"Thumper", my dual polk driver subwoofer...

I made the base using the table saw to cut the 45 degree angles. I routered panels to make the grill frames. I used a/c filters for the grills. I painted the grill frames black with primer, sprayed Scotch 77 on it and glued the foam on. I then trimmed the foam to the edges of the grill frames.

I glued the base on the box and painted the entire box with Zinnser BIN Shellac based primer. The pictures show the upside down so I could paint the bottom of the box with the primer. I painted the inside of the box with primer as well...

So far, I figure the box is about a hundred pounds...

I sanded down the box and repainted the bronze and the dull coat. I had run out of the Rustoleum oiled bronze and used their Universal Oiled Bronze paint. It has a primer in the paint and also has a nozzle built in to the cap. I liked this paint. The new nozzle delivers the paint in a finer mist pattern which left a lot smoother finish.

I drilled two holes to insert the binding posts in the box. I offset the posts to the lower left corner to avoid any issues of it interfering with any larger future amp installations. I attached Dacron polyfill to the inside using the Scotch 77 adhesive.

I then mounted the rear panel and installed the amp. I moved the box indoors for the rest of the assembly because it was already too heavy to move around as it was....

I wired the speakers and installed it.

I bought all the wood and stuff for the build in January, but it literally rained every weekend since. I only got started on this about a month ago. I actually bought a pair of Polk DXi124s for the build but someone gave me the Polk MM1240s, which is supposed to be better. I still have another 500-watt amp, so theoretically I could build another cabinet and make another physically identical box.

What I need to do is to rebuild my Dayton RSS315HF-4 because the driver is stuck in the box with a stripped T-nut which is not secure. I want to make a candy red cabinet.

I finally finished the grill on "Thumper"...



I also finished my red sub...It is based on the Zaph Audio Subwoofer build... It uses a Dayton Audio RSS315HF-4 Reference subwoofer and a Dayton Audio SP-500 500-watt sub plate amplifier... The box is a 18.5" cube with a separate sub-enclosure for the amplifier. The total weight is about 85 lbs. The end result Qtc is about 0.630, which means the bass is very tight.

I primered the box with Zinsser BIN Shellac-based primer and sanded it down with 320 grit paper. I found some gaps and filled it with Bondo and resanded. I made sure that the seams were completely flat.

I then used several cans of Krylon Banner Red. My big issue was that the paint was drying before hitting the surface. This left the surface very coarse, like sandpaper. This was at about 8" away from the box. I had to get closer, about 5-6" to avoid this issue. This however lead to runs. I had to spray rapidly laterally to avoid the paint from running. I sanded between every few coats with 320 grit and the later coats with 400 grit. When I applied the final coat, I waited several days for the paint to cure and I used 600, 800 and 1000 grit. I then used rubbing compound, polish and then waxed the surface. The first and second pictures are closer to the real color of the red. Lighting really affects the camera shot.

I have an issue where there is a haze under the surface of the paint. The surface is super smooth but I can distinctly see a crazing or a haze under the surface. Also, the seams started to show. It looks like the Bondo shrank a bit leaving a line on the edge of the boxes. A high gloss finish is a LOT of work. It took me a month to finish this box, about 4X longer than just painting it with a satin finish... This gloss surface shows every flaw.... The build took about two months. My next project will be a 15" subwoofer in a vented 22" cube.

I really want a HVLP spray gun...