DIY Sub Finally Finished

tryrrthg

It’s been SEVERAL months but I finally found time to finish my DIY sub. It is a sealed design, with an internal volume of 130 liters (4.6 cubic feet, or so), with the Atlas 15 driver from Ascendant Audio. After about four pounds of stuffing I hope it comes out around a low Q design. The top is 22.5”, but the sides are around 21”. It stands just over 31” tall.

It is a 3/4” thick MDF box, “veneered” with 1/4” oak plywood. I used plywood to keep the costs down, it was cheaper than using actual veneer, plus it gave me another 1/4” of wall thickness. The top is 3/4” oak plywood edged with real oak to cover up the plywood sides. The “frames” on the edges are 1/4” thick oak. I was trying to make the sub look like mission style furniture, which is what most of the furniture in our house is. I still need to do a lot of sanding and stain it, but we’re in the middle of a bathroom remodel so it will have to wait. I don’t want to rush the finish, so I’ll use it as is until I have more time.

I’ve attached a few pics, but you can check out pics of the build process in the link below.

http://www.angelfire.com/alt/tryrrthg/atlas15/

I just finished it today, so I haven’t gotten a chance to hook it up yet, I was too busy ripping up sub-floor in the bathroom. :rolleyes:

VR3

Very nice...

Very nice indeed! Excellent finish work there!

michael_w

Looks very nice. Probably high waf there having it look like an end table.

I can't belive you had it sitting around for so long and hadn't built a box for it yet. I had my box half built before my atlas even made it to my house

tryrrthg

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote:

Very nice...

Very nice indeed! Excellent finish work there!

Thanks! I just hope something doesn't end up rattling with all the glued trim pieces.

michael_w wrote:

Looks very nice. Probably high waf there having it look like an end table.

I can't belive you had it sitting around for so long and hadn't built a box for it yet. I had my box half built before my atlas even made it to my house

Thanks!

When you live in an old house there is always something more important to do. It was hard waiting this long, but I finally got to start the box back in November. I would have started sooner but my wife was furious when I bought the Atlas 15 because I didn't "need" a new sub. I think she likes the looks of this one better than my sonosub, so I win!

michael_w

What do you have running in the sonosub? I can see why she would be traumatized after having to live with a giant sonosub. Aren't they around six feet tall depending on the driver?

tryrrthg

michael_w wrote:

What do you have running in the sonosub? I can see why she would be traumatized after having to live with a giant sonosub. Aren't they around six feet tall depending on the driver?

I had an old SVS driver. it was similar to the Adire Shiva driver. The sonosub was only about 3 feet tall, 18" in diameter. More info on that projecthere

Early B.

AWESOME !!!! I know it's gonna sound great. How large is the room?

tryrrthg

Early B. wrote:

AWESOME !!!! I know it's gonna sound great. How large is the room?

Thank you, sir.

The room is 12.5' x 22' at it's widest spot. The sub will be corner loaded, and EQ'd with a BFD. I'm hoping with a little help from room gain I'll be flat into the low 20's. It should be more than adequate for the all important 25-60hz range for movies. There is no way I'm lugging that thing upstairs into the 2 channel rig.

gatemplin

Hi Troy,

That sub looks amazing. Excellent craftsmanship.

What kind of stain are you going to apply? What finish are you going to use after the stain?

I look forward to seeing the progress.

dorokusai

It looks fantastic, have fun.

tryrrthg

gatemplin wrote:

Hi Troy,

That sub looks amazing. Excellent craftsmanship.

What kind of stain are you going to apply? What finish are you going to use after the stain?

I look forward to seeing the progress.

Thanks, Graham! I'm hoping to find a good mission color stain to use. F1nut gave me a mixture to try out. I've got a couple other options that I found on my own. I don't have the patience for finishing/staining so I just hope it turns out nice.

dorokusai wrote:

It looks fantastic, have fun.

Thanks, doro!

tryrrthg

For those that even care. I ran some quick test tones on the new sub last night. Just a quick 90hz to 20hz in 5 hz increments and the top line is the result. The bottom line is what the software is predicting the response will be after EQ with the BFD. Not too shabby, I sure hope it ends up like that after more test tones.

Room gain is a wonderful thing!

PoweredByDodge

holy **** **** that's beautiful. i'm serious - that's beautiful.

Mazeroth

Troy, VERY NICE!

I see your table saw box in the pic...is that a Ryobi BT3100? If so, I just picked one up myself about a month ago and it's still in the box in the garage. How are you liking yours? I think I'm going to wait another month or so to put it together when I'm ready to build my new dipole speakers.

As far as that spreadsheet to calculate BFD values, any chance you could give me a link to it or email it to me?

Lastly, which Q setting did you opt to go with on the Atlas?

Again, NICE WORK!

tryrrthg

PoweredByDodge wrote:

holy **** **** that's beautiful. i'm serious - that's beautiful.

Thank you.

Mazeroth wrote:

Troy, VERY NICE!

I see your table saw box in the pic...is that a Ryobi BT3100? If so, I just picked one up myself about a month ago and it's still in the box in the garage. How are you liking yours? I think I'm going to wait another month or so to put it together when I'm ready to build my new dipole speakers.

As far as that spreadsheet to calculate BFD values, any chance you could give me a link to it or email it to me?

Lastly, which Q setting did you opt to go with on the Atlas?

Again, NICE WORK!

Thanks! I need to get over to your place (if you don't mind) to hear some of your creations!

It is the Ryobi BT3100. Damn thing NEVER goes on sale, but I got a 10% coupon last summer so I bought it. I love it so far. Probably one of the best purchases I've ever made. Fence locks down square, easy to adjust, huge rip capacity for this size saw. Love it! It seemed to be a much better saw than anything else in it's price range when I was looking. I'm sure you'll love it too, put the damn thing together! It doesn't take long to put together. Oh, one other thing, the dust collection when you hook up your shop vac is fantastic. I cut all the MDF for my sub in my basement and only swept up a small pile of dust, and that was with a little POS 2 gallon shop vac, I haven't hooked up my new big vac yet. I can't say enough good things about it. Hopefully it continues serving me well because I don't want to spend much more on a saw anytime soon.

The Room EQ wizard software can be found HERE I need to find time to mess around with it. I just got some of the connectors from PE that I needed to do it. It should be a pretty nice little tool. More info HERE and HERE

I'm not really sure on the Q of my sub. I came up with some size constraints (for my wife) and then I put in some heavy polyfil, so according to unibox it should be in the .6-.65 range. I would have liked to go a bit lower, but then it just got too big. I'm just glad room gain seems to be working in my favor.

EDIT: You might have meant what Qtc wiring scheme I used on the Atlas. I used the low Q, the one with the small loop of wire between the gold terminals.

unc2701

Hey- I've got the same saw, too. Dust collection is great, but the miter guage sucks. You can get an aftermarket one and I'm thinking that's going to be my next tool purchase.

tryrrthg

unc2701 wrote:

Hey- I've got the same saw, too. Dust collection is great, but the miter guage sucks. You can get an aftermarket one and I'm thinking that's going to be my next tool purchase.

Can you be more specific? Why does it suck?

I haven't used the sliding miter table much, but everything I've read about this saw that the miter table is one of it's biggest selling points. You can't find a saw with a sliding miter table for anywhere near the Ryobi's price. The only flaw I've had with it is the guage kinda sucks. I think a good protractor, or something, could help with setting it up to the right angle.

FYI for you guys, if you haven't already seen it. Here is a great site for tons of info on the saw.

http://bt3central.com/

unc2701

Not enough slide and you need a protractor to get the angle right. I tried doing a 45 degree angle on a sheet at was two feet wide [so the length of the cut was 2*sqrt(2)] and theres no way to get it through like that. I do have to say that the sliding part is nice for smaller pieces, but you still have to get a protractor (or I just use my miter saw on a scrap piece, then line it up).

Mazeroth

*hides from Troy*

You're not going to believe this, but I was about to purchase the BT3100 last summer but decided to wait, and I'm glad I did. I was on fatwallet.com and found this thread on there:

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=18&threadid=548683&highlight_key=y&keyword1=bt3100

Turns out the Home Depot down the road had one left in stock (Mill Run in Hilliard) and the one on Broad Street was sold out. They had them on sale for $199 with a $50 rebate. I also used a 10% off Home Depot coupon, so I got the BT3100 for $130 after rebate!

When I called down there some guy named Mel said they had one in stock. I told him to hold it for me and I would be down right away. He said, "We don't hold items for people." I said, "Mel, hold it."

I felt so good about getting the saw so cheap that I also picked up the Ryobi RE180PL plunge router for $90 after the 10% coupon. I still haven't used it but I have plans for it:

http://www.ryobitools.com/index.php/catalog/tool/re180pl/

I have the IB sub done, but I still need to get a Feedback Destroyer for it. Life has been extremely hectic around here lately (job killing me, just got married, college full-time) and time with my wife is very limited. I should be moving to first shift in the next month or two and hopefully will have the dipole speakers done by then. You're more than welcome to come over and spend the evening here checking out my stuff but let's wait like two months so I can get things settled down and everything finished. I also need to install a door in the basement to block the rear wave of the IB from interfering with the theater room, so that should be another fun task to fit into my schedule!

tryrrthg

Are you effing kidding me? $130 is a damn steal. I bought mine at the Mill Run store also, the guy that helped me was a total ****. I waited for several months waiting for some kind of deal on this thing and I couldn't find anything. I bought mine in July or August and didn't even use it until November. You just ruined my day!

Yeah, my life is crazy now too. Just let me know, we'll have to work something out in the next few months.

burdette

I own the BT3100. I think it is an incredible saw, and, for the price (even full retail) I think it is an amazing bargain. And I did a LOT of research before I bought mine. I paid the full $299 (I wanted it NOW), but the deal at the time was a free $99 accessory kit (including a cool 'router-table' kit that I've used a lot).

I've not found the miter to be off in any way. The slide of the miter table was too short on a recent project when I built shelves in a closet. BUT - they were 38" across - that is pretty big. I used my 3100 for the 'church sub' I built and posted pics of here.

I huffed for a couple of jobs because I wanted the fence to go further out - then I remembered that the rails slide and that problem was fixed. That is one thing about the saw - it is SO versatile.

Here is the BT3100 web site. It is for BT3000/BT3100 owners and wood working what the Polk site is for Polk-lovers. All sorts of articles on how to make jigs, refined procedures to set accuracy and cleaning, a full set of Forums, projects, etc etc etc.
http://www.bt3central.com/

unc2701

Wait, the rails slide???!!! How the hell did I miss that? I won't tell you how many screwy cuts i've done since I couldn't get the fence far enough out. I'm totally checking this out tonight. Anyhow, I've got the router table attachment, too. Had to drill some new holes in the mounting plate to take my dewalt, but it works pretty well.

burdette

There are two flip-down handles for each rail 'under' the rail near the main body of the saw. You wouldn't know they were there unless you got down and looked.. or.. um.. read the manual! You'd have to use them to attach the rails if the saw came unassembled.. but I seem to remember my rails already being on.

I did read the manual, I knew the handles were there and the rails slid, but never needed to move them and completely forgot. Then, I noticed one of the handles hanging in the open position and the lights went off.

I know what you mean about the limitation.. I changed the dimension of a project (?) in order to be able to run the panels through with the fence. Had I remembered the rails slide, I wouldn't have had to do this.

Remember there are a lot of adjustments with that sliding miter table, too - you can turn it around so it 'pulls' instead of 'pushes', can slide the sliding table left/right on the rails, etc.

unc2701

Huh. I never had the manual (not that I would have read it)- I got the table from my brother when he upgraded to some kind of seriously badass one. Thanks for the tip!