DIY bass cabinets

[JimChjones]

Yeah, building straightforward heavy cabs is not particularly difficult if you have the tools, and if you get the timber store to cut the panels exactly square on their big flat bed cutter it gets even easier. Just don't expect it to be especially cheap, because by the time you've bought glue, fittings, coatings, coverings etc it adds up like crazy.

Cab design, on the other hand is hard. And if you want to target something exotic like horn systems, or lightweight, anything away from the standard heavy ply box then the construction can get harder too.

I built my last cab because I wanted the lightest box that would fit best in my music equipment cupboard and leave more room for basses...

 

[seamonkey]

There's usually a lot of CNC places around locally now. Even some home cabinet shops will have a CNC these days. It's not cheap but if you have the CAM files they will cut to size for you. Exact fit to assemble yourself. No big outlay for your own cutting tools.

Now you just need to find cabinet designers willing to created and sell CAM files for cabinets that best utilize sheets of 4x8 or 5x5.

If you do your own designs one hint to lower CNC cost is to skip drilling for screws. The CNC shop can take a v-bit and counter sink where the holes would go, but to do drilling itself can be a pain on a CNC. They can usually cut pockets for pocket holes also, but still skip the drilling part.