Eager to start building boxes

[electropro 10+ year member]

;3160680']What's used to make sure the wood screws go in flush with the MDF?

A counter-sink bit. They sell them by themselves or with a drill bit attached to them. I prefer the later...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

 

[Rawr-DQ 10+ year member]

Rawr-DQ, So you just bought a cheapo table saw, a new blade, and made your own straight edge/guide thing?
How exactly did you accomplish this, I'm not sure I'm entirely following your brief description. Pictures help also.

Not a table saw, just a saw. Using a straight metal ruler/wood/whatever clamp it to the piece you're working on, measure and adjust it so that you can run the saw along it, measure the piece, align the blade, notch the corner enough to measure, check that with a tape measure, if it's the right size/square go ahead and finish the cut. I was able to get perfect cuts that way.

;3158404']Yea I'd really like to buy and work with MDF sheets but I don't have a big work area to play around with.
What's a jig?

You can have them cut the sheets into managable sizes, and a jig is a guide for the router so that you can make perfect circle cuts.

 

[THUMPPER 10+ year member]

if a person needs a tube of chalking to seal a sub box they

built I would say they seriously need to practice using a saw

all you need is carpenter's glue..it has a 3500lb breaking strength

wich is stronger than the MDF itself...

 

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

The caulk is just additional insurance to make 100% sure there are no leaks. Sure the wood glue and screws is probably enough, but this way you're sure. Some people even go as far as coating the entire inside of their boxes with a thin coat of fiberglass resin.

Oh and here is the Home Depot wood vs. the Lowes wood that I thought I'd share with you

Home Depot "MDF" is on the left, Lowes MDF is on the right. I swear to god I'm not making this up, Home Depot sold this to me as MDF, they had a whole bunch of it stacked up clearly labeled as Medium Density Fiberboard, I even looked around to make sure I wasn't mis-reading the labels.

 

[skadude016 5,000+ posts]

lol dude. that is plywood. they had to have put the mdf sticker on the plywood lol

 

[Rawr-DQ 10+ year member]

Laugh my *** off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew it =p

Someone lied to you, that is clearly not mdf, it had to be labled wrong or whatever!!!!!!!!!

 

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

that's exactly what I said...I had an employee helping me. I walked in, asked him where the MDF was, they showed me that crap, I looked at him wierd, asked him if he was sure it was MDF, he said yes....

So I asked him if he had any scraps because I only needed a little piece for my dashboard bezel I was building at the time, so I picked up a little piece for like 50 cents.

I think maybe somebody mis-labeled or stocked the wrong wood. Maybe instead of just griping about home depot I should tell them about their mistake.

Luckily I wasn't dumb enough to buy a sheet of it for my box, I took my business down the street to Lowes.

 

[Rawr-DQ 10+ year member]

Hell you could have looked for it yourself and showed the guy real mdf.

So much for retarded workers.

 

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

I figured if he didn't even know what MDF should look like, I shouldn't ask him to operate a table saw for me lol

 

[JarvisB 10+ year member]

I m building a box in couple of days, Just wanted to know if there is specific kind of caulk I should buy or it will just be labeled as "caulk"?

and will painting the inside with fiberglass resin be necessary? How much does the resin costs then?

EDIT: Also, is it required to smooth out the 90* corner of the ports? I plan on leaving it that way, but if it is required then I can do something.. My box will have only port walls on the sides thats all, there will be no wall on the back you know..

 

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

Caulk is usually a good idea. Just the cheap "all purpose caulk" they sell anywhere will be fine. Doesn't have to be some fancy specialized kind.

Resin is definitely not necessary. Although it will guarantee you absolutely no air leaks, it's just really over the top and resin isn't cheap, enough to coat the inside of a decent sized sub box will easily cost you the same amount as the wood and probably more. It's also difficult to do.

putting 45 degree angles in the corners isn't really necessary either.

I'm not sure how big of a difference any of the techniques you mentioned make, but I'm sure they do something, just not something really noticeable.

 

[type[s5] 10+ year member]

lol. So i took a look at Lowes and their MDF looked no different from Home Depot's. Also, Lowe's doesn't do precision cuts down here.

Ok so I bought some wood glue, a tube of caulk, measuring tape, a router + straight bit, two 24"x48" precut boards of MDF, a hundred 1 3/4" wood screws, some stands, a 24" clamp, and a 36" clamp.

I swear the workers at Home Depot seem like they never wanna help so instead of waiting around for some help in cutting an MDF board down to size, i just took a couple of the precut boards. I figure I'll need the practice, anyway. Unfortunately, my finances aren't as much as I thought so I'm still in need of a simple table saw to get these precuts down to the size I need them to be. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif Oh well. Looks like another 2-week wait.

 

[Rawr-DQ 10+ year member]

I m building a box in couple of days, Just wanted to know if there is specific kind of caulk I should buy or it will just be labeled as "caulk"?
and will painting the inside with fiberglass resin be necessary? How much does the resin costs then?

EDIT: Also, is it required to smooth out the 90* corner of the ports? I plan on leaving it that way, but if it is required then I can do something.. My box will have only port walls on the sides thats all, there will be no wall on the back you know..

Dont worry about resin on a mdf box, dunno what put that into your head.

You don't have to smooth out the corners, some builders do it, because they believe it helps with port noise or something along those lines, but it is not completely nesscessary

 

[Rawr-DQ 10+ year member]

;3161255']lol. So i took a look at Lowes and their MDF looked no different from Home Depot's. Also' date=' Lowe's doesn't do precision cuts down here.
Ok so I bought some wood glue, a tube of caulk, measuring tape, a router + straight bit, two 24"x48" precut boards of MDF, a hundred 1 3/4" wood screws, some stands, a 24" clamp, and a 36" clamp.

I swear the workers at Home Depot seem like they never wanna help so instead of waiting around for some help in cutting an MDF board down to size, i just took a couple of the precut boards. I figure I'll need the practice, anyway. Unfortunately, my finances aren't as much as I thought so I'm still in need of a simple table saw to get these precuts down to the size I need them to be. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif Oh well. Looks like another 2-week wait.[/quote']

Was it a plung router, or a cheaaap one, I'm guessing a cheap one, did you get a 1/4" straight bit? The reason being was because I had a hard time using a 1/2" bit on 3/4" mdf, so with my plung router, I was able to adjust the depth and cut a little at a time, but if you got a 1/4" bit, it should be easier.

 

[type[s5] 10+ year member]

hmmm.... I just noticed something after looking at some of the box plans on CA... when you're making boxes and you use a program to do it, are measurements rounded off to the nearest 1/4"?