Steel enclosures

It's not used for exactly the reason you mention: something that will "ring for hours" is not a good material to use for an enclosure.  A good enclosure is acoustically neutral.  Metal is generally anything but that.  If metal is used for enclosures, it must be lined with MDF or dense sound-absorbant material such as Sonex, and then braces and reinforcements must be welded into it to prevent flexing.  In my opinion, it is not worth the extra effort, expense, or time, and the sound quality of the resulats are generally not satisfactory... and if it's the look of a metal enclosure you're after, I suggest building a standard MDF enclosure and attaching metal panels to the outside.

worked in a fabrication shop for 3 years.  In that time I installed a audio system in a fellas 2002 Dakota who also worked there.  This exact subject came up and he (being such a hotshot welder) said, "stealth box my ass, I'll just build one".  I tried to talk him out of it for the same reasons mentioned above.  He was convinced it would work.  We messed around with several materials and found aluminum to be the most acoustically dead.  Aluminum is a softer metal and does not resonate like other types of metal.  We tested this by taking tubes of approximately the same size and hitting them with hammer, tapping on them, basically playing with them.  Not very scientific.  Oh well, that was my observation, we never got the chance to build it as he moved out of state.  I wish we had done it though, would have been a fun project.

Yeah, the flexing is not really an issue with such short spans and thick plates.  I would use 1/8 to 1/4 inch.  Aluminum is also not magnetic, another bonus.  Will not rust, is soft enough to drill easily.  Its lighter.  The only down fall is price (and a little harder to weld, I'm a decent welder if your wondering). 

Well, if you build it, post pics.  Good luck : )

Well, I'm basically a fabricator/maintenance mechanic at a factory, and am the call-in welder (for the tougher jobs that the other guys don't feel confident enough to do (stainless piping, precision work.) I have access to all kinds of scraps for free, hence the idea.  I thought of the 3/8" because of the flex factor. I bet a Parthenon would have it's work cut out to make that flex. I was thinking about it all day, and I imagine it to be boomy, and nothing else.  Although... we do have some stuff at work... it's called Chockfast Red SG. Resin, Hardener, and aggregate. Denser and stronger than concrete, yet lighter and more workable after drying. We use it for pouring around the footings of machinery and rebuilding the faces of press rolls. Maybe if I line the box with that too....

I didn't want to do it for looks or anything, it's just an idea I had. Like I said, there is the weight factor. If I made a square box with all 12" sides out of 3/8" it would probably be a good 60-70 lbs. Add in the resin and a decent driver, it could end up being 100 lbs. in 1 cu. ft.  But the possibilities for custom designed boxes would be as endless as with 'glass.

Thanks for the replies. I probably will try it after work some night when I am bored, just for my own morbid curiosity. I will post pics and results when/if I do.

Rushman wrote:

---

I told you , first Metal , and now Concrete boxes. This has Jesse James all over it.

---

Have you seen the van that Dave Jennings (multi-time SBN top 3 places and many other comps.) runs? The majority of the van was encased in concrete. Then he tore that out and used resin and sand. He's probably on to something else by now.

Oh yeah, and

DYohn] wrote:

---

t's not used for exactly the reason you mention: something that will "ring for hours" is not a good material to use for an enclosure. 

---