This project nearly broke me... Building a 1kW Subwoofer from Hempcrete!
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- čas přidán 7. 11. 2023
- Thanks to PVCase for sponsoring this video! pvcase.com/ThomasSanladerer
Inspired by the design of the SpaceX Dragon capsule, I set out to mold its shape into a highly functional subwoofer, made with eco-friendly materials!
The amplifier I used (it's pretty good actually) go.toms3d.org/1kwAMP
Printed on the Prusa MK4 go.toms3d.org/MK4
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The mold development is what I find most interesting. I'd be fascinated to see your process for determining and creating the mold pieces.
really loving the direction to "use 3d printing for projects" and not just 3d printing!
There's a technique that I remember hearing about for molding stuff like this. You first put on a relatively coat of just plaster on the mold surface, then you let that cure for a bit before adding in the reinforced stuff. it results in a better surface and allows you to make sure you got material everywhere you need it.
Looks cool, though. Definitely one of a kind!
Yes that's used for glass fibre reinforced concrete projects like countertops and cool things. One I saw was a thin sheet that had a wide radius 90 degree bend in it so the same sheet started as one leg of a desk and became the top surface of it too.
The channel 'Modustrial Maker' does a lot of concrete moulded stuff and that's exactly his process.
Normal fibreglass (glass reinforced plastic) is made this way, a layer called gelcoat is applied to the mould surface before the rest of the bulk material is applied. This leaves a glossy outside face when it is removed from the mould
Every German's hobby: building speakers.
I think Germany is the only country in the world with SEVERAL DIFFERENT periodical magazines available at every train station newspaper stand dedicated to DIY building loudspeakers, testing drivers and components etc. I can't imagine otherwise.
What are they called? Would love to read some
@@fnytnqsladcgqlefzcqxlzlcgj9220 "Hobby Hifi" and Klang und Ton" are the usual two suspects.
@@fnytnqsladcgqlefzcqxlzlcgj9220
One is "Hobby HiFi" lead by acoustical engineer Bernd Timmermanns and another is "Klang+Ton" from a publishing group which does a lot of HiFi related things.
Isn't that something the Brits also do quite a lot?
@@fnytnqsladcgqlefzcqxlzlcgj9220 A lot of this has moved to online media now: google "lautsprecher selbstbau"
You can mix up some plaster as a slurry coat to fill in the any of the surface gaps and imperfections. Plaster is very sand-able and forgiving.
A concrete agitator would have prevented that, I would not have even thought about it had I not seen it on another channel recently.
I was thinking Bondo. Would that work?
@@groggynod Evan and Katelyn recently tested a vibrating pen for that use, worked surprisingly well.
How about one of those massage guns? That'd probably get enough vibration to settle/get bubbles out
Very cool! I personally would've made it easier to fix though, seems more engineering minded that way. :) But unique nonetheless and I like the variety this brings to the channel.
Just want you to know you saved 3D printing for me. I have had an ender 3 for a few years and have never gotten great prints from it. Things have broken and been fixed and I've done a couple upgrades, so it seemed like I was working on the printer every time I used it. Add to that the fact that I don't like running my printer when I'm not home so I'm limited to small parts and the whole experience was pretty frustrating and I ended up rarely ever using my printer. Your video "0.4mm nozzles just became obsolete" convinced me to switch to a 0.6. Suddenly I can print small parts in half an hour or 2 hours. And the print quality looks good!? And I am able to print large parts overnight!? And my direct drive upgrade doesn't jam anymore when printing TPU!? So now I'm selling prints (with the correct licenses I promise) to save up for a bambu with an AMS.
Thank you. Seriously THANK YOU for what you do.
Shout out to @HexiBase ! Thomas you could have 3d printed the enclosure for a subwoofer!
Looks like a good candidate for aircrete/ cellular concrete. Well done for completing this project, very interesting.
Arm chairing engineering here but plaster you have to be really cautious on the clean up because already cured plaster acts as a catalyst to speed up plaster curing. so make sure all surfaces that touch the new plaster is super clean.
Gorgeous design! Really opens up options for speaker designs
This video is worth watching even just for the dovetail cut! Thanks!
Cool project for sure, but for a better overall appearance, you could have just 3d printed an outer layer and filled using your plaster mix on the inside for the desired density needed.
That's an epic build. I think the plaster with all its imperfections looks fantastic.
since you have 2 semi-identical subs with a minidsp on the loop i think it would be a great project to use them both to cancel room modes, and btw for normal listening levels plugging the port with dense foam (turning them into sealed subwoofers) and compensating for the low end loss on the minidsp just sounds way better IMO.
That's the plan (and the reason I haven't torn down the prototype yet ;-)
I'd love a video more about CAD, your work is gorgeous!
I would probably have a external amp for this subwoofer since you cannot open it as you said hopefully the amp keeps working for a long time
To anyone interested in building their own speakers:
1. Do not glue your drivers; instead, use screws to mount them. This is essential for easy removal, which allows you to replace and service anything necessary. Moreover, it enables you to further tune the acoustics inside the enclosure.
2. If you decide on an active system (with amplification), use an amp that has twice the RMS power of the driver. This is a rule of thumb, but it definitely applies to subwoofers. You'll want to be able to handle the peak impulse power.
3. There are fantastic enclosures already calculated and optimized for small size and great response. Some may have complex internal structures.
In general, it's fairly easy (if you don’t do something terribly wrong) to build a decent subwoofer. The difficulty lies in building something that performs great, has a small footprint, and is fairly cost-effective in terms of transducer and application.
GL HF
😊
Very very cool video, I love it to see the old recording set from the old days
I'm actually going to try this for some outdoors decor.. maybe a combination of routed and 3d printed parts.. great idea.. totally inspiring
Great project and loved every minute of the video.
Great process video. Nice to see this coming from your channel. Cool final piece. Going to check out the carbon fiber project. Thanks
Cool Those Klipsch speakers were built 90 miles (145 KM) South from where I live in Arkansas. USA
The mold process and the final form is pretty cool.
I’m not sure I would have gone this route though, those speakers were begging for a redone crossover to take the brightness out and extend the sub bass. Might be worth it to make sure any caps haven’t dried out over the years.
I have some O'heocha Saturn D2s in my living room that took quite a bit of wife convincing. I’m not sure I’d get approval for a concrete space capsule sub! :)
I am very glad that you changed your chanel for something that you love like a maker ! Congrats
The muskrats are going to adore you.
Impressive build, wow, I'm blown away..;-)
Thank-you! Making custom shaped concrete moulded speakers has been on my "one day" project list for over 20 years - I hadn't thought about using 3D printing to achieve it though. As always your "walk through" video format is awesome, and I love the Dragon capsule design. If you do read this, could you please link to the sub amp you used?
Thanks! Directly 3D printing the shape would have taken way too much filament to make it work as an enclosure, so I think making molds is a great good middle ground. The amp I used is from Aliexpress, I specifically chose it because has its own 110/230V power supply built in in a way that won't introduce additional noise due to grounding issues etc. You can find it here: go.toms3d.org/1kwAMP
If you want to use plaster to your project and want to harden it, an make it almost not prone to retract when drying: Add some TILE GLUE to your plaster mix, depending on thickness try 10 to 20% (not critical) . Very good and cheap way to get strong results and good finish when molding a big part, fill a big hole in your wall....
So much work. I think it deserves a much better driver. The mold is quite impressive.
This is one of the most creative things I've ever seen done with a 3d Printer. Consider me inspired. Well done!
Thats the kind of project i do and im super proud when done and then the GF says no way in hell its going in the living room
What an awesome project. Great job. Great content.
Good idea. But the materialselection is a little bit weird? Wouldnt kneading concrete and a paintjob with Joint color lead to a better result?
Just Awesome... That's the type of project that "Makers" love to do.
Absolutely fantastic project Thomas. Well documented. I would really like to see how you worked out how to make the mold. I've been planning to make smaller molds with my X1C but I keep running into the issue of having my PLA curl up around the edges. Still haven't found a solution for that sadly. The PLA stays attached to the bed, but it just pulls up the flexplate from the magnet. Really annoying, so I hope to find a fix soon and then I'll be looking at making the mold in Fusion360.
Me and my father made a cement mixer with a bubbler system and created aircrete. Rally is amazing how lightweight the stuff is. Lots of trial and error to get the ratios right.
Nice job. If you want to in the future make it smoother I would recommend drywall compound because you can use a wet sponge or rag instead of sand paper to smooth it out and have a cleaner work area.
Am I the only one who was hoping for a flying subwoofer when they clicked on this video?
😂👍
This is a very cool project, I love this channel, and it came out very well for the first try... But all I can think about is that this video is like the love child of DIY PERKS and a concrete life hack CZcamsr.
Erst wenn der Subwoofer die Katze inhaliert, fckt der Bass richtig übel! - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
3:25 straw reinforcement, lol reminded me of a customer I visited. He made giant masonry furnaces, had a cool house he built himself, he was giving me the tour and slightly sheepishly said "uh this part of the floor is reinforced with straw instead of rebar because at the time I was in to the dangers of electromagnetic fields."
Great Video, I realy enjoyed it. Learned a Lot and have some new Inspirations for my next projects.
BTW: Did you use Vibration to compact the plaster in Mold?
That's so cool!
I'd love to see a video with ways of splitting a model (with tolerance) more organically than a straight line. The split bodies feature looks like it might work
Great work...again! Thanks Thomas. I do this for a living ie making speakers cast etc out of a proprietary material called woodstone acoustic. Just a tip. Dont glue speakers in...use butyl mastic...it is the ideal material as it stays pliable for years and can easily remove the speaker if needed
oh an vibration would have solved your surface imperfections 🙂
In 1975 I used a flame speaker. Propane was used. It wold go to 1 hertz. But 5 gallons propane a night, it really costly!
Been wanting to design and print out enclosure for muh truck
This looks to be an interesting and unique project…. Just a suggestion - to make the it more serviceable and portable could you have perhaps placed a non/semi-adhesive gasket between the top and bottom sections? I imagine that the weight of the top section would be substantial enough to create an airtight seal? I do realise that the whole structure would not be as rigid but would this significantly impact the audio performance?
Probably a good alternative would be using natural fibers composites. Or maybe a even crazier option denim like the sun glasses dude.
Fantastoc project and attention to detail. DIY audio gear is always cool! Curious on why you chose OSB over something like MDF? My understanding is that mdfs consistent density is really good for speakers. Wiwh i coild do something like this but my wood framed apartment would get the neighbors upset pretty quickly lol
mdf, nasty stuff to machine, need high power exhaust fans then you blow all that carcinogen powder all over your neighbours
The advice about the MDF and speakers is concerned about building the case. Changing the little bit of OSB to MDF in this build would do very little, if anything, to the sound quality, especially as it not involved in producing the sound.
@@capitalinventor4823 that makes sense, also holy hell the typos in my original message.
Hi, I am making similar parts like you did with my 3d printer. I would like to know, why the acryl paste is not sandable? Is UV-resin better for smoothing parts? -Very nice work btw. Tip for Plaster builds:Next time start with a very light mix of plaster an apply it with a brush. Two layers of 1-2mm make a perfect finish an the big plaster filling won't leave holes and gaps. Also the fiber material will not be this much visible...
Great video mate. Love the rocket sound at the end. Fill the port with paper confetti and play the launch audio for a short? That would look cool. 👍🇦🇺😊
Did you consider moulding with a polymer concrete that's a mix of sand and aggregate with resin for the binder? You could pigment the resin or go for the natural look. You could try special sands and rocks like pure white or fancy colours. You could go with perlite aggregate for lightness and whiteness.
I like the juxtaposition of the UFO subwoofer and your sponsored "solar system".
I was looking away during that transition, and i thought you had a solar system diorama set up in your house. 😅
Hi Tom! Been watching your content for quite a while. I know that you don't want to locked into 3D printing. But your video on your homebuilt extruder was quite interesting, in it you say that one day you might try to rebuild it. I think it could make a great video, most of the currently available designs use custom made parts that are expensive, your extruder was built with off the shelf parts
Would something being such a thick layer of plaster have a major issue on heat dissipation? It seems like it would build up a tremendous amount of heat inside the enclosure.
Looks great! Awsome project . . . but please sand down the globs on the side engine port, or at least make them not shiny
Splendid. Thoroughly enjoyed the video. Great dive into suitable materials. I did cringe when you glued the speaker in and was curious as to why. Would have been a great access hatch for repairs.
Nice Project ...A little more post proessing would have been nice.Some fillers and little bit sanding to get rid of the parting lines between individual parts..Looking forward to you next project :)
30kw of solar panels! WOW I wish we were aloud systems that big... most systems in Australia cant exceed 10kw...
As an ex audio engineer, we used to cover standard speakers in a concrete render, and line the inside with DYNAMAT, and it would improve the sound quality immensely.
What adhesive did you use to glue the panels together? It looked like you were using a UV light after each panel was installed. Thanks for sharing.
There are actually a couple of "adhesive" steps in this project:
- Gluing the individual printed mold pieces together: Construction adhesive, as it sticks well to PLA and is gap-filling
- Topcoat to smooth out the layer lines (1): "Acrylic modelling paste" (this didn't work well)
- Topcoat to smooth out the layer lines (2): Brushed on UV printer resin, cured with a UV LED (this worked well)
- Gluing the molded plaster pieces: Construction adhesive, again mostly for its gap-filling properties
Hope this answered your question!
You should be able to find the original crossover for your version of Fortes and rebuild it with new components from say Mundorf. Or at least replace any electrolytic caps in the existing crossover.
What a great and unique project! Now you need to apply similar custom-molded cabinets to some smaller, more-modern mains, perhaps using a kit from CSS Audio :)
I never built a speaker but wonder why you wouldn't put the electronics on the outside or even separatly? The vibration may hurt the circuit on the long run and also no disassembly when there is a failure?
Moving heavy parts with those safety shoes, great thinking
Did you start with a thin pure plaster layer against the mould before bulking up with the fibre mix?
I did not, because I did like the texture it gets when if the fibers poke through the surface
What do you do with all the left over printed parts + waste?
When you want to add some extra time with the plaster heres a pretty neat trick I've learned
For 5kg of mix trhow in 2 Tablets of magnesium in
I've to work with this stuff very often and we usually get 5kg buckets. We always had to split the bucket in order to be able to work with it and not having troubles with curing. When an old friend of an coworker was helping oit he throw 2 tablets in the bucket and could easily work with the entire bucket without any hassle.
Maybe it comes handy for the next project
Thomas the CHAD of DIY :) Nice day!
The concrete or any kind of mixture, used in construction building must be vibrated for to fill all the holes and achieve maximum strength.
Cool. How long to print all the molds combined?
Maximum weight is better. For a subwoofer especially you want them inert. The issue might be that too hard materials will start ringing and making noise. But more mass more better.
could you do a few layers of pure plaster and let it dry before adding the fiber mix to get a better surface finish? or would there be issues with bonding between the two layers, edit: great project !
haha, sweet project! i was actually thinking that you should pour the mix down into a cast, but this works to i guess :) what was that dsp you used?
Isn't there adaptive layer height in Prusa slicer? In Cura it gives fantastic results. I printed a shy guy mask last year and it looked fantastic without any visible layer lines due to this option. Nice Video!
I have considered that option, but with how these parts were designed and optimized, adaptive layers usually ended up being quite similar in output and print times to just printing at a lower layer height for the entire print.
Wow super nice project Tom and you sure put the work in! A shame you can only cook very small pizza in there 🍕
Nice. I wonder why you didn't mount the speaker from the outside. In that case you could remove it for service i.e. if there is a problem with the amp. It would be sad if you have to destroy this thing to be able to change a fuse on the amp...
The driver is actually mounted from the outside - while the OSB is mounted non-removable from the inside, the driver itself slots in from below.
Yep, as a electrician I can confirm "Elektriker Gips" keeps the "Altbau" together...
Du lebst im Traum, extrem großartig! ❤
Great video! It could be easier to 3d Print an outer Shell, assemble, make it look nice and then reinforce it from the inside 🤔
This is Awesome! I love sound stuff. Great job. Silly question Tom.... have you ever thought of plaster or concrete flooding 3d printed parts to gain mass load? you could make good looking parts that retain wave deflection properties and might save weight. IE.> making a loaded horn enclosure that the "panels" are designed to be flooded to gain mass. overall from my understanding the reason MDF and hard woods are used in speaker design has to do with the wave deflection/retention/absorbtion properties of the enclosure. the reason 3d printed enclosures arent great is due to low mass or bad wave properties. it seems a hybrid approach could yield the best of both :) Overall awesome. Love the subwoofer build :)
Thanks for doing what you do. you are what inspired me to get into printing :)
There was an old Visaton paper from like 1986 or so that i can no longer find evaluating speaker materials, and yes MDF comes out on top... for the convenience in manufacturing and the price, beating any other wood product by like a lot, though if you had to, you could just use dense wood or plywood and a lot more thickness of it and you'd be fine. Concrete has also been deemed to perform admirably, as was uhhh i think obsidian-bitumen sandwich, but they were deemed not a reasonable way to actually build things that you have to ship and that have to deliver the sound down to a price. The paper was really comprehensive. If you can find, please holler.
Plaster shrinks though doesn't it when curing? That can be quite an ordeal to inner-plaster huge parts like these. You have to do it in layers letting every layer cure before the next one, so that the next one can void-fill, or you'll have walls lined with thin but pesky hollows which can start flapping about and making annoying noises when subject to an acoustic load.
@SianaGearz the exothermic reaction of curing could cause issues but if accounted for in the design of the panels possibly. I would wonder if small voids would matter as the plaster should bond to the inner surfaces of the panel ideally. We shouldn't be using a mold release agent but who knows the adhesion strength of plaster to petg or abs? Much to ponder and experiment with I think :)
Did you model this box? The inner volume seems huge for the size of the driver
I did run some simulations, and often end up with somewhat unconventional designs that would be quite lame without heavy DSP assistance. Optimizing for maximum SPL / minimum distortion and good low frequency capabilities, while also sticking with affordable components usually means relatively small drivers (10" GRS 10SW-4 in this case) in relatively large enclosures (60l) with low port tunes (IIRC this one boosts at around 22Hz). However, designing them like this means the speakers end up with relatively poor impulse response, especially once you add the high-gain FIR filters in the DSP to pull the frequency response flat. Always wanted to try IIR filters for that, but now the subwoofer works well as a classic "low frequency effects" / LFE channel.
screed is something used for floors in the UK
Thomas : Made with Layers of CHAD
This was niceeeeee ! 😃
This is really awesome, but I don't understand going to so much trouble but not giving it a full smooth finish and gloss paint job like the real one, it could look amazing. Thumbnails get views too, and it's more content.
I don't understand what this breaking test had to do with the build. Even much better speakers are made from mdf, which would break too, but apart from it very interesting molding process. Regardless of the design the port must be kept as smooth as possible or else you're compromising performance.
Nice project! What amplifier board did you use?
Thanks! It's an Aliexpress "AIYIMA" amp which is actually quite good! go.toms3d.org/1kwAMP
I was surprised you didn't use Luban to automatically split the model into pieces for assembly. Any particular reason you didn't?
I placed the split lines on most of the parts quite intently as the lines would likely be visible in the final molded piece, which meant quite complex splits and non-planar splitting lines in many cases. That being said, I haven't tried Luban for splitting, but I'll give it a go. Thanks for the tip!
I have a set of those speakers! Mine too are signed. The audio store I went to for purchase said that he was known to sign MANY of the speakers because he was VERY involved in the QA process.
You know, the electronics in there will eventually die. Usually the capacitors dry out first and then it all goes down. It'll take time, probably years, depending no the component quality, but it'll eventually happen regardless of your wishes. So - perhaps it'd be better to make it openable? For instanace, why not fasten that bass element so that you can remove it and use that hole as a service point?
The chassis is the entry point here. I intentionally mounted it so that it would be able to pop out the bottom of the enclosure, and made sure to angle the amplifier board up so that it would be accessible through that hole. So while not super convenient to access, I did give myself a bit of a chance to repair it should things go bad.
I love seeing these "other interests" videos from time to time. I've been interested in 3D printed molds since first seeing Ramy RC use them for carbon fiber to create beautiful scale commercial airliners. In America, because your business is making videos, this entire would have been tax deductible.
Great design. I don't think plaster or concrete were the right medium for this build. Maybe paper mache?
Great video. Keep up the good work.
I was a bit surprised that you didn't try different percentages of additives to the plaster in a second round of testing. Perhaps the plaster bricks failed in the first round because they had too much filler and a smaller amount would have given you a stronger result for just a little extra mass. While this project may not have needed it in the end it would have been interesting to see.
What was the exact mix of that plaster, Tom, if you don't mind?
The mix I ended up using was 8 parts plaster, 3 parts sand, 3 parts shredded hemp fiber. This is a little less "filler" than the initial tests, which made the mix a little bit stronger and overall less chunky.
What kind of glue dod he used yo fix the plaster parta between them?
Simple construction adhesive!
Naturstroh? Ah a fellow German! Greetings!
How much did the finished product weigh? I have been a long time fan of your works, please acknowledge me senpai.
I was secretly hoping for a plaster extruder on a large delta printer...