# sonotube enclosure



## louisdawon (Oct 22, 2008)

right ,well am a little confused by a thread i have lost somewhere here.
i am wanting to build a enclosure from a concrete form tube for a 8" dual VC sub from polk audio db804dvc to be exact. am wanting to use a 8" tube to be glassed at the end to fit the sub and hoping to make it a sealed enclosure as it is to fit behind the seat of a small pick -up.i guess i just need a lil help with the math.it calls for 9.9l on a sealed enclosure.
Nominal Impedance: 4 Ohms 
Peak power handling: 360 Watts 
RMS power handling: 180 Watts 
Sensitivity: 85 dB 
Free Air Resonance (Fs): 26.72 Hz 
Electrical "Q" (Qes): 0.64 
Mechanical "Q" (Qms): 7.5 
Total Speaker "Q" (Qts): 0.61 
Equivalent Compliance (Vas): 0.42" 
One-Way, Linear Excursion (Xmax): 0.24" 
Efficiency (1W/1m): 85 dB/ Series 
Effective Piston Area (Sd): 35.65 sq. in. / 230 cm 
Thermal Power Handling (Pt): 160W 
Driver Displacement: 0.071 cu. ft. / 2.01 liters 
Voice Coil Diameter: 1.5" 
Mounting Depth Top Mount: 4" 
Mounting Depth Bottom Mount: 4 9/16" 
Mounting Diameter: 7 1/16"
heres the specs.
any help would be great.
thanks


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## bball09124 (Jul 21, 2008)

louisdawon said:


> right ,well am a little confused by a thread i have lost somewhere here.
> i am wanting to build a enclosure from a concrete form tube for a 8" dual VC sub from polk audio db804dvc to be exact. am wanting to use a 8" tube to be glassed at the end to fit the sub and hoping to make it a sealed enclosure as it is to fit behind the seat of a small pick -up.i guess i just need a lil help with the math.it calls for 9.9l on a sealed enclosure.
> Nominal Impedance: 4 Ohms
> Peak power handling: 360 Watts
> ...


If my calculations are correct, the tube needs to be around 9.5 in long to achieve a volume of 9.9L. Where did you get this 8" tubing? Just curious.


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## louisdawon (Oct 22, 2008)

home depot carries a product, not sonotube but manufactured by sacrete, it runs around 6$ for a 4 foot length.thanks for the reply,too cool. am wondering though how to come up with the occupied volume of the sub, is it the vas? cause there is a great calculator ,just eliminating the port, i found but wanted to input the right numbers for the sub...
heres the link if interested:http://www.subwoofer-builder.com/sonosub.htm
i could use the generic values but would rather not.
was thinking of coating outside of tube with fiberglass resin for strength and durability.cheap enclosures for tough times i figure.
thanks again for the reply


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## getonerd (Jul 24, 2007)

http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/boxcalcs.asp#cyl


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## louisdawon (Oct 22, 2008)

thanks that makes things much easier


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## louisdawon (Oct 22, 2008)

well found out the amount of space the sub takes up in the tube is almost negligable at a whopping .023l of displacement (from polk) so here goes
thanks for all the help


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## bball09124 (Jul 21, 2008)

louisdawon said:


> well found out the amount of space the sub takes up in the tube is almost negligable at a whopping .023l of displacement (from polk) so here goes
> thanks for all the help


Good luck. Post a thread with your progress if you want.

First "system" I ever had was an Audiobahn powered sonotube enclosure, that was ported. No output below 40 hz, but got me hooked on car audio.


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## nduetime (Apr 1, 2009)

how did this work out?


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

Does anybody know where I can find larger diameters than 12"?


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

bump


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## ItalynStylion (May 3, 2008)

You wont find anything bigger than 12 I don't think. I was able to find 12" PVC at a local plumbing supply store but I had to buy all 20ft of it for $200. I more than made the money back though. Try online too. I think there is a place on Ebay that specializes in larger PVC. How long did you need?


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## nduetime (Apr 1, 2009)

what's the difference between a 12" PVC tube and 12" quikrete form, besides the ~$190 price difference? is pvc that much better in terms of sound quality?

(20') 12" pvc = $200
(4') 12" quikrete form = $11


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

nduetime said:


> what's the difference between a 12" PVC tube and 12" quikrete form, besides the ~$190 price difference? is pvc that much better in terms of sound quality?
> 
> (20') 12" pvc = $200
> (4') 12" quikrete form = $11


Umm . . . NO ! It is used for water systems 

Quikrete form coated with rubberized undercoating on the inside and poly urethane on the outside and inside would be Veerryyy Noice 

Quote>>
Polyurethane is an incredibly resilient, flexible, and durable manufactured material that can take the place of paint, cotton, rubber, metal, and wood in thousands of applications across all fields. Polyurethane might be hard, like fiberglass, squishy like upholstery foam, protective like varnish, bouncy like rubber wheels, or sticky like glue. 
Quote>>


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## dogstar (Jan 31, 2007)

HondAudio said:


> Does anybody know where I can find larger diameters than 12"?





ItalynStylion said:


> You wont find anything bigger than 12 I don't think. I was able to find 12" PVC at a local plumbing supply store but I had to buy all 20ft of it for $200. I more than made the money back though. Try online too. I think there is a place on Ebay that specializes in larger PVC. How long did you need?


SONOTUBE® Round Concrete Forms Size Chart

They make it in several sizes, but you may have to order it or find a specialty dealer.


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

From Dogstars post ^^^^

Quote:

Diameter
(in.)


Height of Column
3ft. 6ft. 8ft. 10ft. 12ft. 16ft. 20ft. 

6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
34
36
40
42
48
54
60

Quote:


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

Yeah, the 16" diameter would be great. I only need a couple feet of it :|


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## ItalynStylion (May 3, 2008)

I chose PVC because I could make my money back and because it was muuuuuuch nicer for attachments. Remember, you have to mount a speaker in this thing some how. You'll probably think of making a round baffle...then what? It's kinda tough to secure a wooden baffle to cardboard. Here is what I made out of mine. Overkill? Yeah. Awesome? No doubt.

(On the right)


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## azngotskills (Feb 24, 2006)

Damn Steven...thats badass


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## vageta (Oct 11, 2006)

My local concrete place had 14 and 16 in stock. I made a sonotube enclosure for my 13w6 and it was cake. I went to Lowes and had them cut me to 15" square MDF pieces from a 2'x4' slab. Then I just put down gorilla wood glue on the seems, threw a heavy tool box to compress it while it dried and then sealed up the seams with caulking. Had no leaks and took all of 20 mins to make.


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

vageta said:


> My local concrete place had 14 and 16 in stock. I made a sonotube enclosure for my 13w6 and it was cake. I went to Lowes and had them cut me to 15" square MDF pieces from a 2'x4' slab. Then I just put down gorilla wood glue on the seems, threw a heavy tool box to compress it while it dried and then sealed up the seams with caulking. Had no leaks and took all of 20 mins to make.


I seem to recall reading from HomeTheaterTalk.com back in about 2001 when I was on there that in order to secure the baffle to the end of the cardboard tube, they would rout a groove into the baffle and then do the aforementioned gluing-and-weight job to secure the tube to the baffle.


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

HondAudio said:


> I seem to recall reading from HomeTheaterTalk.com back in about 2001 when I was on there that in order to secure the baffle to the end of the cardboard tube, they would *rout a groove* into the baffle and then do the aforementioned gluing-and-weight job to secure the tube to the baffle.




Now you're talkin ^^^^  [ Par Excellante }


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

ItalynStylion said:


> You wont find anything bigger than 12 I don't think. I was able to find 12" PVC at a local plumbing supply store but I had to buy all 20ft of it for $200. I more than made the money back though. Try online too. I think there is a place on Ebay that specializes in larger PVC. How long did you need?


Do you know how to find the PVC seller on eBay?


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## ItalynStylion (May 3, 2008)

HondAudio said:


> I seem to recall reading from HomeTheaterTalk.com back in about 2001 when I was on there that in order to secure the baffle to the end of the cardboard tube, they would rout a groove into the baffle and then do the aforementioned gluing-and-weight job to secure the tube to the baffle.


Damn, that's really a bad ass idea. I don't know why I never tried that. I was doing it the hard way this whole time. Now I know how I can make things easier for me in the future.



HondAudio said:


> Do you know how to find the PVC seller on eBay?


If you need anything more than about 2ft it will be expensive. The **** is HEAVY. That sub I posted a picture of has got to weigh at least 300lbs.


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## Pseudonym (Apr 17, 2006)

so is everyone just sealing their sono's or is anyone making a tube-within-a-tube vented enclosure ala the sadhara? my father bought a sadhara years ago and that thing sounded amazing. its currently collecting dust since the 4 15's moved into the wall.


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## ItalynStylion (May 3, 2008)

That one in the right side of my picture has a 4" port in the top running down the middle. Tuned to 19hz I believe.


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## Catman (Mar 18, 2008)

Isn't the Quickrete form at Home Depot too thin for a sub enclosure? The ones I have seen are quite thin and flex too much.

>^..^<


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## kota_sounds (Apr 21, 2008)

any more pics of any tubes? the one on there is bad a$$ though. any body ever do a 
4th order in this stuff?


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

ItalynStylion said:


> Damn, that's really a bad ass idea. I don't know why I never tried that. I was doing it the hard way this whole time. Now I know how I can make things easier for me in the future.
> 
> 
> 
> If you need anything more than about 2ft it will be expensive. The **** is HEAVY. That sub I posted a picture of has got to weigh at least 300lbs.


I'd have to do calculations to see how much I need but it's definetely less than 2 linear feet.


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## Maceo23 (May 25, 2009)

I built a couple of 300L sonos for my home theater 24" tubes with 8" sonos for the ports, tuned to about 15hz. Using a circle jig, there are a breeze to build, except that you wont want to cut any more circles for at least a year. Here is a free program for all your calculations. It does all the work for you. As far as attachment, You can use liquid nails or some other kind of construction adhesive. I personally happened to luck out and cut my circle to where all i had to do was hammer them in with a rubber mallet (and a s**t tone of muscle) and the press fit was perfect, but they were ported. Don't be worried that the thin cardboard won't hold up to the pressure, it will do just fine, there is no need to use pvc.


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## johnmasters (Mar 30, 2009)

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...ported-ib-0-30-cft-sealed-0-5-cft-sealed.html

It seems like if you do it like Maceo23 and press fit it in, you could then screw it in from the outside of the tube. Although the square baffle is nice to hold the tube in place while you drive.


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## Maceo23 (May 25, 2009)

The shape of the baffle is irrelevent, you need 2 layers of mdf that are round to pushinto the tube, you can make the outer layer that overlaps the tube square, and liquid nails will seal it up tight, you don't need to do any screwing.


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