Cabinet Wood

[a1terrier]

Hi There
New poster here. Just about to start my first amp build. Using Ampmaker 5 watt kit. What is the minimum thickness to use for cabinet ply and for speaker board? Thanks.

[cminor9]

I'd use 3/4" pine for the enclosure and 3/8" plywood for the baffle.

[stingray_65]

I personaly prefer 3/4" Birch plywood for the box an 1/2" or 3/8" for the baffle board and backs.

Pine is great to work with and is the choice for tweed builders when making a clone.
But I find that pine is very suseptable to dinging if you gig a lot or are generally hard on your equipment and could warp if you live in the right climate.

I get my Birch from Lowe's and its usualy available in 1/8 (2 x 2) 1/4 (2 x 4) and 1/2 (4 x 4) sheets and is very friendly to your wallet. I usualy can get an 1/8th sheet for about $6 and thats enough for a head or a small combo.
if I need a 1/4 sheet i buy 2 eigth sheets so i can select the nicest pieces.

I also forego the tedious finger joints and bought a simple dowel jig to assemble the corners, it is hidden when you cover with Tolex or Tweed, exteremly strong, easy for biginners to master the first time and doesn't require a dado blade which can be expensive unless you're using it for other projects.

now with that said a finger joined pine cabinet is AWSOME!
but to get the skill level to make an awsome cab like that takes practice.

[cminor9]

+1 on the dowel joints.

I used finger joints on my first set of cabs and head. On my current build, I just finished the head shell using 3/4" pine boards with 3/8" dowels every 1 1/2". Worked beautifully and took a *lot* less time than finger joints. Seems just as strong too.

[billyz]

For a 5 watt amp 1/2" is more than enough for the baffle. I use 1/2" ply on my 20 w combos w/ a 12" and it sounds great. Actually, if your speaker is smaller, 3/8" would do fine for the baffle and back. I use 5/8" solid pine for the cabinet. 1/2" Ply would work too.

[a1terrier]

Thanks for replies. Nearly finished cabinet. Managed to get a 4 foot square sheet of 5/8ths baltic birch ply (13 layers!) as a freebie from one of my customers. Not glued it yet but have dry fixed it and its all at right angles. Very pleased for a first attempt. A little bit of filling and sanding to do and then should be ok to cover. Only one problem, I want to make another one now. Might have to go into `mass` production!!!!!

[The Link Wray Way]

Here's my 2 cents.....

I just built the cabinet from the folks at ax84.com and it sounds great. It uses 3/4 wood/ply (your choice) for the surround, 3/4" for the baffle and 1/2" for the back panels.

Mine uses 'regular' cabinet grade birch ply for the baffle, no rattles. The 1/2" back panel ended up being 7 ply baltic birch, it's what they had on hand when I bought. You could easily use 3/4" for the back as well and have no problems, it would just add weight is all.

I used finger joints for the cabinet, with glue of course, and simply screwed the rest of the pieces together.

Throw in your choice of speaker (Eminence Private Jack for me) and Voila you're done with a really nice sounding cab.

Trust me, it's not overkill for a 5 Watt amp.

[a1terrier]

Nice Cab TLWW. Are you going to cover the baffle? If so how far away from the speaker will the grill cloth be? Thanks.

[The Link Wray Way]

Yes, I plan to cover the cabinet as well as install a grill frame. The grill frame will be made of 1/2" ply with the grill cloth wrapped around and stapled to the frame. I plan to attach the grill cloth frame to the cabinet with a few squares of velcro at the corners. Since the grill frame is 1/2" thick there should be plenty of clearance behind the grill cloth for the edge of the speaker. Plus the velcro pads add a small amount of thickness as well.