Before assembling the box, I first had to lay out the demensions of everything so that my Dad could cut the LDP at work. Since I don't know the technical details of drivers I am enclosing, I determined the cabinent dimensions by looking at commercial center channel speakers with similarly sized woofers. I decided to make the box 17" X 8" X 8" overall. The interior is divided into 3 chambers; 2 for the woofers and 1 for the tweeters.
My Dad cut ripped a sheet of LDP to the specs I gave him, and cut a few extra pieces because of an error I made (hey, its hard to account for all the 1/2" thicknesses of the material and make as few seams as possible.)
I completed the rest of the project at my Grandpa's house where he has a very well equipt machine shop. For added strength and to reduce vibrations we decided to dayto the sides of the box.

Next we used Elmer's wood glue to bond the sides to the base of the cabinent. As the old addage goes "you can never have enough clamps." As you can see in the picture, we used them generously to ensure that the sides remain flush, square and hermediaclly sealed. A tight enclosure prevents air from leaking and causing noise.

Next we had to quarter the steel plate and fit the pieces into the sides of the box. The 16 gauge steel was too thick to use sheers on, so we used a carbon grinding wheel. While the cuts were not exactly beautiful, they got the job done. I bonded the plates to the sides with liquid nails and clamped them tight to prevent rattling. Hopefully these plates, which add considerably to the mass of the enclosure, will contain any extraneous magnetic flux.

 

 

 

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