Paint for speaker grills

[Sotally Tober]

I want to paint the grills for my seperates. I want them white instead of black. My local shop said they spray them with vinyl dye. Does this sound right? What do you guys recommend. Also what type of resin do you recommend for my sub boxes? Starting thr install this weekend.

[Sotally Tober]

Those look really nice. i wanted to just do the stock mb quart grills. It is more of a mesh that I think would just plug up when powdercoated. My trailer is powdercoated and it is some really thick chiat. I do plan to do my sub covers. I've got a SeaRay not a baller custom boat. I need a windshield as it gets cold in the NW. It does at least have a 496HO.

[YeLLowBoaT]

What are they made of??? AL, vinyl coated, Painted?

[Sotally Tober]

Thanks SWB. Thought I could count on you. This should be named SWB's column.
Those covers look bitchen but not for my style of boat. I did check extreme and liked the flames as I'm a fireman.
I am building MDF boxes for under my wet bar for 2 12's . I need to waterproof them before carpet. I do not want them swelling from water. It seems to be around a boat.

[ROZ]

You'd better make sure you cover the MDF really good with resin.... Even a pinhole will allow the wood to absorb like a sponge...

[Sotally Tober]

You'd better make sure you cover the MDF really good with resin.... Even a pinhole will allow the wood to absorb like a sponge...
Is there somthing better than MDF to use?

[ROZ]

The reason MDF is used in almost all speaker MFG's is due to it's resonant frequency consistancy... Highend home speaker mfg's that use exotic woods will fine tune each enclosure to their specs if they have to.....
If you fear your subwoofer will be exposed to an overabundance of water, I'd use marine ply and flow resin after you build it... Then you can either coat the inside with a sound deadening spray(be aware that extreme heat may cause it to liquify, so read the tech info ), or you can line inside the box with dynamat or similar material. All that said, you may not hear between the mdf vs marine ply....
over cautious is a sympton of my OCD :D

[1stepcloser]

I'm with Roz on this one. I have used both MDF and marine ply, and for the boat, I will only use marine ply in any future projects.
In your application MDF will work fine, as SWB says, but the strength of ply is superior, and I would bet no one here could tell any acoustical difference's between the two woods.
There is a definate cost difference, MDF is alot less expensive and alot easier to find.

[rivercrazy]

I'd go with a finishing resin versus a laminating resin. Finishing resin is more waterproof

[River918]

Have the grills powdercoated. These are the billet grills made by Ron's Custom Billet and they are seperates. We cut out the middle and inserted the tweeters into there. It fit really well.
The screws are also powder coated white. This was before that was done.
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/1871mid-high.JPG
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/1871mid-high-front.JPG
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/1871rear-subs.JPG
When you mounted the grill for your subs in the seat base, did you put silicone in the holes to keep the water out? I am debating whether or not to use through bolted screw/nuts, or just wood screws (stainless of course). Either way, I was wondering about putting silicone in the hole also to keep any water out....

[ROZ]

I see you've hear my wife... ;) :D
Thinner woods resonate more.. 1" ply doesn't resonate much.... It's thenm peeps using 1/2 when it's not even the right thickness for the appliaction anyway :D
Actually, 1Step easily has one of the nicest sounding systems around...

[ROZ]

Well it ain't cheap.. I found out the hard way by underbidding :D

[rivercrazy]

My sub box is made from 3/4" marine plywood resined, glassed, and gelcoated. I can never hear any resonating. Its very solid. At least with four 10" subs receiving 1350 watts.
Personally speaking, I'd never use MDF in a boating application

[1stepcloser]

I can hear plywood resonate like most people can hear their wife's nagging.
I dont hear my wife anymore.... in fact we havent spoke in weeks.:D
The last time I bought 1" ply, I think I paid like $60 a sheet. Maybe I got bucked.I recall it was around $85.00 per sheet.
Maybe I got bucked!
And normally I wont dispute anything here, but if I hadn't told you I used ply for my enclosure, I'd take bets you'd never know. :cool: :D

[Tom Brown]

The problem with plywood is voids. Marine plywood is supposed to be free of voids. If there are any voids, you will hear them buzz and it will ruin your sound until you replace them. You should be fine with marine. Just make sure you test them for rattles before you install them in your boat.
MDF is not the best material for a speaker enclosure but it's decent, cheap, and machines beautifully. There's little need for more expensive material in most speaker enclosures. The manufacturers who say otherwise are selling to golden eared egotists who can tell the difference between different brands of speaker wire... that came from the same machine in the same factory.
MDF will go to crap when it gets wet. There are MDF variants that will resist moisture much better. They're less dense than regular MDF so that will be a detriment to sound quality in a sub enclosure but you could make it up by running two thicknesses and/or bracing more.
BTW, many of the current leaders in the audio industry are trying laminated MDF/K3 enclosures that are superior to the same thickness of either material. I can't believe it would make much difference, though. Enclosure resonance is a pretty small problem compared to baffle diffraction and even that's nothing compared to network design issues.
... just my $0.02.
:)