I'm the builder of these boxes. I've owned and used many different subs and I've troubleshooted many a strange noise coming from subs. Many of the noises have been joints that vibrate due to a glue joint failure. So when building these boxes, I wanted to eliminated these kinds of problems. These are version 2 boxes from peter Sylvester's site which contain instructions for using West Marine Epoxy systems.
This stuff is used to build and repair boat hulls which are subject to extreme vibration. I had a gallon to work with. The raw mix is quite thin and wicks deep into the wood. It goes on like paint, but soaks in much deeper. The additive is also West fiber filler which looks like a powder. The filler adds considerable strength to the epoxy and also thickens to any desired consistency.
The procedure is to mix a batch with and one without filler. First brush the thin on both surfaces so the glue wicks deep into the wood, then the thickend mix to add strength at at the joint surface. The results were way beyond my expectations. On a test piece of two 12" square pieces of plywood butt jointed together, It took a sledge hammer to break them apart and it did not break at the joint. The wood panels were destroyed, but joints were still intact. This stuff makes the joint stronger that the wood itself. The mix with filler gets super hard. Hitting hit with the claw of a hammer barely makes a mark, like hitting a rock. I've since used it on all may boxes, racks, and cases. For cases and racks, no additional bracing is needed making the finished product lighter and stronger.
These boxes have been moved and used on close to 500 shows now and still look new except for a few dings. They are still rock solid even after some drops. The decision to coat the inside and outside of all surfaces was originally to make the things completely waterproof. Besides it's easy to apply the raw mix. Plus the coated wood is stiffer. But after comparing them side by side with others built by someone else using other glue, I noticed another big difference. Running at full power, my boxes had much less vibration when touching them with your hand. They vibrate much less than the top boxes. The others almost walked across the floor. I first though mine were unplugged. This means much of the acoustic energy was getting converted into vibration (mechanical energy) meaning less output. How much, I don't know, but the difference was very noticable.
Try this stuff and you'll be amazed. The secret is the West filler material mixed in with the epoxy. And the raw mix is aborbed into the wood fibers giving it some of the same properties as the filler mix. These boxes will survive long after others have fallen apart.
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Topic: Epoxy abuse? (Read 8260 times)