Cubicle Divider/Fiberglass Question

nbiehl

nbiehl

New member
I picked up a bunch of cubicle dividers cheap. They are Steelcase brand, covered in a fabric that resembles burlap. I cut one open and they are a metal frame stuffed with about three inches of what appears to be yellow fiberglass.

I tried to google the manufacturer and material and couldn't find specifics (these are older units.) Any way to tell what this stuff is?

Could I use the innards to build bass traps? I plan on keeping a couple as they are to use as gobos, but they are heavy and big, and my room is kind of small. Cutting some up to build smaller corner traps would be awesome if it would work (especially since I payed less than 5 bucks each and some of them are 3 by 6.
 
nbiehl said:
I picked up a bunch of cubicle dividers cheap. They are Steelcase brand, covered in a fabric that resembles burlap. I cut one open and they are a metal frame stuffed with about three inches of what appears to be yellow fiberglass.

I tried to google the manufacturer and material and couldn't find specifics (these are older units.) Any way to tell what this stuff is?

Could I use the innards to build bass traps? I plan on keeping a couple as they are to use as gobos, but they are heavy and big, and my room is kind of small. Cutting some up to build smaller corner traps would be awesome if it would work (especially since I payed less than 5 bucks each and some of them are 3 by 6.
Click to expand...

how much you asking for them? lol j/k
 
I'm a recording newbie (but I just spent money I didn't really have on this truckload of "gobos" so I guess you could say I've been bitten by the bug.)

I've never worked with rigid fiberglass, but this stuff looks like all the pictures of 703 I've seen. The one I cut open has 2 30"x 64" sheets of stiff, itchy, yellow 1 inch insulation separated by a sheet of cardboard. Each of those is covered by a sheet of 1/4" fiberglass. It's all held in by the fabric that looks like burlap.

The frame is 1.5" square stock (I'm assuming it's steel, but I know next to nothing about metal, so it could be anything. It's heavy, so I don't think it's aluminum.)

I got a bunch of these suckers from work. If it is rigid fiberglass, I'm going to build traps to treat the room I described in this thread. Incidentally, I got no replies to that thread, so I'm still looking for treatment advice.

After watching Ethan Winer's videos at the Real Traps site, I know I want to build some diffusers in addition to the trapping. I wish I could just buy his, but I still need to pay off most of the mixing gear I've obtained, so that will have to wait.

Ethan, if you're reading this, that "Hearing Is Believing" video is an absolute winner. If I had money, you could have sold me ANYTHING by the end of it.
 
Here's the important parts of the post describing the room I want to treat, so you don't have to click over:

nbiehl said:
I'm primarily an acoustic musician, and I can hold my own on a fair number of instruments. I sing and I write. I'm looking to create a space where I can, through recording, weave all of that together and see what happens. I'm also looking to create a space where I can help my musician friends whip up some demo recordings.

I'm lucky enough to have a room I can now dedicate to recording. The room is 9ft wide by 13ft long by 86 inches high. The room is a finished basement bonus room. 2 of the walls are concrete behind the sheet rock (no framing, just furring strips) and the floor is concrete beneath carpet.

There is 1/2 inch hardboard under the sheet rock on the ceiling. I used this room to record some acoustic instruments pretty late at night recently. The room is right beneath my bedroom, and my wife said she didn't hear a thing, so that's OK.

There are 2 windows in the concrete walls, about 18 x 34 and 64 inches off of the floor.

There is a closet in one corner, about 24 in x 42 inches.

There is a heating duct on the ceiling next to one of the interior walls, about 10 in x 24 inches x 7 feet. This is covered with sheetrock. It cannot be removed easily, because it routes heat to the rooms on the main floor as well.

The room will be used primarily for tracking one acoustic instrument at a time. It will also be my mixing room. I use ns10m monitors.

I would like to minimize the sound coming in from the windows. I have no problem sheet-rocking over them if that's what's best. Other than that, I'm not really concerned with sound transmission, I'm more concerned with treating for accurate tracking and mixing.
Got any advice?
Click to expand...

I would like to replace the shitty door to the room as well, so any advice on good doors for project studios is welcome. There's a great place that sells recycled building materials cheap where I live, so if there are older style doors that work well that would be a great option.
 
Cubicle walls as you describe are great for absorption - don't bother just using the innards!
We hung about 15 of those in a project studio, the frames are quite handy to attach eyebolts and chain to position them like you want to.
hanging them at an angle to whatever surface they are on can also help cover a range of frequencies.
I think we covered them in some muslin, but make sure you do not do anything that is flammable or risky from gravity! (falling on your head).
We built a nice cloud out of four of them, over the mix position, since they had rigid frames, we could angle them quite nicely.
cheers
C.
 
nbiehl said:
I picked up a bunch of cubicle dividers cheap. They are Steelcase brand, covered in a fabric that resembles burlap. I cut one open and they are a metal frame stuffed with about three inches of what appears to be yellow fiberglass.

I tried to google the manufacturer and material and couldn't find specifics (these are older units.) Any way to tell what this stuff is?

Could I use the innards to build bass traps? I plan on keeping a couple as they are to use as gobos, but they are heavy and big, and my room is kind of small. Cutting some up to build smaller corner traps would be awesome if it would work (especially since I payed less than 5 bucks each and some of them are 3 by 6.
Click to expand...

It's probably fine, but the insulation used in cubicle partitions can vary wildly in terms of density...anywhere from 20kh/m3 to 60kg/m3. It's hard to know what you have unless you contact the manufacturer of the cubicle and find out.

Frank
 
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