Before you screw it all together you will find you have a few little offcuts of MDF lying around. You can use this for internal bracing if you like (I didn't and it seems fine without it).
Screw all the sides (parts "A") together first using the 50mm chipboard screws, lining your edges up with the faces of the pieces with the pilot holes. Use plenty of glue! If you're measurements and cuts are good then it'll slot together in no time. Remember, it's just a box. It aint too hard at all, even for a complete novice.
After the sides are screwed together screw both the top and bottom on. One side is longer than the other on these pieces so it's easy to see which way these pieces go. Again, use heaps of glue!
At this point I advise sanding the whole thing back if you want a neat finish. This is the completed box ready for hardware. You can paint it or whatever you like at this stage too.
Now I'm going to put my rubber feet on it and take it inside to do the rest because the weather's looking foul!
Now I'm inside I'll stuff it full of deadening batts. You can staple or whatever this to the walls if you like. I just put a few screws on the inside of the case, pulled the batts over it and then bent the screws (how slack eh!)
Now all we have to do is put the Woofer in (do this first), put the screws in, hook the speaker wire up to it and then put the Sub amp module in and screw that in. Again, if your cuts are on the money then all this is a breeze. We're now ready to hook it up and test it.
Here's the finished Subwoofer standing next to my crappy Pro Logic system. The TV is a 72 cm job to give you an idea of size.
Now just tweak around the back of the Sub amp to get the bass feel you like.
There's heaps of room for improvements to this box if you want to add to it. Needless to say I wanted to keep the whole project as simple as possible and help people to realise that a good Subwoofer system can be made for a fraction of the cost as what you would buy one down at a HiFi store. We all use our PCs for a lot of music/sound applications these days and this can be added to a PC sound system as well as any HiFi you may have.
This has been a very worthwhile project to undertake as I went down to JB HiFi and tested out a lot of their subs. This thing is easily comparable to anything they had around the $1200 mark and that's only with the little 10" cheap woofer in it. If I blow it up (I doubt I will, I've had it at full volume for prolonged periods) I'll probably try a 12" or 15" woofer in it. What you choose is up to you.
If you feel I've missed anything out or would like to add to this then please do in this forum thread. I'd also like to thank McNugget in particular for his advice along the way when I was researching how to do this.
All original content copyright James Rolfe.
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