Built a pair of Jon Risch's DIY Bass Traps...

Tweakers' Asylum

Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

I've been meaning to get to this project for a while, but I just finally found time this past week to build a pair of Jon Risch's DIY bass traps. Although quite a bit of work (at least for a ham-fisted DIYer like myself), the effort was well worth it. With the pair of traps in the corners behind my Magnepan MG 1.6/QRs, low end articulation has markedly improved and soundstaging/imaging have improved noticeably.
I decided to build a 16"x48" 'healthy' version of Jon's traps that use polyester batting, instead of fiberglass insulation, as the primary absoprtive material. While this pushes the cost of the project upwards (I needed about 14 yards of 96", 3/4" thick wide Hi-Loft batting for the two traps that ran about $6/yard at a local fabric shop), it avoids the potential health hazards of working/living with fiberglass-based traps. I also believe there's another advantage to the healthy traps - since the batting must be wrapped around the inner cage eight times in order to arrive at the 6" depth prior to compression, airleaks (one of the most common failings in construction of these traps) are virtually avoided.
All told, it took me about 8 hours (thaaaaat's right!) to build the two traps, although the first trap took considerably longer than the second. Knowing what I know now, I could probably build another pair in 5-6 hours. Someone on this board recently posted that he's built 36 of these traps. May I be the first to nominate him for DIYer of the year!
The cost to build the pair of traps was about $144, broken down as follows:
1) 1 4'x8' sheet of 3/4" construction grade (also called CDX) plywood = $24 (source: Home Depot)
2) A 20'x48" roll of 1"x2" welded wire = $32 (source: Orchard Supply House)
3) 14 yards of 96" wide Hi-Loft (3/4") polyester batting = $84 (source: Hancock Fabrics)
4) A package of "poultry" stapes = $2 (source: Orchard Supply House)
5) A package of 1 1/4" drywall screws = $2 (source: Home Depot)
I probably could have bought some of this stuff on the 'net and saved a few sheckels, but I didn't feel like waiting for delivery. It's also worth noting that I could have probably saved about $50-$60 by opting for the fiberglass insulation instead of the polyester batting, but then I would have had to deal with those nasty glass fibers. No thanks.
I had the tools I needed on hand, so they didn't factor into the cost. For reference, I used:
- A jigsaw to cut the circular end-caps and inner support pieces
- A hammer to drive in the staples
- A drill to create pilot holes for the jigsaw and to drive in the drywall screws that hold the two-piece end-caps together.
- A variety of common screwdrivers
- A metal tape measure and a flexible "tailor's" measure.
- A homemade adjustable compass out of an old paint stirstick and some screws to create several predefined pivot points. This was used to trace out the circles for the end-caps and support pieces (and the holes in the support pieces).
- A pair of heavy-duty work gloves
- A pair of safety glasses
- I bought a few tubes of liquid nails for the project, but didn't find it necessary.
By far, the most challenging part of the project was securing the outer cylinder of welded wire. I had to wrestle with this thing for a while in order to get the wire flushly affixed to the end-caps and closed where the two ends of the wire met. I must've sliced my hands about a dozen times on the sharp edges of the cut wire before I gave in and grabbed a pair of work gloves. That wire can be nasty! It looks like I got into a fight with the neighbour's cat.
Anyway, I won't go into any more details on the construction of the traps. Jon's site contains fairly detailed instructions, and there's been several postings by others that fill in the odd blank here and there. But if you've been sitting on the fence thinking about trying your hand at a pair of these traps, I suggest you throw caution to the wind and give it a go. They're fun to build and they really work. Kudos to Jon for sharing this with us.
-- Andrew.

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Topic - Built a pair of Jon Risch's DIY Bass Traps... - Andrew Chasin 00:58:08 10/31/04 (2)

Re: Built a pair of Jon Risch's DIY Bass Traps... - Jon Risch 19:35:48 10/31/04 (1)

Re: Built a pair of Jon Risch's DIY Bass Traps... - Andrew Chasin 21:06:26 10/31/04 (0)

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