Always looking for variations on a theme, Jon and I wondered how the HE-15 from Stryke Audio would sound in a ported box. We like the looks of the SW-12 enclosure from Aerial Acoustics and decided to model our enclosure after their design.
This project uses 6" ports with flares, we found 6" PNP-AeroPorts made by Lightning Audio (owned by RockFord-Fosgate). To locate these ports have a Lightning Audio dealer look up PNR6BK-PT
I didn't photo document the actual construction of the raw enclosure. Here are the important specs. The outside dimensions of the box are 18" wide, 29" tall, 35" deep. All the walls are doubled 3/4" MDF except the front baffle, it is 3 layers of 3/4" MDF. There are 4 routed internal braces. These are spaced as follows. The first is 4.5" back from the from the front baffle. The rest are placed every 6" thereafter. The cutouts for the routed braces are 13.5" dia. for the area directly behind the woofer and 6.5" dia. for the port. The rest of the design was created by adding 2" to all internal measurements then tracing that design. The circles were cut with a Jasper router jig. The asymmetrical areas on either side of the port were cut freehand with a saber saw.
The box assembly was as follows. The outer shell was assembled first, the back was left off to allow for the remaining assembly. 3/4" MDF spacer pieces were cut for the 4.5" and 6" spacers. The first layer of spacers were glued and nailed in place with a brad nailer. Then the first routed brace was glued and nailed in place. This process was repeated until all the braces and spacers were in place. The cabinet then looked like this.....
The front baffle cutouts for the driver and port were also made using a Jasper jig. Layout spacing was done by hand using the raw driver and port material to ensure accuracy for the shortest possible cabinet height
The small front baffle spacer performs 2 functions. First it allows the port to be 3/4" longer without taking up additional room inside the enclosure, second it provides an esthetic accent to the baffle board. The 15 3/4" dia. cutout provides the rebase for flush mounting the woofer
Close up of the front baffle port spacer
Dry fit of the entire assembly.
End view of front baffle assembly. This photo was taken prior to the installation of the interior braces.
Side view, same state of assembly as above.
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