they redid the water main on my street. They had a lot of left-over pipe cutoffs and I asked them for one, which they gave me.
I thought it would make a cool speaker enclosure.
I intend to make it into a subwoofer enclosure and I'd like to hear your thoughts, recommendations, and any caveats.

Here are some pictures with measurements, and I was thinking of using a Pyle PLPW8D sub, mostly because it's inexpensive and I don't want to spend a lot on a project that may not work out. Oh, and to save you the math, it's 636 cubic inches, or 0.368 cubic feet of interior volume.
I have some high grade, 1/2" plywood I was going to use for the end caps. Screwed (drill some holes and tap them) and glued.

Click to read more...

 

[SlugButter]

If you seal it up tight it will work fine. A tube is structurally stronger than a square box. That's why the Roman's used arches in their building designs.

 

[Tachyon]

If you seal it up tight it will work fine. A tube is structurally stronger than a square box. That's why the Roman's used arches in their building designs.

Hey thanks for the reply. That's what I thought too. Those pipes are a high density plastic and very tough and stiff. I figured it would make a good enclosure and a little unique.

My biggest concern is the small volume and my choice of speaker. I'd like to use a Kicker 48CWRT84 CompRT 8 (or even 10) but that's way outside my budget for this project.

I'd also welcome amp recommendations for this build. I'm looking for a decent quality low cost amp to power it. In the old days is have thrown a Punch 45 at it and called it good. But a decent low cost 100-200 watt would be great too.
I may have to comb through Williston Audio Labs videos for ideas on the amp front.

 

[SlugButter]

Not sure what the budget is, but a Dayton classic 8 inch woofer is 65$ and would work perfect for that space. It’s 150 watts rms.

 

[Tachyon]

Not sure what the budget is, but a Dayton classic 8 inch woofer is 65$ and would work perfect for that space. It’s 150 watts rms.

That's why I posted here. Great tip. I had thought of Dayton, I just didn't know what models to look for in this size enclosure and whether they'd be a good choice for a car sub. I always tend to think of them for building custom home audiophile component speakers. Not boomers.

 

[SlugButter]

That's why I posted here. Great tip. I had thought of Dayton, I just didn't know what models to look for in this size enclosure and whether they'd be a good choice for a car sub. I always tend to think of them for building custom home audiophile component speakers. Not boomers.

They do well in home and car. I’ve used almost every model of Dayton sub for different projects. Probably more SQ oriented than SPL for sure. Most of their subs seems to do better in sealed enclosures than ported in my opinion.

 

[Tachyon]

Not sure what the budget is, but a Dayton classic 8 inch woofer is 65$ and would work perfect for that space. It’s 150 watts rms.

This one?
https://www.daytonaudio.com/product/25/dc200-8-8-classic-woofer-8-ohm

 

[SlugButter]

The 4 ohm would be my choice

Home

Dayton Audio DCS205-4 8" Classic Subwoofer 4 OhmThe Dayton Audio Classic Series subwoofers offer solid value at lower price points. No compromises were made in the design, materials, or construction of these rugged 4-ohm powerhouses. The drivers feature a vented pole piece with copper cap...

www.parts-express.com

 

[SlugButter]

That other Dayton makes a great bookshelf speaker. I used one of those with a 4 inch midrange and a tweeter and it made a really nice sounding bookshelf speaker with some decent low end.

 

[mr roo]

If you seal it up tight it will work fine. A tube is structurally stronger than a square box. That's why the Roman's used arches in their building designs.

yes should work fine and that looks more solid than some of the tubes I have seen people use.

 

[Tachyon]

OK so I got some good feedback. Thanks.
I really like that Dayton and I think in the future I'll build some speakers specifically around those. However I really wanted to stay on budget and Amazon sealed the deal by putting two of the components I had in mind for this project on sale big-time. So I ended up getting a Pyle PLPW8D 8-Inch 800W Dual 4-Ohm Subwoofer and an Alpine BBX-T600 600W Max BBX Series 2-ohm Stable 2 Channel Class-A/B Amplifier.
The Subwoofer arrived today and it actually seems to be decent quality. The amp should be here next week.
I'm going to put square pieces of decent plywood on either end so that I can lay it on its side and it won't roll around. I'll mount the amp on the opposite end from the speaker and put handles on it so I can move it between my car and my truck, depending where I want to use it.
I'll be sure to post my progress.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Looks like a fun DIY bass tube project.

 

[JW266]

Hell yea! I made a tube for my old single cab Toyota out of the cardboard tube used to form concrete pillars. Used plywood on the rear and mdf for the speaker side and fiberglassed it. Ran a 8" Fosgate on ~450w. Sounded great.

I would think you might want more than glue holding the pipe to the wood?

 

[KicktheSDbasshead]

Post picts when you're don't I'd like to see how it turns out. I like fun stuff like this audio experiments! My fave

 

[Tachyon]

Went to Home Depot tonight to look at wood. As much as MDF is the go to for this stuff, I really hate it. It's fragile, the corners chip easy, and you have to cover it with something like carpet because it's ugly.
I'm tempted to use 3/4" pine panels. Maybe even double it up and glue/laminate it. Honestly with only one 8" sub, I think one 3/4" panel would be enough....decisions decisions.

So far I have put together a nice little stereo upgrade package for my vehicle. The sub project, the Alpine amp listed above, and I just got in a pair of Infinity ref-6532ex speakers for the front doors. Will keep the Sony head unit for a while until I move that over to our car when I upgrade it's stereo. Then I'll replace the Sony with an Alpine CDE-172BT.