Sub enclosure wood

Curious on what type of wood people have been using, iv been thinking MDF of course, but iv usually worked with pine or oak. Hell if I really wanted to show off Id use mahogany but I'm not going to because it's going to be behind the seats. Anyways what kind of wood should I use,

 

Anything with a high density. But since sub boxes usually get covered with carpet or vinyl, most people won't use hardwoods. I'd stick to MDF or HDF.

 

Eh, I don't think im going to if its nice wood, I mean its going to be behind the seats and is there really a reason to put carpet over it unless its ugly enough that you don't want to see it? Happy new year!

 

I personally prefer to build it out of Birch ply,
its stronger, and much lighter.

but with that said, you can pretty much build a box out of .5 inch mdf and maybe use .75 for the baffle as you counter sink the sub in.

 

I have built boxes out of MDF and Birch ply. The birch is much easier to work with in my opinion (and it's lighter). The only downside is that it costs more.

 

I guess if it's a ported enclosure this wouldn't be AS important but I still wouldn't build a sub enclosure out of ply... Regardless of what hardwood ply it is. I would use birch hardwood, but that gets very expensive. I wouldn't want to sacrifice the density of hardwoods or MDF by using ply no matter how much easier it is to work with.

.75 inch MDF or thicker unless you have some very imposing space constraints. Density is very important with sub enclosures, especially sealed ones.

 

I have access to a lot of different types of wood, and your saying to go mdf?

 

MDF is typically used because it's dense and doesn't flex nearly as much as other woods. the downsides are that it's a PITA to cut (dusty) and doesn't play with water. pro sound speaker manufacturers typically use high ply birch plywood because it's just as dense (but lighter) and plays much better with water.

i would honestly stick with MDF or birch plywood and veneer if you want a different look. the copious amounts of glue used in manufacturing these woods ensures an airtight seal with minimal flexing. not to mention, most hardwoods will expand/contract with changing environment.

 

Curious why you went with birch hardwood over ply, so far your outnumbered

 

i have always used the 12ply baltic birch, and this was in all my big builds. We found that 3/4 birch was just about as strong if not stronger than 1 inch mdf and say 1/3 the weight(generalization i forget he Exact amount )

General construction plywood or particle board stuff should NEVER be used. As ike3000 also concluded, use birch ply or mdf only.

 

I suggested hardwood because of it's higher strength and density compared to ply. Ike does have a good point about hardwood expansion, but if built correctly, you won't have an issue with it. Hardwood is much more expensive, though.

I was under the impression that the others in this thread that we're suggesting birch ply we're referring to shop grade ply, not the 12-15 ply Baltic birch. Makes much more sense, now. I'd use 15 ply 3/4" Baltic birch for an enclosure, but it is much more expensive than MDF.

Also, if the 3/4" Baltic birch that manethon was referring to is indeed 1/3 of the weight of 1" MDF, that implies the birch is less dense. Higher density for less money makes MDF stand as my first choice for enclosure material. If your box is built correctly, the strength of MDF vs. the strength of Baltic birch ply won't matter, especially because the boxes most people are building for their tacomas are so small. This also makes weight less of an issue.

 

I've always used good MDF or plexiglass. I built a box out of Oak once which was really nice and worked great, but the cost of it wasn't worth it. The guy just wanted a really pretty box so we made it out of hard oak. Looked sexy, sounded good, could of made 4 other boxes out of MDF for the cost.

 

all valid points,
I just prefer baltic birch, and the price difference does not justify for me to use mdf.
Do i use mdf, yup, but again not the biggest mdf fan.

My baltic birch boxes have much less flex, almost zero flex compared to needing brace's on the inside of the box with = mdf. When building boxes that require 3-5 inch baffles, 1.5 -2 inch thick walls the Birch is definitely much nicer to work with.

this also means that on small boxes, one can get away with building most of the box out of 1/2 inch and using a .75 baffle to counter sink the subs perfectly flush without sacrificing strength

 

my educated guess of why birch ply is lighter than mdf is that mdf has a lot more glue. for ply wood, glue is only used to adhere the ply sheets together, while mdf is essentially a mixture of wood pulp and glue. obviously, plywood gets heavier as you increase the amount of ply (i.e. more glue is needed).

 

I was kind of curious about plexiglass. Mind to share your info on it?

 

Honestly, for a tacoma box it's a total waste
In nice installs it pays off and looks beautiful but really, in a tacoma it's rather limited unless u delete the rear seats