• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

MDF vs Blockboard Cab

La Faro

La Faro

Jun 20, 2016
1,256
3,101
Da Nang, Viet Nam
#1
Before responding, please note I am in Vietnam

I have a Deltalite 2512 in the country, hoping it will be delivered in the next 7 days, so I need to build a cab.

I have only found Baltic Birch in one place, and in Ha Noi 800kM away. But they are not responding to my email confirming if they deliver just one 5x5 board.

There is one place locally that says it has Birch Ply, so I am guessing that's just the outer ply's, and they haven't responded.

I went into a sheet timber suppliers locally this week and the only ply they have is pretty poor quality.

So I am thinking, just make a cab with what is available and keep it cheap. Then when and if I can get a more suitable ply, I can re-build and shift the parts over.

I'm not gigging, so It mainly for my apartment and the roof terrace, but future intentions are to get in front of others, but not in a regular gigging set up.

I never see pine here, most woods are dense, and heavy.

So MDF or Blockboard sheet? that's my dilemma.
 
#2
MDF makes toxic dust when you cut it up. Hard pass.

Blockboard might be quite ok or could be a disaster depending on quality. I imagine the nice hardwood faces should be pretty perfect but the interior bits and pieces of softwood might be less well put together. Brace it well and hope for the best?
 
#3
I'd use MDF. I've had occasion to build a number of speaker cabs for permanent installs out of MDF and it's a pretty OK material to work with. Acoustically speaking, it's actually better than even the best plywood, in that it's so much denser and thus has a much lower natural resonance. All wood dust particles are toxic to some extent; one should take precautions, i.e., rated (N-95) dust-filtering masks, to keep from inhaling the airborne particulates of any sheet goods that you cut. I'm certainly no authority, but I've never heard that MDF dust is more toxic than, say white oak, mahogany or luan.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: BassikBrad and AlexanderB
#6
This was my last cabinet build, from a couple of months ago. So I'm confident enough with putting it together. Not sure I'd put an MDF box together the same as and Ply, but the proportions should work out the same, unless I muck something up with the first one.
IMG20200402142655.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5StringPocket, Exploiter8, Skip Chucker and 8 others
#7
UF glue is used in virtually all hardwood plywood, although it is present in greater quantity in MDF. The inhaled particulate matter itself is carcinogenic, even when sawing or milling solid wood, and sanding is the worst thing for launching dust into the air. Everyone should wear a good mask when doing anything that creates sawdust when building a project, even outdoors, although that obviously is a lot less hazardous than doing it in your basement.

Shop-vacs and dust collectors are great things, but it's a complicated issue. Many well-intentioned attempts at dust control end up filling the air with more of the very sub-1-micron-sized particles that are the most hazardous to your health when inhaled and thus end up doing more harm than good.

That cab for your flutes and soprano looks good, @La Faro. Are those 'collectable' instruments, or is it just to have someplace cool-looking to stow your regular horns?
 
  • Like
Reactions: La Faro
#8
The problem with construction grade plywood is that it can have voids as well as loose pieces within the plys. This can lead to vibrations within the walls of the speaker cabinet. Baltic birch is a cabinet grade that is void free which is why people use it. Of MDF vs blockboard, it varies with the product but MDF will give you are more consistent panel in terms of density.

I'd try to find a local cabinet maker and see what they use. An option is to find hardwood planks that can be glued together rather than using a sheet of wood. I'm looking at your flooring, that sort of thing. It pays to be inventive.
 
  • Like
Reactions: eddododo
#9
beans-on-toast said:
An option is to find hardwood planks that can be glued together rather than using a sheet of wood.
Click to expand...
That's enticing, but I think it would be pretty complicated to build an airtight cab while still allowing for the natural expansion and contraction of solid wood. Centuries of cabinet-building techniques have evolved to accommodate this unavoidable movement, but none of them lend themselves to the type of fully-glued, airtight joints between panels that are required for our purposes.

Or...considering the locale of the OP, maybe one wouldn't have to allow for that natural movement. Does it ever get less than 90% relative humidity in Viet Nam? :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheReceder and beans-on-toast
#10
Redbrangus said:
That's enticing, but I think it would be pretty complicated to build an airtight cab while still allowing for the natural expansion and contraction of solid wood. Centuries of cabinet-building techniques have evolved to accommodate this unavoidable movement, but none of them lend themselves to the type of fully-glued, airtight joints between panels that are required for our purposes.

Or...considering the locale of the OP, maybe one wouldn't have to allow for that natural movement. Does it ever get less than 90% relative humidity in Viet Nam? :D
Click to expand...

A glued tongue and groove joint is airtight, as is a butcher block type of construction. A local wood store sells sheets of thin hardwood butcher block material. The problem is, being a hardwood, it is heavy.

Strong panels can be made from boards. This is where a local cabinetmaker with a planer can help.

 
#11
Flat panels like that are great and cabinet makers have been doing that forever...it's actually what a 'jointer' (not a planer) does. The problem comes when you want to make a connection between an end-grain section of a panel and a cross-grain section of an adjacent, right-angle panel, as you must inevitably do if you're constructing a 6-sided, closed box. There are ways to accommodate that movement, and I suppose you could even design a cab that's airtight enough that still allows for that lateral movement, but it's needlessly complicated for this purpose. IMO, anyway. I love working with solid wood, but if you ignore the potential for lateral, cross-grain movement, you'll build cabs that will want to wrench themselves apart at the joints.
 
Last edited:
#12
Modern Cabinet makers here use MDF or blockboard with a paper thin veneer (the same as my sax cabinet I made, Or they use native hardwoods, and make vulgar ostentatious oversized furniture to show off wealth. The shops that sell all the furniture typically on one central street, but they don't make it there, it's comes in from out of town.
 
#15
jazzbass_5 said:
I used 3/4" MDF when I built a 4x10 cab over 10 years ago and I still have it. Sonically it is awesome, but its Soooo heavy. (3/4" what was I thinking) I was actually considering trashing it today but didn't want to move it from the corner it's buried in. View attachment 3808688
Click to expand...

Kitchen Aid. funny
 
  • Like
Reactions: Omega Monkey, DJ Bebop, littlebooner and 4 others
#18
jazzbass_5 said:
I used 3/4" MDF when I built a 4x10 cab over 10 years ago and I still have it. Sonically it is awesome, but its Soooo heavy. (3/4" what was I thinking) I was actually considering trashing it today but didn't want to move it from the corner it's buried in. View attachment 3808688
Click to expand...

That "Kithen Aide" badge is just awesome! I was thinking "Bass Aide" would be a great name for a cabinet builder.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jazzbass_5

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back