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Dayton HF15 end table

M

Mazlem

Well-Known Member
I'm finishing up the living room renovation in my house, so now it's time for a new subwoofer! Snatched up one of the Dayton HF 15's when they came back in stock at PE, along with a Dayton 500W plate amp.

So now I've got an end table design worked out for it that's a little over 4.5CF. The main part of the box's exterior dimensions will be 27H x 21W x 18D using baltic birch that's doubled for the driver, and oak for the top, legs an trim. I've been told it's ok for down-firing, and I may go with that.

Made up a little rendering for it (yes I used Paint :))

Sub-Box3.jpg
 
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Set a martinni on it. Shaken, not stirred, of course..
 
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I did the same thing with an old SVS driver, worked great as long as the endtable position was the same as the best-sounding sub position. Usually was, sometimes not. My room configuration never really worked out that way.
 
Clmrt said:
I did the same thing with an old SVS driver, worked great as long as the endtable position was the same as the best-sounding sub position. Usually was, sometimes not. My room configuration never really worked out that way.
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It is not a problem if you have more than one sub. I use 4 subs and I get the same sub-bass spl where ever I walk in the room.

Duckzilla said:
You're right, so did Wilson, the Pow-Whow. I simply bought a coffee table at a thrift store and stuffed two 12"s in it.
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Never heard of the Pow-whow. I like the idea of buying end tables and making them into subs. I bet Ikea would have good table for that. A little bracing and stuffing and you'd be good to go.
 
djnagle said:
Never heard of the Pow-whow. I like the idea of buying end tables and making them into subs. I bet Ikea would have good table for that. A little bracing and stuffing and you'd be good to go.
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Not quite, the walls are too thin. I ended up building two enclosures and then putting them inside the coffee table.
 
Made some progress on the box today, but I ran out of glue halfway through making the braces! The bottom panels are in with some additional support made from scraps. Here's an interior shot with the center braces being test-fit (hard to tell but each brace is two strips of scrap birch glued together):

Bracing.jpg



I've got a bunch of leftover 2.5" oak flooring to work with. After cutting the tongue and groove off and making the legs 45* it's down to about 1 7/8" wide. The main pieces of the legs are done and the trim is cut to width. Just gotta get some more glue, cause otherwise it's gonna just keep sitting there staring back at me...

Trim.jpg
 
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Ok, back to work on this. I've cut the top pieces (oak on top of the birch), an I've been playing with some stain that was laying around. Looks like the Minwax stuff is the winner.
Test-Stains.jpg


For the birch, I'm using a pre-stain conditioner from Charles Neil that came recommended by a couple AKers and this review here - LINK. After cutting some new legs (I screwed up the length! :sigh:) that conditioner should be dry an ready for stain.
 
Well the birch didn't come out as good as I'd hoped; this is my first project with it so I dunno if it's the stain or maybe I just like wood with more grain, but it seems kinda bland. The oak looks pretty good though.

Body-and-Top_Stained.jpg
 
I decided to get some oak panels for it and stain them in golden oak. That'll look a lot better, an they're just about ready to install now. Here they are with two coats of stain:
Oak-Panels.jpg


I also wanted to add some more bracing. After figuring out where it could go without hitting the sub or amp, I came up with this:
Bracing2.jpg
 
I have never stained birch plywood and have it look any good, conditioner or no. Not enough interesting figure, and a lot of blotching. I find plain varnishing acceptable, but its always too bright to be described as looking good.

I thinking covering with oak will enhance the look a lot. It will also make the sides thicker, and a bit less resonant.
 
Another weekend, another update! Got the panels installed an put a couple coats of poly on them. I also took a couple inches off the width/depth of the top, re-edged and stained it. Isn't changing your mind halfway through fun? :)

Oak-Panels2.jpg



The box isn't quite square, especially in the middle, which made for massive gaps at the outside corners when trying to fit the legs. Oddly the other side of each leg piece would be perfectly flush. After playing around a bit I found that flipping the legs let them sit flush, so I made corner pieces and have a new leg style ready to go.

Leg-Mockup.jpg
 
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