Question for all you constant builders....

[MA$E 10+ year member]

i never really looked into it but does it matter which wood you use?

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[blackbonnie 5,000+ posts]

Mdf Ftw

 

[WantedIsHere]

yes vary much so

 

[Kold_Killa 10+ year member]

Just go with MDF, it's cheap and solid.

 

[Mugen 10+ year member]

3/4" MDF is the most common. Birch is occasionally used, but that costs more $$$. For most purposes (like a pair of 12"s), no more than 3/4" is really needed. If you're going to do a wall with two 18"s, you're going to want considerably more stabilization in the form of thicker walls and metal rods holding it all together.

 

[stishdr 10+ year member]

some people use 3/4" trupan light...

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

I prefer BB for the extra $20. A LOT less dust all over the place and it's more forgiving if you drop a piece or whatever.

 

[WantedIsHere]

Being one of the people who have used birch and mdf as well as several other types of wood through out my years of building boxes... I can say that birch makes no less dust then the others... its just not as fine... Still a pain in the ***... less forgiving if you drop it and harder to work with.... i would not recomend you use birch unless your going for the natural wood finish... I would go with trupan over normal mdf though... The weight now days will cost at the pump... my Birch box that i just finished weighs a ton still... i just wanted a natural wood finish for part of it...

 

[PV Audio 5,000+ posts]

MDF in 3/4" thickness is the reference standard, everything else is a derivation (not in the literal sense) of it. That isn't to say that MDF is the best, because it isn't, but it has the highest ratio of advantages/dollar.

And yes, I've basically tried them all (mdf, hdf (in .5, .75 and 1" for both), two grades of PB, birch ply, oak ply, baltic birch, and OSB), minus TruPan.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The nice thing about larger dust particles is they settle out quicker and don't end up covering your workspace in a superfine layer of basically talcum powder that you will never fully clean up.

Birch ply is much more tolerant of being dropped. I can look at a cut piece of MDF and the corner will flake off. There's a reason it comes with 1" of extra in each direction: to keep the usable piece full size when the edges get effed up.

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

AS said, MDF is the most common. Trupan and Birch are excellent alternatives however.