Mdf vs. Ply?

[DakotaSPL 10+ year member]

i have plenty of ply laying around but mdf is over 30 bucks a sheet and ill need 9 sheets of that to make a box, 3 layer front 2 on each side with bracing inside all glued and screwed bout a 10 cube or so box same as one in my pictures, so that being said wont both be just as equally strong when its all said and done? honestly in the past i had noticed no difference from a mdf or ply box construction of same dimensions or I could be going deaf... thoughts?

Click to read more...

 

[CHEMMINS 10+ year member]

Use what ya got.......most people can't notice a difference.

 

[Jes 42 10+ year member]

^ that

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

Make sure the ply doesn't have any obvious voids in it. Not only can it cause extra resonances but it also lowers its strength by a lot.

 

[DakotaSPL 10+ year member]

thanks for the input, i figure after i cover the box who would be the wiser

 

[cyn 10+ year member]

Ply/MDF etc... all sounds close to the same.. Ply is just tons lighter in weight than MDF... I prefer Birch or Japanese Maple myself because of the Weight.. and it does tend to have a slightly different sound to it.. But to the avg. person they would not notice it one bit.. Like the ones before me said, use what you have, and make sure when you cut it to check the layers to make sure there is no Voids.. Alot of the china pressed plys have tons of voids in them.

 

[DakotaSPL 10+ year member]

well got it all put together for the most part, went 4 layers on front and 3 layers on each side still got a lot to do on it, this thing is solid as a rock without a dowel in center, still going to use one tho, still got 45's to make as well, hate doing those without a table saw

 

[DakotaSPL 10+ year member]

and gained 3 more cubes by doing more measuring

 

[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

9 sheets to make a 10 cu box? No way. We just made a 15.5 cu box w/ 5 sheets. Double face front, single everywhere else with proper bracing. Thing weighed 450lbs before subs.

 

[DakotaSPL 10+ year member]

still took me 9 sheets to make this, avoiding bad corners and voids, plenty of scraps to make my filler on each side of wall for some mids, and screwed up one side, wasted a tube of glue lol

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

For the record that's not really the ply we were talking about, what you used is OSB. You would want something like this:

 

[Jes 42 10+ year member]

that turned out nice man

 

[DakotaSPL 10+ year member]

ah, sorry so use to calling that stuff ply, but i did use that on the face, still really strong stuff, i sanded and glued then screwed each layer together and left it to cure 24 hrs, have less then 100 invested so im **** happy with it lol, glue and screws is whats costly, used leftover osb and sand paper, more sanding to do and using undercoating to paint it.

 

[DakotaSPL 10+ year member]

For the record that's not really the ply we were talking about, what you used is OSB. You would want something like this:

they wanted over 90 bucks per sheet for these bad boys at my local lumber place

 

[PIMPSLAPN 10+ year member]

i was think about usein them textured spay paints