Please
'Boom' Responsibly As
most of you have noticed, the noise ordinances have
become much tougher lately. Most of this is due to
idiots, yes IDIOTS, who drive through residential areas
with their windows down while their system is playing at
full power. To make things worse, the music they listen
to has all sorts of foul language that's not suitable for
small children, (who may be playing outside). There are
even a few people, who are even beyond idiot status, that
play their systems at full power through residential
areas after 10:00 PM (when many people go to bed). I
don't believe that this type of behavior is good for the
industry. If the fines get too stiff, people will stop
buying large systems. If this happens, more people will
get out of car audio (who wants a mediocre system).
People get interested in things because they're exciting.
A deck and four 6.5" speakers are not going to
interest many of the younger car audio enthusiasts. If
car audio enthusiasts keep annoying more and more people,
the fines will keep getting tougher. All of this will
only reduce interest in the equipment that fuels the
industry. If you want to listen to your system at full
volume, get out on the highway where there's little
chance of bothering anyone. When you get to a red light,
turn it down. If the only thing attractive about you is
your 'system', you have some work to do. Bottom line...
Think about what you're doing. Think about other people.
It's not the end of the world if you have to turn the
volume down for a little while.
Covering an Enclosure:
Covering a speaker enclosure
with carpet isn't difficult but will require some
(read: lots of) patience the first time you do
it. I will cover (no pun intended) the basics
here. I'm sure there are many ways to do it. This
is how I've done it in the past. Try all of the
following on scrap pieces of wood and carpet the
first time.
Carpet Selection:
Carpet will have a wide range
of backings. For covering speaker enclosures, the
worst has a solid rubber backing. It is very
difficult to work with. It doesn't bend sharply
and is much more difficult to cut. It should be
avoided at all costs. Another type of backing is
the type used for household carpet. it's much
more flexible than the solid rubber type and is
easier to cut but is still hard to work with. The
best is the most commonly used type (big
surprise) for covering enclosures. At first
glance, you might think it has the poorest
quality but it's actually very good. It has a
thin flexible, stretchable backing. You can
actually see through it if you hold it up to a
bright light. It allows you to make nice clean
corners that lay down nicely and stay down. It's
also cuts very easily. It can be purchased from
virtually any car audio dealer that builds
enclosures. If there are no dealers in your
immediate area, Select Products has several different types of
carpet that will work well.
Selecting an Adhesive:
Many installers use spray
adhesive for enclosures. It works fairly well
when covering the enclosure with vinyl or cloth
or even the very light carpet but I've been,
generally, dissatisfied with it's long term
holding abilities. For heavier carpet, it won't
work well at all. One advantage that it has is...
it's less time consuming to use (very important
if you're making a living doing installs). My
adhesive of choice is contact cement. It will
hold (virtually) forever and isn't affected by
heat. If you've never used contact cement, it
must be applied to BOTH of the pieces that are to
be joined. The glue is then allowed to dry until
it is no longer sticky to the touch. If it
strings when you touch it, it's not dry enough.
After it's dry (about 5-15 minutes depending on
conditions), the parts are put together. You must
keep in mind that the parts will permanently bond
to each other on 'contact' (hence the name). If
one tiny point touches, you 'might' be able to
pull it off but if a large piece makes contact,
solvent (acetone or mineral spirits) will have to
be used to break the bond. You can use a roller
or a brush to apply the cement. Read the High
Pressure Laminate
page for more options on applying the cement to
the wood. I've used Weldwood Contact
Cement in the
past and never had any trouble with it. If it's
available in your area, it would be a good
choice.
Note on Contact Cement:
All contact cement uses
solvents which have to evaporate for the adhesive
to become 'dry'. When the solvent evaporates, it
causes the surface to cool. If the humidity is
sufficiently high (like it is here in Louisiana),
there will be condensation on the surfaces. This
moisture causes the bond to be weak. If the
humidity is high in your area because it's been
raining, it will be better if you wait for a
better (less humid) day. If the humidity is high
because you live in a humid region or it's a
cold, damp day, you may have to use a heat gun to
keep the surfaces warm and moisture free. If you
do use a heat gun, make sure that there is a LOT
of ventilation. Even if the contact cement is
'non-flammable', you still need a lot of
ventilation.
Cutting Tools:
There are several tools that
will make the job easier. The first is a good
sharp knife. Most people use a razor knife which
works fairly well. The biggest problem is that
the blades dull very quickly. I use a 1"
wide putty knife sharpened on one edge with a
very rough sandpaper on a belt sander. It allows
a quick resharpening of the knife throughout the
job and holds the edge much better than a razor
knife. There are also knives that have snap-off
blades that will give you a new edge when the end
of the blade is snapped off. The following is
such a knife and is available from Stanley
tools.
Another cutting tool that
you'll need is a good pair of heavy duty
scissors. They will be needed to make some of the
longer cuts and for cutting excess material out
of your way. If you can't find a pair that will
cut your carpet, you can get by with a good knife
alone. As a side note... If you're living with
your parents, don't use your mom's good scissors.
If you do, you will NEVER hear the end of it. :-)
The Easy Part:
The easiest part of covering
the enclosure is, generally, covering the top,
front, bottom and back. First, you simply cut a
piece long enough to wrap around the enclosure
(plus a few inches). Then you apply contact
cement to both pieces (carpet and wood) and wrap
the carpet around the box stretching it tight as
you go. The seam should be on the bottom. Where
the 2 ends meet on the bottom of the enclosure,
let them overlap. Then, with a SHARP knife, cut
through both of the overlapped pieces (all of the
way to the wood). Cutting both pieces at one time
makes them fit together perfectly. After cutting,
there will be a piece of scrap on the top and a
piece of scrap underneath the flap of carpet
that's going to remain. You'll lift the flap and
remove the scrap piece. Then you'll glue the flap
down. If the box has been completely covered with
contact cement, you can use wax paper to prevent
the scrap piece from being bonded to the
enclosure. Well, it should look something like
shown below (the blue buttons will go through the
different steps).
Different
Methods of Covering the Ends of the Enclosure
Simplest Method:
The simplest method of getting
the ends of the enclosure to look good is to
screw a board covered with carpet onto the end of
the enclosure. When using this method, you'll
simply have to leave a couple of inches of extra
carpet sticking off of the end of the enclosure.
The extra is folded over to the end of the
enclosure. When the covered board is screwed to
the enclosure (from the inside of the enclosure),
the pieces that you folded over will be covered
and and the ragged ends will no longer be
visible. If you want, you can just pull the
carpet tight and staple the ragged ends to the
inside of the cover board (no gluing). I strongly
recommend predrilling the ends of the enclosure
so the screws will be able to pull the cover
board tightly to the enclosure. The hole has to
be large enough to to let the screw's threads to
pass cleanly but not so large that the head will
pull through. Do not predrill the covered board.
Inset board:
This method takes a little more
foresight but isn't really any harder. In the
following diagram, you can see that end of the
enclosure is set in slightly (the thickness of
the cover board plus the thickness of 2 layers of
carpet. You again screw the panels to the
enclosure with screws from the inside. The
finished enclosure looks a little better because
there isn't the small gap between the cover board
and the enclosure.
Another View
Cut Overlap:
This type of finish is the most
difficult. It requires a great deal of
forethought when folding the carpet over and
cutting the excess. The cuts are the same as the
straight cut in the demo above (with overlapped
layers) but are done diagonally from the corner
of the side of the enclosure to the center of the
side of the enclosure. If done properly, the
entire end of the enclosure will appear to have
no cuts. After you're finished, running your hand
back and forth over the cuts will fluff up the
fibers and make the cuts disappear. The cuts
could follow virtually any pattern but, many
times, it comes out something like the dark
dashed line on the following diagram. If you want
to try this method and it doesn't come out well,
you can always use the 'simplest method' to cover
your mistakes.
If you find a problem
with this page or feel that some part of it needs
clarification, E-mail
me.
