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  1. #1
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    What building material to use?

    Hi, thanks for any and all thoughts. I am going to build my own stereo cabinet and I was wondering if using a hardwood or MDF offers any advantage? Any thoughts?

    Last edited by The Grudge; 01-10-2006 at 06:08 PM.

  2. #2
    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    MDF is cheaper, denser, and routers so nicely if you want to round over the edges. Makes it easy to paint, or you could stick some vinyl laminate (like speaker finish) on it to match your speakers. I don't see any advantage to hardwood, other than you could "stain and go".
    I built both of mine out of MDF. I made glass shelves (broke 2, what a mess). Painted both a satin black.

  3. #3
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    Thanks for the thoughts. The only reason I would lean toward hardwood is that MDF is actually quite toxic and the dust from sanding/cutting MDF is very dangerous. I would love to find any resource that compares vibrational dampening qualities of woods/mdf and other building materials. Has anybody seen such a beast in their travels? How much of a difference this makes I am not sure, but my components are situated between my speakers so at mid or high volumes I wonder if the sound vibrations are at all affecting the sound I hear.

    Perhaps that is just to silly to even consider, I really do not know. I am considering using Vibrapods for my components.


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    Birch Plywood

    You could try birch or another veneered plywood. There are also several other types available. It's basically plywood with a hardwood veneer. Cheaper and easier to machine than hardwood, lighter than MDF so your project won't weigh a ton.

    You just need to consider what to do with the edges. They can be sanded and finished, possibly edged with a router first. There is also edgebanding available that is adhered with an iron.

    Good luck!

  5. #5
    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Grudge
    Thanks for the thoughts. The only reason I would lean toward hardwood is that MDF is actually quite toxic and the dust from sanding/cutting MDF is very dangerous.
    Yes, toxicology studies show the lethal doses for a 150 lb person to be 1 lb. Yummy. If you work around this stuff all the time, you should wear respirators. If infrequently, you purge the stuff from your system as fast as you take it in. But the dust could irritate your lungs. I always wear a cheap mask at least.
    Quote Originally Posted by The Grudge
    I would love to find any resource that compares vibrational dampening qualities of woods/mdf and other building materials. Has anybody seen such a beast in their travels? How much of a difference this makes I am not sure, but my components are situated between my speakers so at mid or high volumes I wonder if the sound vibrations are at all affecting the sound I hear.
    I took a quick look online and couldn't find anything, but I have a few speaker building books that quote studies. For your purposes, mass/density and how porous the material is are the primary functions of damping performance. MDF is probably more dense than most affordable woods, and certainly less porous. Use 0.75" and you'd be fine. Alternatively (as suggested by Arturo) you could use a nice baltic birch ply (or any decent birch ply, the more plys the better). They're pretty dense, not very porous, and tough. Might make for better finishing options with edge banding.
    Quote Originally Posted by The Grudge
    Perhaps that is just to silly to even consider, I really do not know. I am considering using Vibrapods for my components.

    I haven't seen any definitive independant studies that vibrapods and the like actually contribute anything meaningful performance wise to electronics. If you are aware of any I'd love to see them. Adding mass or building a rigid audio rack to dampen your electronics isn't going to remove vibrations, it's just lowers the frequency of the vibrations. In some cases this will excite parts to vibrate when they wouldn't at higher frequencies. But I think the chances of that are slim. I'm sure there's more cost-effective tweaks you can make in your system - room treatments maybe?

  6. #6
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    True, you don't want to eat or breath a steady diet of MDF but if you take reasonable precautions in its handling and shaping, you are highly unlikely to suffer any more than you would from eating the occassional tuna sandwich...

    I have been contemplating building speakers for our formal living room and have done a fair amount of research. It is difficult to blend the acoustic with the aesthetic. I know I can make them look great- I am going to need some assistance in making them sound great. The majority of furniture in the room is show pieces that I have built and decided to keep. I love different types and combinations of maple so most speakers would stick out like very sore thumbs. I'm also about 75 years too late to make in-wall wiring an easy proposition. While I have skill, equipment, and ready access to premium and exotic hardwoods, I'm planning on using lowly MDF for the cabinets. However, they just aren't going to look like MDF...

    For your project, I'd use MDF in a heartbeat. It's engineered properties make it very stable, strong, and it is largely acoustically dead. MDF really doesn't resonate well- (as a general rule, don't buy a cello made from it) and takes paint reasonably well (use a good primer first). I'd say open up about any "nice" speaker and you will find that it is built of MDF. MDF also provides an excellent base for applying veneer. Check out your local suppliers for veneer or several of the best online vendors (rockler.com is an excellent stop for the novice woodworker) because you can really do some amazing things with it. I think partsexpress.com has vinyl veneers (ala many speakers) but even stepping up to a wood-based self-adhesive wood veneer (cedan for one brand name) is an easy and reasonably priced upgrade. Real wood veneers give you the greatest design options. Granted, many joints (exposed tenon or dovetails, for example) will not look good with MDF, but for general carcase and cabinetry projects MDF provides a great base.

  7. #7
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    The words MDF cover a fair amount of territory. Turns out the different manufacturers have their own definition of "medium" density. At least one manufacturer makes a board where the density varies from outside edge to the middle. You can see this kind, by looking closely at the edge, the grain size of the power from which the board is compressed actually seems to get coarser in the middle.

    In theory at least this stuff will have better damping characteristics than a constant density competitior.

    Any construction involving layers of differnt materials will have better damping characteristics that a consistent density material. Even a thin veneer will help. Acording to Mapleshade records, Maple wood has the best damping characteristic of any of the hardwoods.

    If you are truly concerned about vibration, stay well away from glass shelves, they are possibly the worst choice for shelf material (glass rings amazingly well).

  8. #8
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    Thank you all! This has provided me a great deal of information to start from. I have to do this as my current open shelved unit (not worth working with) is a great source of attraction for my now crawling daughter. In fact she smacked her little head on my power amp just a few hours back so I think I had best get moving on this. I am going to design it so that the power bar is inside the unit hiding all the ugly power cords my wife hates seeing so much. I was even considering adding some small fans to provide additional air flow, but I am thinking that may be just going a little overboard. I always make sure the amp has lots of space around it and the cabinet won't be airtight so I am thinking that will suffice. Does that sound appropriate?


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