Dayton 18" HO Ported Build Thread

Haoleb

Haoleb

Audioholic Field Marshall
This is going to be the official build thread for my pair of ported subwoofers featuring the Dayton Audio RSS460HO-4 driver. This is their reference line 18" High Output driver.

The box parameters I will be using were conceived by forum member "TLS Guy". Attached is the PDF file he created with BassBox software.

I will be building the box out of primarily 1" MDF. I will state right from the get go that MDF is not my material of choice because I just plain hate working with the stuff and you have to be very careful not to damage it when installing fasteners or damaging the edges. But... Price is a factor and something like the baltic birch I wanted to use was simply WAY out of the budget.

I have spent several hours designing the box using sketchup software to model the construction. Get my measurements and calculate volume and the final product I have decided on features what I consider to be pretty heavy duty construction. My target box volume internal per the design is 7.672 cubic feet and the calculated volume my design comes out to is 7.678 cubic feet. The only thing I was unable to calculate is the material that will be taken off by putting a roundover on all of the holes in the bracing. This will give me some more volume in the box obviously but I think it will be minimal and I expect it will be evened out with me putting in some Roxul Rockboard 60 on some of the internal surfaces.

So.. Lets get to it.

The following drawings and specifications are a DRAFT at this point. Once I have completed this project I will post accurate and detailed specifications.
 

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Haoleb

Haoleb

Audioholic Field Marshall
So here are some photos of the box design. The total outside dimensions of the box are as follows.

24.5" Wide
27.5" Tall
34.5" Deep



The port design I decided on is basically a complete self enclosed port inside the box. Meaning it does not rely on the bottom or back panel as a port wall. This makes it stiffer and allows me to move the bottom of the port cutout up from one inch from the bottom to two inches.

Also the port length is exactly the specified length of 37.29" when measured from the face of the front baffle to the opening inside the box. Measured along midway of the port (1.5" down the 3" wall)



The port itself is 3" tall by 14" wide inside dimension.



 
Haoleb

Haoleb

Audioholic Field Marshall


The front baffle will be two pieces of 1" thick MDF. Allowing me to flush mount the driver and resulting in a two inch thick front baffle for greater stiffness.





This is a dimensioned view of the two side braces that will connect the front baffle to the side panels and the next internal brace. These will be one inch thick MDF. Note the hole dimensions are radius not diameter.




Top brace on the front panel. Slightly smaller because of less room. These holes are diameter.. Also one inch thick material.



Also note the driver I have modeled in there is not exactly the dimensions but close enough to get my cabinet designed. I mainly needed it to see clearances.



The "arch" pieces will be cut from one square of wood after I have cut the hole with the router I will saw it in half to create two identical pieces.







These "panel braces" will be made out of 3/4" MDF to save on the volume taken up. There will be two per box.



Arch braces will be 1" MDF



Calculated volume with all of the bracing, port and driver installed.
 
Haoleb

Haoleb

Audioholic Field Marshall
The overall weight I have calculated for each of these is ALOT! Honestly not sure how much they will weigh but I am guessing ~250-300lbs each with the driver installed.

If you want the sketchup file I can email it. But until I actually have the things built it is subject to some adjustments. I think I worked out all of the kinks though when modeling it.

I plan on getting the material tomorrow and getting started cutting soon after. It looks like I will need 5 sheets of 1" MDF and one sheet of 3/4"




I used the cutlist plus software to layout my panels but since I only have the demo version I am limited to 8 pieces...
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Thank you so much for publishing these detailed plans of this sub on this site.

I'm an old geyser and I'm not good with CAD projects. I still use a pencil and architect's ruler!

I think this is an absolutely splendid rendition of this design. The bracing is just right. That is how you design and build a non resonant enclosure.

Sensitivity is 93 db 2.83 volts 1 meter, so you won't need a lot of power. The thermal compression will be insignificant.

Though, ported I think you will still find the bass tight and at the same time powerful. An output of slightly in excess of 120 db is possible. I would not try that inside, or you might be replacing windows.

I do hope your efforts and trouble are rewarded.

I await the build pictures with interest.

If you favor a tight bass, I would use a slight excess of damping. You have plenty of output, so you can sacrifice some to get a better damped response.

As always, DIY is about better speakers. If they also happen to be cheaper, that is bonus. The primary focus must be better speakers.

I wish you every success with the build and once again many thanks.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Haoelb,
I was able to find Google's sketchup 8 free (last version under Google owner) if you want ill send you the url i found before
 
Haoleb

Haoleb

Audioholic Field Marshall
TLS- Thanks for the help. I am not a fan of working up things on a computer myself. (i was cursing the screen many times putting that together!) I would rather just go build the darned thing and design it as I go but of course in order to get the volume calculated and the design correct this is not an option with this particular project. The real nice thing about doing it this way is I simply had to select an object in the program and it spits out the area just like that. No calculations necessary. Except to calculate the volume of the 3/4" materials which is simple. Makes it easy to tweak the design to get the parameters I wanted. I played with a few designs before settling on this one.

Also please do send me the link for the free sketchup. I wish the cutlist program was free but its not :( I just input the largest pieces and there is enough room left on each panel to fit the smaller pieces on my own.

I am slightly regretting choosing to use 1" material for most of the box because I am finding out the closest lumber yard that has such a material is over an hour away and 1" MDF is going for $60-65 a sheet. I was expecting it to be closer to 40 or 50 but its too late now. The design is for 1 inch and I am not going to redo it at this point.

The next challenge is getting 5 sheets of 1 inch and a sheet of 3/4 into a borrowed ford ranger and getting it home. Probably easier than the roof rack on my jeep though ;) It will still be a few days yet before I have build pics to post up. Probably cut out of work early tomorrow and pickup the wood then start cutting wednesday. I am hoping to get all the pieces cut and routered with the long weekend I have coming up. And get started putting it together.
 
Haoleb

Haoleb

Audioholic Field Marshall
Well... It has Begun!!! Took a ride down to my not so local hardwood and plywood yard and picked up my 5 sheets of 1 inch and one sheet of 3/4 MDF. 63 bucks a sheet for the 1 inch and 37 for the 3/4. They sure don't give the stuff away. Ended up building a couple little support legs for the wood so it could fit into the ranger. If it were just a sheet or two I would have propped it up on the tailgate but thats a little sketchy with this much.



Getting it into the my "workshop" took about every last ounce of energy I had doing it by myself up a few stairs. I am used to having to lug around soaking wet 5/8 plywood for roof sheeting or shearwall but damned this stuff is heavy.

For kicks I got out the scale just to see how much one sheet of the 1" weighs. I had read some folks saying it was 80 lbs or 96 lbs or some less.

Nope.. Not the stuff I got. 116.4 lbs per sheet!! Yikes that 300lbs per subwoofer might just be spot on at this rate.



My workshop consists of a spare room that is a converted outside screened in porch as best as I can tell. I have a large tarp setup on the carpet and another one that closes off half the room. Going to play it by ear and see how cutting this stuff in the house goes but I can open a window or two in my sectioned off area and get a couple box fans going if needed. I will definitely be wearing a mask.

Not even going to attempt ripping on the table saw. going to use my skilsaw and a guide. I think I get better results doing it that way anyhow.



Some other goodies arrived today as well! My two QSC RMX1450a Amplifiers, DCX and a USB microphone to get it all setup. Last time I did a setup like this I used the microphone on my rat shack SPL meter but this should be a good improvement I think.



Took the top off the DCX because there was something loose inside which turned out to be a piece of hot glue. and also noticed they wrapped the incoming line power connectors with some cheapo electrical tape. Gives it a pretty shoddy home made look... I hate that sort of thing. Its not even good tape like super33+ but... whatever.



Thats all for today! Tomorrow the cutting begins!
 
lsiberian

lsiberian

Audioholic Overlord
This is amazing and is certainly a design I'd consider using in the future.
 
Armandhammer

Armandhammer

Audioholic Intern
Looking forward to this. I was thinking about building something myself but not nearly as complex as this project. I was thinking more of a 1.5cf sealed cube with a 10" woofer...lol
 
Haoleb

Haoleb

Audioholic Field Marshall
Well I spent some more time just double checking all of my measurements and working on the sheet layout a little more before I start cutting my materials. Here are some photos of the sheet layout. This is only for the 5 sheets of 1" MDF. The 3/4 is pretty easy since you would only be cutting 4 square pieces. The program I used is called cutlist plus fx and it is extremely easy to use and helpful. I only have the demo version that is limited to 8 parts so the 6th sheet is the smaller pieces laid out on the cutoff of a previous sheet. It is 80 dollars for the basic version. Well worth the cost if I did more of this type of stuff.

There is going to be two almost half sheets left over. I guess I could have changed the sub dimensions to better use the MDF but.. Oh well..











 
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Haoleb

Haoleb

Audioholic Field Marshall
OK First screw up.

Just to double check my volume I went back and re-calcuated it and found out that when I originally calculated the port volume i screwed up somewhere and was expecting it to take more room than it does. So now I have too much volume inside the box. I will actually have 7.926 cubic feet. And that is after i delete the holes in the front three braces that connect to the baffle and the little cutouts adjacent to the side of the port in the main brace panels. I am hoping this will not change anything too much.
 
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jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
Looking forward to another build of yours also good to see you back and posting.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
OK First screw up.

Just to double check my volume I went back and re-calcuated it and found out that when I originally calculated the port volume i screwed up somewhere and was expecting it to take more room than it does. So now I have too much volume inside the box. I will actually have 7.926 cubic feet. And that is after i delete the holes in the front three braces that connect to the baffle and the little cutouts adjacent to the side of the port in the main brace panels. I am hoping this will not change anything too much.
Loosing box volume is pretty easy. That is an error easily corrected.
 
Haoleb

Haoleb

Audioholic Field Marshall
Alrighty... Some more time spent back at the drawing board. NOW i have the correct volume worked out. My volume now comes out to 7.674 Cubic feet. The target from bass box specs is 7.672 so I think I am pretty damned close!

I added in a couple pieces to the bottom to double the thickness where the spikes will screw into the cabinet. Not for strength but so that I can drill into the bottom for T nuts without going into the cabinet. I think I will use the heavy duty T nuts that have screw holes on the flange instead of the stupid prongs for the feet.

I also removed some cutouts and holes in the bracing. And added in small cleats along the top corners for added gluing and holding surface area as well as along the lower portion of the sides to aid in spacing and more glue surface area.

In addition to that instead of using 3/4" thick MDF for my two main panel braces I am going to use the 1" I will have leftover and in order to keep my other bracing dimensions the same I will router out 1/4" groove where the bracing fits together which as an added benefit will again increase glue area and strength as well as help align parts.










 
Haoleb

Haoleb

Audioholic Field Marshall
Well now that day 2 of cutting is over I guess I should update. I got all of my large parts cut. Now I just need to finish cutting all the small parts tomorrow and likely get the router fired up and get some holes cut for the bracing parts.

Ran into a few snags so far. Nothing too catastrophic. Although I am a bit of a perfectionist so good luck convincing me the world hadn't ended. First. The factory edge on this MDF is less than spectacular so I have been cutting it off. This adds time since I need to square everything up. And... two of the sheets the darned things weren't even square from the factory to begin with. :mad: Never ran into that issue before using sheet goods.

The worst panel by the time I got it squared up the rip piece I took off was about 1/2 inch thick on one end and 3/16 or a 1/4 on the other. Terrible. Luckily they come oversized and I have some room to play with.

Its been slow going because for every cut I measure.... measure again.... set my guide.. measure again.. check for square. turn on the shop vac.. cut.. suck up all the dust. Unclamp the guide. Make sure I didnt screw up the cut by measuring and checking for square again. THEN move onto the next cut. All on my hands and knees on the floor.



I have multiple measuring tools but decided to just stick with the good ole' tape measure. Bad thing about a tape is that if you are going for accuracy you can't just hook on and go because I have yet to use a tape measure that is accurate this way. There is always some slop in the end. Have to hold one inch over (or how ever many you want) Then be sure to add on the other end. Lots to remember. And since I am using a guide I also have to subtract the distance from the guide to the sawblade. Hence... Lots of double checking.



Using a cutting guide from home depot. Nothing special but it gets the job done. its two pieces so even when its joined together if you really want it to be straight you still need to hold the middle from moving.




Here's where the world all went to hell in a hand-basket. On first glace you would think I free handed this with a little "sidewinder" Nope. First time it happened I thought what the heck. Maybe I was just focusing too much on keeping the vac hose in the right place I wasn't watching the guide. Then after the 3rd time I figured out its because the saw blade was getting hot by the time I would get halfway down the sheet and started walking all over the place. When I started this was a high end finish blade that I had only used a couple times but yes if you are wondering MDF does eat through your cutting tools. Notice the first half of the cut is fine.

Probably doesn't help the blade I am using is only a 1/16" kerf. Short cuts its fine. Luckily because of the way my sheets are laid out I was cutting off that bad part anyway but i do have at least one piece that is a little less than perfect. Though not as bad as the pic. This was the last sheet so it was worse by then.



All of the big panels cut. Since I had to re-design for the whole port volume snafu I have a sheet of 3/4 I won't need but actually its worth the 37 bucks to have a relatively flat work surface. So it turned out pretty well!



Just for kicks i sort of put one together to get an idea of the what I was building. These things are going to dwarf my Kappa's I had. The cabinet is HUGE!

That's all for today. Hopefully before the weekend is out I will have the port assemblies glue up and assembled and some of the bracing assembly glued and by next weekend maybe it will start to look like something!
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Dang that's a beast. If all else fails, your dog gets a new house :D
 
JohnnieB

JohnnieB

Senior Audioholic
Thank You for taking the time to document and post this build. I also am building this TLS designed sub and another perspective is quite helpful. I wish you the best of luck and look forward to watching this build progress.
 
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