Fiberglass + MDF

[00StealthSE 10+ year member]

I have recently purchased a Infinity 1230w Reference 12" sub, I am not going to be installing this until the summer time, when I complete my whole system, but I was wondering. If I were to build a fiberglass mold of the corner of my trunk by the tailights, for each sub, and I used an MDF face for the front of the enclosure, would using the "Water Method" to measure the volume of the enclosure ruin the MDF?

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[SurgicaL 10+ year member]

foam peanuts it not %100 accurate but can get it dam close....

do it 3x and take the average, all three times should be close though....

 

[ANeonRider 10+ year member]

Water makes MDF swell, don't use it. Use the peanuts like SurgicaL said.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

sand or dirt works well. if you are that nervous about using water (yes, tis a bad idea)

coat the piece of MDF with resin previous to attachment.

then its waterproof //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[00StealthSE 10+ year member]

Not nervous lol, I know it would warp it or something, resin idea is a good one. Is there a site that fully explains the steps of the water/packing nuts method, because i dont understand how you measure the volume, with the peanuts in the box after you put them in the enclosure and what not!?

 

[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

no man, it's easy... you could do any of the following.

take a two liter bottle, or a gallon milk jug, or anything. fill it up as many times as you have to, and dump into enclosure, and keep track of how many times (how many liters, or gallons) it takes to fill up. then go to a conversion website and plug numbers in.

take a lot of packaging peanuts, and put them in your enclosure (put them in lightly, don't push them in), then take all of the peanuts out (make sure you don't crush too many of them) and then put it into a large box. Make the peanuts as flat as you can, then measure the height, width, and length of the peanuts.

as for making a fiberglassed enclosure that has a precise volume, i'm almost sure there's no way to do it. like, saying "i want to glass a 0.55 cubic foot enclosure exactly", i dont think it will happen. you can get close by guesstimating.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

yea, just gotta measure the 'volume' as you put it into the enclosure. once its filled, add up all the amounts you put in. i like using an 8cup measuing cup. then just convert to cubic feet (online, just type "XX cups to cubic feet" in google, and it will give you an exact number).

as for getting the right enclosure size - just shoot for larger than what you need\want.

if you want 1.0, shoot for 1.3 or 1.5, then just add some wood or some closed cell foam to the inside. and remove\add wood or whatever until you reach your desired volume. its really quite a bunch of common sense.

i dont understand why people cant just think of this stuff. most of my ideas are just that. ive never done half the stuff i talk about, but its all common sense //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

lol. shouldnt have said that eh - i suppose most of the stuff i talk about is from things ive read or talked to people about... and then common sense is added i...

 

[SurgicaL 10+ year member]

i dont understand why people cant just think of this stuff. most of my ideas are just that. ive never done half the stuff i talk about, but its all common sense //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

...

w3rd

 

[00StealthSE 10+ year member]

Where do you buy some Carpet, like they use in your trunk and stuff, to cover the boxes and everything.

 

[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

You can find Carpet at Walmart. It's $7 for a roll, it's 36" wide and like 6 or 8 feet long.

Comes in gray, black, and tan.

 

[monte_carlo97 10+ year member]

You can find Carpet at Walmart. It's $7 for a roll, it's 36" wide and like 6 or 8 feet long.Comes in gray, black, and tan.

thats the stuff i use and it works great.

also check out http://www.partsexpress.com for carpet.

 

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

an easier and quicker way to measure the volume with water is weighing it. simply weigh your enclosure, record. weigh a liter of water (make sure to subtract the weight of the container), record. fill the enclosure with water, record. subtract the initial enclosure weight (the weight with out water), divide it by the wieght of the liter of water, then convert to cubic feet. thats what i'd do, but the other ways would work fine.

 

[bcarpenterfhl 10+ year member]

ps, a plus with using water is you're able to find any pinhole leaks, then seal them with silicone.

 

[iamamp3pimp 5,000+ posts]

that doesnt work if it is a huge trunk spare tire well enclosure