Spruce wood for cabinet??

[Tubenstein]

Hello!
Anyone has built speaker cabinet with spruce wood? What is the thickness did you try?

Thanks!

 

[Joines]

Hello,

This type of wood is moving a lot with temperatur and moistlevel changes, and it is quite soft.
As a cabinet maker i would not recoment to build a airproof box (speaker) from it.
greetings Jonas

 

[Tubenstein]

What about Spruce for cabinet except front and rear panels? And use Cherry plywood for the front and rear?

 

[planet10]

If you know how to work with solid wood it should work fine.

It is a softwood, but that, from my experience, is not an issue. These are Douglas Fir (a pine, Spruce & Doug Fir [a pine] are interchangeable (in the construction business anyway).

The fellow who built these knows what he is doing. He has built MANY solid wood enclosures.

But do note Joines comment. Solid wood moves and you need to keep the humidy at a heslthy point for the wood to minimize it moving.

dave

 

[Joines]

for what reason would you like to built with spruce ? because its cheap ? or the optic ? i do like massive wood a lot, for a hifi livingroom pice of furniture i would choose some nice hart wood, for a PA any sheet material what you can get.

 

[seventenths]

Spruce isn't a wood that would have come to my mind for speaker construction but if I had ready access to good tight grained stock at a good price, I'd consider it. If one were bucking convention and building resonant boxes, it would likely be perfect. All but the most contrarian luthiers would likely agree.
The strength to weight ratio is excellent and many trust their lives on it. Its the number one wood used in aircraft construction.
Regarding solid wood in general, I'd allow any imported lumber to acclimate to your locale for at least a month or two to stabilize. Using a sealing finish, inside and out will help minimize movement over time as well.

 

[matsurus]

Im actually building spruce speakers right now, cherry veneer over it and not yet finished.
I had sheets of this in my garage for few years, and finally decided to use them in a project.

I have no idea how it will sound compared to baltic birch plywood, but based on this test as pine is quite similar to spruce im not too worried..

(Edit: i just noticed it is pine plywood in video.. Eh.. anyway, if it is too resonant i will just add bitumen sheets to walls..)

 

[Cal Weldon]

I believe the OP is discussing wood, not plywood. Big difference.
I made a small set of speakers from Spruce once but it was very old, reclaimed wood so quite stable.

 

[Tubenstein]

Thanks for all of your inputs!
I am really appreciated

 

[Arthur Jackson]

Spruce is a very good wood for loudspeakers. It’s light and strong, and when properly dried is very stable. You may want to make your box fronts and sides a little thicker, 1” or so, than you would with a hardwood like oak or maple. I like spruce, I think it’s underrated as a furniture wood. If quartersawn it will be exceptional in appearance and strength per weight. Having said that, you can make great loudspeakers from Home Depot studs if you have the time.

 

[Tubenstein]

Is one inch thick spruce good enough for the box? Should I need more than one inch?

Front and rear use 3/4" Maple plywood. What do you think?

Thanks!

 

[GM]

Hmm, spruce MOE = 550 ksi (0.789 m psi)

'Our' typical ~0.75" no void BB plywood MOE = 1.8 m

0.75*(1.8/0.789)^0.33 = ~0.9846" (~25 mm), so 1" thick works for me and* as long as the Maple is no void.

 

[Joines]

mmh wel if quartersawn, properly dry (les than 12% humidity) it is possible,
be aware that the wood moves in in orientation of the grain differently,
this is important for you cabinet design, and choice of grain direction depending of the position of the piece.

this shows the measurement differentes in % of the hohle piece per 1% humidity change

Wood	tangential	radial	longitudinal
spruce	0,33	0,16	0,01
pine	0,29	0,17	0,01
oak	0,35	0,20	0,01
beech	0,45	0,22	0

screrws or glue will not prevent the wood from moving, it will just crack the glue / wood or screw.


greetings Jonas

 

[Tubenstein]

"screrws or glue will not prevent the wood from moving, it will just crack the glue / wood or screw."

What about using finger joint.

 

[Tubenstein]

Hmm, spruce MOE = 550 ksi (0.789 m psi)

'Our' typical ~0.75" no void BB plywood MOE = 1.8 m

0.75*(1.8/0.789)^0.33 = ~0.9846" (~25 mm), so 1" thick works for me and* as long as the Maple is no void.

So 1" thick should be safe?

Or thicker is better?

 

[Tubenstein]

I want to use this plywood in 3/4" thick for the front and rear.

https://userweb.117.ne.jp/y-s/base-12P-e.html

Then 1" thick spruce for the box

Any thoughts?

 

[Tubenstein]

Spruce is a very good wood for loudspeakers. It’s light and strong, and when properly dried is very stable. You may want to make your box fronts and sides a little thicker, 1” or so, than you would with a hardwood like oak or maple. I like spruce, I think it’s underrated as a furniture wood. If quartersawn it will be exceptional in appearance and strength per weight. Having said that, you can make great loudspeakers from Home Depot studs if you have the time.

What do you think of spruce ply?

https://www.timber.com.hk/metsa/metsa-spruce1024b.JPG

 

[Joines]

plywood is something completely different than massive wood, acoustic and static are different.
and it doesn't matter so much witch kind of plywood as long as it is decent quality. and no or allmost no air gabs inside

 

[b_force]

and it doesn't matter so much witch kind of plywood as long as it is decent quality. and no or allmost no air gabs inside

Birch is totally different compared to poplar plywoods.

There is also marine grade (also called meranti plywood), which works fine but the finish is not as nearly as nice.
And tons of other choices.

In the end there is (as always) no "best", they just all have their pros and cons.

That being said, I wouldn't recommend using just solid spruce since it's so extremely soft.
I guess it could work if you just brace the crap out of it.

But finding good quality spruce is not only difficult, also very expensive.
For that much trouble and/or money, I would much rather use plywood since it's a lot more stable as well as much more stiff.

When there is a tight budget, I always like to use hybrid approaches.
Use a good quality (V313) MDF board with something like a birch layer on top.

Or use the meranti plywood as a base and finish it off with a good quality MDF (or HDF) or solid wood layer.

If you like the looks of spruce, this would also be my advice to do, using it as just a finishing layer.

 

[Tubenstein]

BTW, more and more people interested in bamboo plywood. Is that really that good??

My local shop has bamboo plywood, and I might think about to use bamboo plywood for the front and rear, and spruce wood for the remaining.