How to make absorption panel

M

moelar2

New member
Hello All,

I'm sure many of you have experience making absorption panels. I have a rough idea, but can anybody give a brief crash course on materials and method? I need to make panels and bass traps.

Thanks in advance!
 
The easieast way of building acoustic absorbers is to :

1. Build a frame out of cheap pinewood (about 1$ for 8 feet). Cut the 8 feet long pinewood into 2 2feet and 2 4 feet pieces.

2. Take the 2 2 feet and 2 4 feet pieces and build a frame with it (you can use L shape retainers in the corners to assemble or just use finishing nails or even a powerful stapler does the job quick and cheap!)

3. Go buy some rockwool (Roxul safe n sound) or go get some 703 insulation (rigid fiberglass).

4. Put the rockwool in your frame, and them wrap the frame tighly with somekind of plastic cover (big garbage bags will do the trick for about 5 cents each).

5. Go buy some kind of fabric for cheap and cover your frame (that has plastic on it) with the fabric if you want to be fancy. You can also just leave the plastic without puting any fabric, the fabric is really just for the looks.

6. If you are scared of fires, spray some fire retardant on the panels.

7. You can use some hooks or put them on shelves, stand them on chairs, basically, you can do anything with these light absorbing panels!

These panels are extremely cheap (comes to about 50$ to built 8 nice panels!) and they are SO easy to make...

Very important not to put any solid cover or backing, just build a frame and that's it!
 
tenkas said:
The easieast way of building acoustic absorbers is to :

5. Go buy some kind of fabric for cheap and cover your frame (that has plastic on it) with the fabric if you want to be fancy. You can also just leave the plastic without puting any fabric, the fabric is really just for the looks.
Click to expand...

Not a bad way of doing it, but I would use a breathable fabric and leave the plastic OUT of the picture. Cheers, Rez
 
tenkas said:
The easieast way of building acoustic absorbers is to :

1. Build a frame out of cheap pinewood (about 1$ for 8 feet). Cut the 8 feet long pinewood into 2 2feet and 2 4 feet pieces.

2. Take the 2 2 feet and 2 4 feet pieces and build a frame with it (you can use L shape retainers in the corners to assemble or just use finishing nails or even a powerful stapler does the job quick and cheap!)

3. Go buy some rockwool (Roxul safe n sound) or go get some 703 insulation (rigid fiberglass).

4. Put the rockwool in your frame, and them wrap the frame tighly with somekind of plastic cover (big garbage bags will do the trick for about 5 cents each).

5. Go buy some kind of fabric for cheap and cover your frame (that has plastic on it) with the fabric if you want to be fancy. You can also just leave the plastic without puting any fabric, the fabric is really just for the looks.

6. If you are scared of fires, spray some fire retardant on the panels.

7. You can use some hooks or put them on shelves, stand them on chairs, basically, you can do anything with these light absorbing panels!

These panels are extremely cheap (comes to about 50$ to built 8 nice panels!) and they are SO easy to make...

Very important not to put any solid cover or backing, just build a frame and that's it!
Click to expand...

Having actually done it I would have to disagree with a few points here.

First of all this is not the easiest way. the *easiest* way would be to avoid any sort of wood at all and just wrap the stuff in fabric and use a hot glue gun to hold it. better to use the stuff with the paper backing so you have something to glue the fabric to.

Secondly, DO NOT buy wood and cut it to 2 feet and 4 feet pieces, because your fiberglass won't fit inside. if you are using 1/4" thick boards, then you will have to cut it to 2' and 4' 1/2" or 2' 1/2" and 4'. you want to be able to connect the pieces and still have a 2' x 4' space *inside* the frame. I used L brackets as suggested and it worked very well.

I don't know how you made 8 for $50. that seems like an exaggeration. I made 12 panels and 8 tube traps and it cost close to $1000.

Also, if you use frames and you have 8' ceilings you won't be able to stack them end to end. you will be a couple inches too high due to the thickness of the frames.

but hooks are a good idea; I was able to mount a couple on mic stands by doing this.
 
Hi again,
After reading much on acoustics on a few forums, a very common rule is not to put ANY BACKING so that you can modify the distance of the panel from the wall and enhance low frequency (mid low) absorption...

Also, I am only giving here a few hints on how to build good panels for cheap.

In Canada, 30$ for 8 panels of 4*2 rockwool. Calculate 15$ for all the wood and 20$ for all the plastic and fabric and voila! (that makes 65$ which is about $50 US). (I supose you have tools)

Also, I used rockwool which is not as rigid as 703 so the 1/4 inch I lost from top to bottom with not matter at all, but I must agree that if you are using very rigid stuff, do not do it as I did.

Well I hope this will help low budget people get things working on
 
Well the difference between everyone else's and mine (Ethan's) is that, Ethan's are mounted and permanent. Because of this you don't want them to take up too much space, and thats where the vibrating wood comes into play. So in turn you could get around the same results with portable ones that you pull a couple feet from the wall. Its just harder to deal with when done thats all, but both have their ups and downs.

If it were me I'd have a good permanent room treatment, then a bunch of portable ones, for other circumstances.

Ben
 
right on.

the fabric ended up costing me closer to $400 (I doubled it up and its about $6 /yard here (about a meter) so...4' x 2 sides x 2 ply x 12 panels / 3 feet = about $384. Sometimes there are half off coupons though. plywood was about $1 per foot and I actually had to buy more than I needed because of the cuts...do the math its like $500. hope depot aint cheap. plus L brackets are about $2 for a set so $24 there plus liquid nails and mdf for the tube traps, backing for gobos, hot glue, staplegun staples, face masks, gloves, sand paper, nails, hooks... plus I had to pay freight shipping just to get the fiberglass. now that I think about it it probably cost me closer to $2k and 3 months of weekends driving back and forth to home depot.

anywayz this is the only reason I suggested not using any wood at all. in fact, if you are going to hang the stuff from the ceiling, above your mixer and other gear (like your head); I would strongly suggest NOT using plywood on that piece.
 
FALKEN said:
in fact, if you are going to hang the stuff from the ceiling, above your mixer and other gear (like your head); I would strongly suggest NOT using plywood on that piece.
Click to expand...

I'll second that one! Also I found out when making my traps, that Lowes is actually better to go to for wood than home depot as they are nicer cheaper and have a better selection of wood. Plus they are closer for me :D :p

It took me about a week in total to make 5 of the Ethan traps, and lay 5 high absorbers against the wall around the room. All had to be covered with the weedblock fabric suggested on his site. I would not suggest that stuff again unless you are really looking for that speaker look. It's actually much tougher to deal with than what was said, and it rips before it stretches.

Ben
 
Thanks for all your feedback.

I was at home depot yesterday and I couldn't find rockwool or "rigid insulation." Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong section, and I'm skeptical about asking their staff since they seldom know shit...

Where'd you guys buy these products?

I did find their typical R-rated insulation products (i.e., R-13; R-19, etc...)
 
moelar2 said:
Thanks for all your feedback.

I was at home depot yesterday and I couldn't find rockwool or "rigid insulation." Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong section, and I'm skeptical about asking their staff since they seldom know shit...

Where'd you guys buy these products?

I did find their typical R-rated insulation products (i.e., R-13; R-19, etc...)
Click to expand...
You won't. You will need to go to an insulation specialty place. The link in the previous posting has some good information.

There are several different product numbers from several manufacturers, both in fiberglass and rock wool.
 
I ordered from that company SPI (I think that's what they're called right?). they had a location that was only about 150 miles away. they shipped it out in an 18 wheeler. the truck driver couldn't drive onto my street; he had to park at the intersection and we carried the stuff the extra block into my garage.
 
I ordered mine last night from ATSACOUSTICS.COM. I paid $13/sheet (2ftx4ft) of Owens Corning 703 Rigid Fiberglass. Shipping killed me; it was $50. Oh well. Hopefully I didn't reamed on the fiberglass too.

I also went to fabrics.com and bought 6 yards of burlap (58 inches wide) for $20. That was kinda cheap....

Lastly, I purchased my mogami cable (I posted another thread wherein i inquired about different cables) from Pacific Radio Electronics in Los Angeles. Very helpful; very reasonable prices (.68/ft of mogami quad xlr cable).

Thanks for your help; I'll let you guys know how the construction of panels goes along...
 
That is worth pointing out...any time that you have to go with UPS or fedex for shipping you are going to get REAMED for shipping because of their oversize charges. UPS charges a ton for oversize because their typical automated equipment can't handle it so the labor costs are high.

So wherever possible either use a trucking firm or arrange for a warehouse pickup. fortunately 703 is light (only 48lbs per bale) so loading and unloading is easy.
 
who told you to use burlap????

I would try to cancel that order ASAP!

that stuff ain't gonna fly.
 
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