I was thinking about building a sub box for my Screw and the idea of making a sub box out of aluminum sheet metal came to mind. I was going to bend a sheet up and weld the bottom on to make it a downfire box. I thought it would be awesome because metal is water tight and definately air tight unlike even the best wood boxes which do leak at least a bit. My dad is a sheet metal fabricator andi have worked at his place my whole life so i know all the tricks of the trade. I was just curious as to why nobody else has made a box out of aluminum, its not expensive at all. Tell me what you guys think. I will be making it in a week or so and plan to run a Rockford Punch HX2 with 400 wats going to it, its a really powerful and clean sub so ill send pics and tell you how it comes along. If it works out good, and if you are interested i might start making them. Just think about it, it would be lighter, sealed completely, lookvery unique of you chose not to carpet it, and allow you to use a larger sub since the material is far thinner than MDF, i would most likely use something close to 1/16" sheets.
Let me know what ya think.
Shawn

 

I really can't answer your question on switching material but your insight has given me some new ideas for appearance. I think if you were to wrap the edges of a standard MDF box with billet alluminium or have an eteched design made for a side dressing would be a much better use of your resources. The weight of the box was never really an issue for me.

 

Just to add to the comments, I've been doing stereo installs for years and any kind of metal other that lead which is poisonous would ping when the subs fired and would sound really bad.

 

1/16 would not be enough. Bang on an empty oil drum and see if thats the sound you are going for. Wrapping the ends of a box could be a nice touch.

 

I've seen a few metal enclosures in my day and none of them 'pinged'. You just need to use a thick metal with plenty bracing.

 

Metal "sings". It will resonate no matter how thick or how much you brace it, all you can do is change the frequency. Wood like MDF is "sound dead". It won't alter and transmit the sound waves from the inside of the box to the outside. You might be able to get away with it if you lined both the inside and outside with Dynamat and used a thick heavy piece for the side the sub is bolted to. But not with 1/6", I'd say 1/4" absolute minimum for aluminum.
If you're going for the metal look, maybe build the box out of 1/2" MDF and wrap it in thin sheet metal, putting something between them so it doesn't rattle.