Water Bottle Bass Box

by McAndrews

22K2522

Intro: Water Bottle Bass Box

Hello everybody!

I was trying to find some cheap material to buil a new bass box to my car sound system, then it came to me: I find a water bottle near a trash container. Immediately I imagine that I could use it in my new project.
This instructable is the result of this project.
Excluding the price of the subwoofer (I already have it), all the project cost me US$15

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. And please! Rate it! Thanks!

STEP 1: List of Material


1 Subwoofer 12" (inches) diameter
1 Water bottle 12" diameter (maybe you'll need more if your subwoofer requires)
Acrilic blanket (enough to coat inner side of the bass box)
Perforated Hanger Iron
8 Small Corner brace
8 long bolts with nuts and washer
1 smal bolt with nut and washers to tighten the perforated hanger iron
1 female P10 mono connector
1 male P10 mono connector
two way cable
Silicone Glue to seal

Tools:
Scissors
screw driver
jigsaw
plyers
soldering iron




STEP 2: Assembly


Folow these steps to assemby your bass box:

1 - With a jigsaw, remove the bottleneck of the bottle (of course).
2 - Bend and cut the perforated hanger to fit the circunference of the bottle. Fix it with bolt and nut.
3 - Place the corner braces in position fixed by the perforated hanger as seen on the picture, matching the subwoofer holes.
4 - Coat the inner side of the bottle with a layer of acrilic blanket to minimize sound reverberation effect.
5 - Prepare the wiring, soldering the two way cable to the P10 female connector.
6 - Make a small hole near at the bottom of the bottle and fix the female p10 connector on it.
7 - Connect the cabe to the subwoofer before fix it to the bottle.
8 - Before fix the subwoofer, use the silicone in the bottle inner border.
9 - Place the bolts in the subwoofer as seen on the picture
10 - Place the subwoofer in the bootle, inserting the bolts in the corner braces holes
11 - Screw the bolts with washers to tighten the subwoofer against the bottle.
12 - Tighten the bolts in sequence with small steps to keep the balance of the tight.

Important Tips:

* As you already know, for speakers (especially woofers) to work properly, they must be in the proper size enclosure. The manufacturer can give you the required enclosure volume.
In my case, I needed 1 cubic-foot = 28,3 liters.
* You can attach more than one bottle to reach the perfect enclosure volume
* Enclosure Types:
When laying out a system, you need to decide what type of enclosure to use. No enclosure is magic.

A sealed enclosure will be the smallest (for a given response shape) and will have good low frequency extension but may not have the best low frequency extension. If space is limited, this may be your best choice.

A ported enclosure will generally have a better low frequency extension for a given response shape (alignment) but would require a larger enclosure. If you made the enclosure as small as the sealed enclosure but ported it to gain the low frequency response, the output would deviate from the desired flat response.

A bandpassenclosure can sound good and give you a flat response but most of the generic bandpass enclosures are not designed for a flat response. They are designed to impress you in the stores. This means that they are built to produce a large peak at some frequency near 60hz. These enclosures will work well with something like rap music but generally won't sound good with other types of music. If you use a bandpass enclosure, it should be designed specifically for your speakers.

If you're building your first system, I'd recommend a sealed enclosure. It is the simplest enclosure and will be the easiest to get right. A sealed enclosure only needs to be the right size and well sealed.

STEP 3: Test and Results

After instalation and tests with R&B, Trance, Rock and others, I cound't be more happy!

The bass response was so good as with a wood box.

I'm impressing my friends: First I ask them to hear the sound inside the car and then I reveal the Bass Box made with a Water Bottle.

The sound is amazing! And It cost me only U$15!

Thank you for rate me!


23 Comments

warider 9 years ago

no i got etter idea

Daniel.Overgaard.Nielsen 13 years ago

I have to point out that there's several degrees of working, when it comes to audio.
You'd have a much louder woofer and way less distortion if you used plywood of mdf. Plywood is actually better than mdf, since it's stiffer, and will distort less.

bsodergren 12 years ago

By plywood you mean marine grade 11-13 ply Baltic birch plywood which is extremely expensive. If you think you're going to make a decent box with no flex out of home depot C/C plywood you're sorely mistaken.

McAndrews 13 years ago

That's the point. Everybody says that it only works with MDF or wood,but it works very well with a acrilic jar just because it doesn't deform, just like MDF.

capkloud 13 years ago

its not that it "only works" with mdf, its simply the fact that the resonant frequency is lower. in this build, the plastic being used has a higher resonant frequency, which influences the sound to a very large extent. especially when used in a sealed enclosure. if your not going for sound quality, use this. if you want high quality bass, then use something with a lower resonant frequency.

hg341 13 years ago

if you dont like it DONT DO IT
(im going to use mdf too)

Bigg Oskee 13 years ago

I currently have a 12" sub in my trunk mounted in a 5 gallon home depot paint bucket that i bout for like $2 super easy to find anywhere

McAndrews 13 years ago

Thank you for your comment. Why don't you publish a instructable?

Doctor Freeman 13 years ago

yea lol ohhh dang he should have said ohh and p.s dont turn the amp up on max it has a slight chace of exploding

Doctor Freeman 13 years ago

Hey an amp (turns all the nobs on max and plays a note) BOOOOOOOOOM!!! (phone rings) Marty is that you? Yes Doc it's me. Marty meet me a Pine Woods Mall at 1:20 tomorrow. Ok, Doc what for? No time to explain, ohh and p.s dont turn the amp up on max. Ok, i'll keep that in mind (mean while it's recked)

junits15 13 years ago

ha ha back to the future

Wo0kiE 13 years ago

I haven't done one myself but I hear that the concrete form tubes make decent speaker tubes as well...

riverreaper 13 years ago

it looks like u dont have anywear for the recoil of the sound the backside of bass speakers are just as importain as the front output , what is the black foamy looking stuff thats surounding the magnet it may work tons better if you hooked your seaker threw the screw holes provided an not cutting off its recoil area as when you do that your streesing the fabric that is producing your sound

hippieman 13 years ago

Do you use a blanket that is made of acrylic, or a like a spray on acrylic?

McAndrews 13 years ago

Is a fiber or kind of wool made of acrilic
http://www.panoxadrez.com.br/lojas/00005983/prod/mantab.JPG
also know as Perlon(tm).

DIY Dave 13 years ago

Cool, I hope I can find an old water jug somewhere. Do you have any ideas where I could find one?
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