Scrappydue Posted October 9, 2017 Share Posted October 9, 2017 On 9/28/2017 at 9:42 PM, wvu80 said: If you have the skills and tools to build the box and route the holes then I am in awe. I mentioned the flat packs because they are CNC cut and fit perfectly. All you need is glue and you could actually use masking tape to hold it together the cuts are so precise. It is a no-brainer for someone with my lack of woodworking skills, but you have options. Even the guys who can cut their own boxes like the flat packs because of the ease to put them together, time saving, and the cost is really not much more than buying and cutting your own MDF. Maybe @Scrappyduewill weigh in. I think he has two or four of those Ultimax 18's. I have 8 SI 18’s. And the kits are nice if you have no tools, but saying the kits aren’t much more is a false statement. If you get hem half off with a ultimax bundle they are still more than double what a sheet cost. And if you buy single flatpacks and have them shipped I can literally buy 4 sheets and build 4 of them for the same price or less. However time and tools do cost up front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted October 9, 2017 Share Posted October 9, 2017 41 minutes ago, Scrappydue said: I have 8 SI 18’s. And the kits are nice if you have no tools, but saying the kits aren’t much more is a false statement. If you get hem half off with a ultimax bundle they are still more than double what a sheet cost. And if you buy single flatpacks and have them shipped I can literally buy 4 sheets and build 4 of them for the same price or less. However time and tools do cost up front. Eight 18's! Wow! My sub was the 15" and with the combo pack I think it cost about $75 (flatpack cost). It's been a couple of years and I don't really remember. Around here a sheet of 3/4" MDF is about $48, so if you can build 4 subs for the cost of a discounted flatpack your skills are waaay above my pay grade. I admire you guys who have the tools and skills to build boxes but for a guy like me the flat packs enable me to get into the DIY hobby at my (lower) level. I'm very sure I couldn't cut a straight line without setting my hair on fire. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emile Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Yeah, still looking for a good subwoofer also. Tried the 10" Klipsch one but was not impressed. But ... don't think I can sneak a refrigerator size one into our house without my wife noticing it Had a JBL (Pro ??) 12" one which was good for cannon fire in movies but lousy for music. Found an M&K 15" woofer in a 4 cuft box on CraigsList (nice oak box ... score!). Added the "old" 400W amp to it and it's much better for music. And ... did not cost me much Wireless via Rocketfish from AVR, coupled with Marantz 2252B and Cornwall's . Cheers, Emile Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holtrp Posted October 21, 2017 Share Posted October 21, 2017 I just got finished this week converting my 4 flat pack Dayton HO's into Full Marty cabinets that I built myself. The output on these things is simply unbelievable. To speak to your project, I spent about 6 months working on these cabinets. I could have gotten it all done in about a month but summer time tied me up quite a bit and kept me from finishing. The toughest part about building your own cabinets, if you choose to go this route, is getting straight, precise cuts on 8'x4' sheets of MDF which is a pain in the butt to work with when you are alone. I ended up doing it with a 10' straight as an arrow piece of trim as a guide, a skilz saw and two C clamps, there is a good video on Youtubes about this method. Measure twice (or maybe even 3 or 4 times) and cut once. Also, turning your garage into a woodshop is a bit annoying. The second worst part was keeping everything square when gluing them together. Unfortunately, they don't just 'go together' as easily as a flat pack does. I ended up using an embarrassing amount of wood filler in a couple spots because being a 1/16" off on a cut + not being perfectly square really messes stuff up. You'll also need to invest in a router and an orbital sander, clamps, glue, foam mattress padding or pillow filler. All in all, it was a fun project and I certainly learned a few things along the way and would do it again. I took a trip a few months ago and I have a buddy that has been doing kitchen cabinets for 20 years. When I showed him my project and what I had into it he laughed and said he could probably knock out all 4 in a couple days. LOL. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted October 22, 2017 Author Share Posted October 22, 2017 holtrp, thanks for the input. Fortunately, I do have a small wood shop and plenty of good tools from my past builds. I am still in the process of putting my shop back together. Earlier this year I decided to tear it all up and start over. I have learned a lot over the years on how I really wanted my shop to work and decided to bite the bullet and start over. I am at the final stages of putting it all together. I am working on a stand alone router table at the moment. The shop now sports a very powerful cyclone dust collection system by Clearvue and a super nice Stopsaw table saw that is just a pleasure to use. I figure the full marty build will be my first official project. I will likely get to that next month. I am currently trying to decide on which drivers to use. I am leaning toward the Dayton UM18, but they are out of stock until December. Also considered the Mach5 UXL18, but the cost may not be worth the extra performance for me. The Dayton HO is also on the list. When I get serious about the build I will look at the drivers and run some calculations on the options. One change I will be making to the Marty is to place the driver on the small face of the enclosure. When I lay down the box, it should have a much smaller profile relative to the sitting area of my room. This design will also allow the ports to be straight and avoid the 90 degree bend. I am planning on replacing the dual SPUDS for LFE and the two RSW-15's that are part of my mains. I use the RSW's as passive subs controlled from my active crossovers. Looking forward to the build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted October 24, 2017 Author Share Posted October 24, 2017 Lucked out on Craigslist two days ago and found an ad for a lightly used Swapsaw. A panel saw which is rather compact and can be easily broken down and stored. No more wrestling with 4x8 sheets of 18mm baltic birch! I'm getting too old to wrestle large sheets onto a table saw. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 7 hours ago, Rudy81 said: Lucked out on Craigslist two days ago and found an ad for a lightly used Swapsaw. A panel saw which is rather compact and can be easily broken down and stored. No more wrestling with 4x8 sheets of 18mm baltic birch! I'm getting too old to wrestle large sheets onto a table saw. That's exactly why I love my tracksaw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted October 24, 2017 Author Share Posted October 24, 2017 This is going to be nice! No more struggling with large pieces. Also finished the basic setup on the router table. A few more weeks and I can get to the sub build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holtrp Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 On 10/22/2017 at 5:14 AM, Rudy81 said: holtrp, thanks for the input. Fortunately, I do have a small wood shop and plenty of good tools from my past builds. I am still in the process of putting my shop back together. Earlier this year I decided to tear it all up and start over. I have learned a lot over the years on how I really wanted my shop to work and decided to bite the bullet and start over. I am at the final stages of putting it all together. I am working on a stand alone router table at the moment. The shop now sports a very powerful cyclone dust collection system by Clearvue and a super nice Stopsaw table saw that is just a pleasure to use. I figure the full marty build will be my first official project. I will likely get to that next month. I am currently trying to decide on which drivers to use. I am leaning toward the Dayton UM18, but they are out of stock until December. Also considered the Mach5 UXL18, but the cost may not be worth the extra performance for me. The Dayton HO is also on the list. When I get serious about the build I will look at the drivers and run some calculations on the options. One change I will be making to the Marty is to place the driver on the small face of the enclosure. When I lay down the box, it should have a much smaller profile relative to the sitting area of my room. This design will also allow the ports to be straight and avoid the 90 degree bend. I am planning on replacing the dual SPUDS for LFE and the two RSW-15's that are part of my mains. I use the RSW's as passive subs controlled from my active crossovers. Looking forward to the build. I have been very pleased with the HO. I think when I bought the UM was also out of stock. Honestly though, I don't think it would be any order of magnitude better then the HO at this point. Looking forward to seeing your build. From what I have experience with, the Full Marty is the meta of DIY subs when considering, value, cost, simplicy, and output. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted October 24, 2017 Author Share Posted October 24, 2017 Thank you for the information on the HO. I might just get those and go from there. Price is right! However, there is a large difference in Xmax between the HO and the UM..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason str Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 21 minutes ago, Rudy81 said: Thank you for the information on the HO. I might just get those and go from there. Price is right! However, there is a large difference in Xmax between the HO and the UM..... The Dayton reference series drivers are underrated and far more efficient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 In a Marty sub, the difference between the HO and UM 18 is no more than 1.5 db. The real Xmax of the HO is closer to 22 mm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted December 11, 2017 Author Share Posted December 11, 2017 After months of planning, the winner drivers were the Dayton HO....four of them. I have already built one full Marty prototype and was very pleased with the performance measurements of that sub. I was not so pleased with the joinery I used on the 18mm baltic birch. I went for the locking rabbet type of joinery I used on my H frame open baffles. That joint did not work well on plywood as compared to the the thick butcher block of the H frame build. After looking at the frequency response, I found the port resonance as lower than I would like, so just decided to start over with better joinery, biscuits, pockets screws, glue and also a slight modification to the slot measurements. My goal is to raise the slot port first resonance from near 130Hz to something approaching 160Hz. Prototype box tuning around 16.5 to 17 Hz. Enclosure net volume is 10.6 cu. ft. Frequency response outdoor measurement was by far the best I have ever measured from my builds. The plot is unsmoothed and seems to show a very nice, near flat response for a sub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted December 11, 2017 Author Share Posted December 11, 2017 BTW, that swapsaw sure made cutting large 4x8 sheets a breeze! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Glad to see you've finally made some saw dust. 4 of those should fill your bass needs nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khornukopia Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 13 hours ago, Rudy81 said: BTW, that swapsaw sure made cutting large 4x8 sheets a breeze! I like your saw, and the subwoofer you built with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted December 12, 2017 Author Share Posted December 12, 2017 Ha, the swapsaw was nice for cutting large panels into manageable sizes. The real beauty is my new Stop saw. What a great saw that is! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khornukopia Posted December 13, 2017 Share Posted December 13, 2017 Your Stop Saw is a fine piece of machinery, and its safety features are impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted December 13, 2017 Author Share Posted December 13, 2017 The Stop saw is pricey, but I can say it is well worth the money. Powerful motor and works like a dream. The best machine I have in my shop. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 Things are looking good. Boy, I would love to have that work shop! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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