Hey folks i was wonddering if i get the same length and width of pvc pipe needed to make a tempest sonosub.......would that be good?? the pvc has good thickness....maybe a little less than 1 inch........i was wondering can that be used for a sonosub enclosure????? your feedback on this idea would be appreciatwed..BYeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
It will be much more expensive and the pvc resonates more than sonotube which is fairly dead when you tap on it. Wrap the inside of the schedule 40 pvc with a thin sheet of lead and then you've got something! If the pipe is schedule 80 then it will be about 3/4" thick and cost about $10 a foot or more. It is very hard to find sch80 pipe over about 8" in diameter. I've made some great 'periscope' shaped speakers using sch80 pvc pipe. If you can get sch80 then give it a try!
I don't know about in the US, but here in the UK all our domestic gas supplies run in thick (20mm) walled yellow nylon (I think) pipe. The main pipes buried in the streets are from 100mm to more than 300mm diameter.
It is sometimes possible to scrounge unwanted sections of this pipe if there's work being done in the locality. The thick walls make it very dead.
It is sometimes possible to scrounge unwanted sections of this pipe if there's work being done in the locality. The thick walls make it very dead.
You're lucky to find it like that! The 20mm walled pipe is known as 'schedule 80' here in the states. The largest I've seen is 300mm(12") but it was insanely expensive and in 12' minimum lengths.
All the tubes buried in the streets here are nowadays colour coded. Yellow is natural-gas, but I don't know what the green and the blue ones are!
It must be PVC as you say. Nylon would be far too expensive, even when paid by taxpayers money!
It must be PVC as you say. Nylon would be far too expensive, even when paid by taxpayers money!
A couple of years ago, they replaced most of the gas mains in the vicinity of Kensington High Street. The original pipes were about 1 metre wide and made of cast iron, and were replaced with 50cm wide yellow nylon pipes which ran inside of the cast iron pipes. We have slightly lower demand for gas, now that we have electric lighting!
The work took twice as long as expected, and a lot more of the road had to be dug up (In the UK utilities run under the road!) for one simple reason. During the blitz, German bombing disrupted the gas main in places. In order to return supply as quickly as possible, the gas mains were repaired by running pipes around the sides of the crater, and then the crater was filled in, and rebuilt over the years. However, no one kept a record of where the extra bits of pipe were, and the workers spent ages digging up parts of the street looking for the pipes!
The work took twice as long as expected, and a lot more of the road had to be dug up (In the UK utilities run under the road!) for one simple reason. During the blitz, German bombing disrupted the gas main in places. In order to return supply as quickly as possible, the gas mains were repaired by running pipes around the sides of the crater, and then the crater was filled in, and rebuilt over the years. However, no one kept a record of where the extra bits of pipe were, and the workers spent ages digging up parts of the street looking for the pipes!
here in the states green is sewer, blue is water I assume.
I scored an eight foot piece of 12" green schedule 40. heavy stuff. I have it cut to size and capped up, I just need a 12" DVC to drop in it. (i only built it cause it was free), I found it on the side of the road at a construction site. brand new cut off someone forgot to load up
I scored an eight foot piece of 12" green schedule 40. heavy stuff. I have it cut to size and capped up, I just need a 12" DVC to drop in it. (i only built it cause it was free), I found it on the side of the road at a construction site. brand new cut off someone forgot to load up
Hi..
A number of years ago I built a pair of speakers using 10" pvc pipe with 7/8" walls.... ( I was told that the pipe was used for high pressure fire hydrant applications )
A couple of points worth noting....
1. I got my pipe as surplus from a contractor who had cut offs left over from a job.. he was glad to be rid of them... I don't remember being charged for them... I got two pieces that were each > 4' long.
2. The stuff is very heavy... approx 20-25lbs per foot. This has both good and bad points... My finished speakers weigh in at over a 130 lbs each.. sonics are rock solid... but handling them is a ******... remember they're round.. and it is nearlly impossible to get a grip on them. moving them even a couple of feet is problematic..
3. Because of size-shape- and weight.. construction is also difficult. Plan on using a lot of hand tools because you won't be ripping these on a table saw. I found a hand router to be an effective but tedious tool.
4. Remember to provide a solid base.. While in my prototyping stages I had one of these pipes standing upright in my living room without a base.. my 8 year old was playing in the room and ran into it and knocked it over... fortunately no one was hurt.. but it did put a 'big' hole in the plaster (a 10 " hole).
But hey... who'd do DIY stuff unless they were a little crazy?
A number of years ago I built a pair of speakers using 10" pvc pipe with 7/8" walls.... ( I was told that the pipe was used for high pressure fire hydrant applications )
A couple of points worth noting....
1. I got my pipe as surplus from a contractor who had cut offs left over from a job.. he was glad to be rid of them... I don't remember being charged for them... I got two pieces that were each > 4' long.
2. The stuff is very heavy... approx 20-25lbs per foot. This has both good and bad points... My finished speakers weigh in at over a 130 lbs each.. sonics are rock solid... but handling them is a ******... remember they're round.. and it is nearlly impossible to get a grip on them. moving them even a couple of feet is problematic..
3. Because of size-shape- and weight.. construction is also difficult. Plan on using a lot of hand tools because you won't be ripping these on a table saw. I found a hand router to be an effective but tedious tool.
4. Remember to provide a solid base.. While in my prototyping stages I had one of these pipes standing upright in my living room without a base.. my 8 year old was playing in the room and ran into it and knocked it over... fortunately no one was hurt.. but it did put a 'big' hole in the plaster (a 10 " hole).
But hey... who'd do DIY stuff unless they were a little crazy?
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steve, what was your method of cutting the ends square?
my best efforts have been to
1. cap it up with an MDF plug, set in about a quarter inch from the uneven edge,
2. make that square and epoxy it in real solid,
3. then to use a flush cut bit in the router and trim down the uneven ends of the tube.
works fair and takes several steps. i'm pretty sure my ends are not DEAD square. but they are good enough.
my best efforts have been to
1. cap it up with an MDF plug, set in about a quarter inch from the uneven edge,
2. make that square and epoxy it in real solid,
3. then to use a flush cut bit in the router and trim down the uneven ends of the tube.
works fair and takes several steps. i'm pretty sure my ends are not DEAD square. but they are good enough.
It has been years since I made those cuts.. but as I recall, I also made a MDF plug, but made it several (4-5) inches thick, this kept it square with in the tube. I tacked the plug at the end of the rough cut (leaving the plug slightly extended beyond the rough cut) and then used the same circle cut jig for my router that I used to make the plug in the first place to cut down the outer pipe. This provided a clean square cut..
that is an excellent idea. to use the circle jig set to depth. hMMMMMMM.
the plugs i used are 1.5 inches. so they are pretty square. to make a plug that is 5 inches deep and to tack it in. makes it reuseable. and repeatable.
the plugs i used are 1.5 inches. so they are pretty square. to make a plug that is 5 inches deep and to tack it in. makes it reuseable. and repeatable.
I made a jig for my table saw that slid in the slot for the angle guide. It was perpendicular to the blade and tall enough to not let the tube roll over it. I move it up to the blade, cut in and rotated the tube 360 to go all the way around. For angle cuts it was the good old hack saw and I mounted the drivers on the face of the tube(end of tube) which I made out of mdf.
I recall many attempts at the table saw, with various jigs... I never accomplished a clean cut. I was more sucessful with smaller pipe (I use a section of 8" scheadul 40 as an interior divider.... ( the design approximates a transmission line ), but even those cuts were inconsistant.
As for using a hack saw, well it works, but I would recommend a courser blade ... say 14-16 teeth per inch. The PVC softens when heated by the saw blade, and will tend to clog the teeth of a finer toothed blade.
Steve
As for using a hack saw, well it works, but I would recommend a courser blade ... say 14-16 teeth per inch. The PVC softens when heated by the saw blade, and will tend to clog the teeth of a finer toothed blade.
Steve
Just had a check on Google. The UK pipe is poly-ethylene, so the ideal end-capping material would be to hot-air weld flat sheets of the same material.
By the way. Why aren't MDF tubes readily available? I'm sure that they could be made quite easily and would have a lot of uses.
Here in the UK, the concrete inductry doesn't make much use of sacrificial forms, so the cardboard Sonotube (or equivalent) is quite difficult to obtain over here, and isn't available in short lengths to DIY-ers.
By the way. Why aren't MDF tubes readily available? I'm sure that they could be made quite easily and would have a lot of uses.
Here in the UK, the concrete inductry doesn't make much use of sacrificial forms, so the cardboard Sonotube (or equivalent) is quite difficult to obtain over here, and isn't available in short lengths to DIY-ers.
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