How Do You Calculate Volume For Fiberglass Enclosures?

[sungwei 10+ year member]

When you fiberglass it's usually done in a shape that is rounded off and awkward. This makes it difficult to calculate how much volume the enclosure actually has. How do you guys go about measuring this? I wanna place an enclosure in the corner of my trunk, but I want to make sure it's enough volume.

Also how do you go about porting in a fiberglass enclosure?

Click to read more...

 

[Acidburn 5,000+ posts]

you could use water and see how many gallons it holds and then convert that to cubic feet, but i dont know how good of an idea that is

if you have a flat side of the enclosure then you can port it like any other, with either wood or PVC

 

[Gauntlet 5,000+ posts]

Use water to calculate the volume. Do a search on google for a conversion rate.

 

[sungwei 10+ year member]

Problem is wouldn't you have to construct the box first to test with water? If you built to big or small it'd be too late right? How can you go about doing this before construction?

 

[sungwei 10+ year member]

How accurate does volume have to be? Can you adjust/compensate with the size of the port?

 

[90towncar 10+ year member]

packing peanuts //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[boister77 10+ year member]

Problem is wouldn't you have to construct the box first to test with water? If you built to big or small it'd be too late right? How can you go about doing this before construction?

no it wouldn't be too late. you can always fill the box with items to take up the extra volume. so, it's best to make fiberglass box a bit bigger. it's always easier to fill up the extra space than not having enough.

 

[Acidburn 5,000+ posts]

ya, you can just throw some wood in there or something if you have too much volume, and if you have too little, you may be able to add some more fiberglass or you're just screwed

 

[sungwei 10+ year member]

no it wouldn't be too late. you can always fill the box with items to take up the extra volume. so, it's best to make fiberglass box a bit bigger. it's always easier to fill up the extra space than not having enough.

Oh yeah, man I feel kinda dumb for not figuring that out by myself. Yeah I was wondering what to fill the extra space up with though . I guess you could built a small wall of fiberglass in a section inside the box take up the necessary space.

 

[TimidSh0ck 10+ year member]

or, make it small, and you can always add pillow fill in.

 

[RiceNotNice 10+ year member]

rather than water-those small styrafoam BBs used in bean bag chairs work really well

 

[Acidburn 5,000+ posts]

that could work but they static cling to EVERYTHING, **** little things...

 

[C/U Kid 10+ year member]

if you have a flat side of the enclosure then you can port it like any other, with either wood or PVC

meaning, you could just fiberglass around a little opening hole, and just put one of those plastic ports with a tube attached on the inside in the hole? I thought you have to more than that for an effective port, a lot of the ported boxes i've seen have wood screwed into the sides of the box making a little 'path' if you will for the air to travel through before getting to the port.... stupid question maybe? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/banghead.gif.8606515f668c74f6de0281deb475b6fd.gif

 

[sungwei 10+ year member]

I want to port it. I figured I'd just make the enclosure and then use a circular drill or dremel to cut out the hole for the port. Wouldn't that work? Maybe seal the edges of the port with some adhesive or seal? Perhaps there is a better way?

 

[InhumanAcura 5,000+ posts]

Build a cube without a top 13.5x13.5x12.75 (1^ft) fill the enclosure w/ water and empty into the cube until you get the volume. I marked mine every inch to be somewhat exact. It may be some trouble to build the box, but you always have the measurment tool in the future.

If the enclosure is to big in the end, use expanding spray foam to make up the differential.