Questions about building real traps

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picostudios

New member
Yeah yeah yeah, over and over again you hear this shit. I had a question though. When building the frames, and putting the fiberglass onto them, I actually thought he fiberglass went into the frame and not on the outside. Pardon my ignorance, but this was just how I thought it was done. I was looking at this

http://www.hp-h.com/p/hapicmpur/basstraps.htm

I’m glad he had step by step instructions on how he built his own traps instead of paying an arm and a leg to get some premade.

How is it that the fiberglass stays on the frame? I figure it is too thick to be stapled into the wood. Sorry for being such a dunce. I'm just trying to learn.
 
picostudios said:
Yeah yeah yeah, over and over again you hear this shit. I had a question though. When building the frames, and putting the fiberglass onto them, I actually thought he fiberglass went into the frame and not on the outside. Pardon my ignorance, but this was just how I thought it was done. I was looking at this

http://www.hp-h.com/p/hapicmpur/basstraps.htm

I’m glad he had step by step instructions on how he built his own traps instead of paying an arm and a leg to get some premade.

How is it that the fiberglass stays on the frame? I figure it is too thick to be stapled into the wood. Sorry for being such a dunce. I'm just trying to learn.
Click to expand...

I jsut screwed mine in with 2 1/2 inch nails. Eyelets over the head of the screw made it look a little nicer.
 
So, all you did was apply a layer of fiberglass ontop of the frame, then cover it with cloth? The middle was completely hallow?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but to be a bass trap doesn't the unit need to resonate i.e. it needs to have some sort of rigidity to the outside, or inside like an accoustical hanger. And aren't the holes on the outide of the frame just negating the absorber further? Wouldn't putting up some fabric covered fibreglass do pretty much the same thing as these absorbers?

Or I could be completely off the bass
 
picostudios said:
So, all you did was apply a layer of fiberglass ontop of the frame, then cover it with cloth? The middle was completely hallow?
Click to expand...

No, no. The fiberglass DOES go inside the frame. Those pieces are 2" thick, so there's no way it's sitting on the outside of the frame. The fiberglass you see in that picture is what's coming out of the frame. Most of the fiberglass is inside the frame where you can't see it.

If you build a frame where the INSIDE dimensions are 2' x 4', the fiberglass boards will fit in there nice and snug. Then you just cover the whole thing with fabric by using a staple gun (or whatever else).

To hang them in the corner, I used two hooks in the wall and two closed hooks screwed into the frames. That works great.

For the ones that hang horizontally on the wall, you want them to be about 4" from the wall. I used the cardboard rolls that toilet paper come on. I spray-painted them black and super glued them (4 of them) on the back side of the frame. It just so happens that they're 4" exactly. This provides a perfect spacer. To hang them, I put a closed hook in each short side of the frame on the back, put hooks in the wall, and hung them like a picture.
 
nope, it's within the frame, just the top of the fiberglass is poking out a bit, then it's covered with cloth.
 
Thats probably 4" thick 703- inside a 1x4 frame- A 1x4 is really only 3/4" x 3-1/2"- hence the 1/2" of 703 sticking up above the frame
 
picostudios said:
So, all you did was apply a layer of fiberglass ontop of the frame, then cover it with cloth? The middle was completely hallow?
Click to expand...

According to the articles I read and people I spoke, they work best if there is empty air between the fibreglass and the wall. So, yes, in my case I made them such that the frame is hollow. If that's what you;re asking.
 
fraserhutch said:
According to the articles I read and people I spoke, they work best if there is empty air between the fibreglass and the wall. So, yes, in my case I made them such that the frame is hollow. If that's what you;re asking.
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now you're confusing him. in the picture he's talkign about, it looks like a thin layer of fiberglass is placed across the top of the wooden frame. actually, the fiberglass is filling the wood frame and is poking slightly out of the top of the frame, so there is no hollow space in the frame. by putting the bass trap across the corner, you have your air gap right there, so there's no need to build a gap into the trap itself.
 
picostudios said:
http://www.hp-h.com/p/hapicmpur/images/Insert fiberglass.jpg

So this fiberglass isnt sitting on top of the wood? Im just trying to figure it out heh.
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Right. As zed, beagle, and pico explained, what you're seeing in that photo is the front edge of the fiberglass panel sticking out past the front of the frame a little bit. The frame is full of fiberglass. To be precise, it contains two 2" thick sheets of Johns Manville 817, so the bass trap is 4" thick.

And as Beagle explained, all I'm using to keep the fiberglass from falling out of the frame is the tension of the fabric. It's more than enough. Another colleage of ours here on the boards, Mind Riot, used chicken wire to hold in the fiberglass on the first couple of DIY traps he made, but he quit doing it when he realized it was unnecessary.

I don't know enough about bass traps to respond to lomky's question, but I think bass traps come in different types and flavors. I have seen some designs for sound treatment that have resonating plywood sheets on one side or ther other, and I don't know if they're bass traps, broadband absorbers, or some kind of highly specialized diffusers. For my humble purposes, I felt straight up absorption would be sufficient.
 
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