DIY Lukebox Build

[Five5peed]

Looks great! Let me know if you’re in N IL sometime. You can have a listen to a Luke bOx [emoji403] vert!


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[Seph]

Just finished uploading the images. I'll create a thread after the son unit goes down for his nap.

Interested too. Thanks for the efforts!

[Schnitzer318is]

I’d love to see how you did your vert.

Interested too. Thanks for the efforts!

There you go. As mentioned, nothing $50, a table saw, and a measuring tape can't accomplish but this vert sounded (I sold it recently) so good.

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=428816

[Gregs///M]

IMHO......the "luke box" was an over-marketed, over hyped, one-size-fits-all, prefab compromise, that worked with most/some woofers decently.

It was fed down everyone's throats by a guy who became a mod, saw the opportunity to make money, use and abused his moderator position to promote it and then squelch anyone that said something negative that he didn't like.

(ok, now that I have that out of my system - here's some advice)

The smart money is deciding if you want ported or sealed: Generally, if you like tight and punchy, go sealed. If you like it loose and loud, go ported. Take that with a grain of salt. It's not a hard and fast rule, but a good starting point - each of us lean a certain way- but you can have a bit of both with either.

Most people start by picking ported or sealed, and picking a woofer, and building a box to match that woofer. It's all just some research, and a box calculator(free online) and some MDF. In about an hour you can learn alot on YOUTUBE.

Every woofer will have a bunch of specs that are intimidating at first, but it's just a numbers that physically describe the woofer. You punch those into a calculator(most have a list so you don't have to even put them in), and it will spit out the volume of the box and port length (that is needed if you choose ported. )

The fun thing about building your own box is if you really screw up, you can modify it. Or if you really mess up just start over. A sheet of MDF is about $22 last I looked, and you can get 2 boxes out of one. So it's $11 to learn. The woofer and the amp, and everything can be reused.

If you really want to copy luke box, and I'm not sure why you would, but there are a few dozen pictures online (check his photobucket) that will get you 99% there. But, while you're building a box, you might as well do it right. Just my 2 cents.

I agree completely with George.

In my pro opinion, having competed and worked in the industry for over 20 years, the Luke box or any large ported box has no home in the E30.

Why take such a huge and heavy box design and install into such a little sports car? I see you guys asking what the right box for this and that woofer. This information is clearly in the owners manual of the woofer.

For the E30, I recommend a small sealed box built to the specs that the manufacturer recommends. This is a much more appropriate box for the E30 application.

One of the most overlooked aspects of a good subwoofer system is the power delivery. Your cables that feed power to your amp must be off large gauge and good quality, well grounded. Your amp should be a high quality unit. You will hear a huge difference between the Jenson flea market amps that Luke offers and a quality amp from even a medium quality brand such as Alpine, Pioneer, Rockford Fosgate, Kicker, etc.

I've personally had luke box owners sit in my E30 and I have an Alpine Type R 12 inch woofer in a sealed 1cu.ft box with a 500 watt Alpine amp. Within seconds, they regret going with the Lukebox package. Not only does it sound better, its louder, lighter, and easily removable. Although, a new Alpine 12 inch Type R woofer and Alpine MRV series 500 watt amp wont be cheap. I bought my woofer and amp used on CL, $70 for the woofer and $60 for the amp.

Follow the manufacture specs, go with a sealed box, dont skip on power cables and remember your amp is more important than your box and woofer choice.

GL

[george graves]

I think what the community needs is this....(it's on my to-do list - but that sucker is kinda long)

If someone came up with some basic plans, some diagrams and a cutting list for a basic sub box but didn't label the dimensions with actual measurements/numbers. Instead with letters. Dimension A, dimension B....C, D and E. (oh and the angle of the rear firewill - that one too)

Then, if your woofer calls for a 1 cubic foot sealed box, look on the list for 1 cubic feet box, and here are the A, B, C, D and E dimensions that you will cut your parts to.

Need a 1.5 cubic inches? Go down the list, and there are the measurements for 1.5, a, b, c, d, and e. Apply those to your cuts as the diagram shows.

I would think in gradations of 1/10 of a cubic foot measurements would be plenty fine.

Making a sub box isn't that hard.

- You buy a 4'x8'-3/4" MDF from Lowes/Home Depot. (Pro tip: Have them rip it down the length so it's 2 long 2'x8' boards if you don't have a truck - it will fit into any car with folding seats or any SUV) That's $25 bucks or so.

- Don't have a table saw? Not an issue. Luke use to brag out about how accurate his table saw was. That's all well and good - but it's not needed - not at all. Wood is very forgiving. And...If you're going to cover it in carpet, don't worry - the carpet will hide a lot of sins.

- Get yourself a small bottle of wood glue. (8-oz) I like Tidebond II (I guess III is the newest version - but whatever).

- Unless you have zero friends on facebook, you know someone that will loan you a handheld circular saw. Ask them if you can borrow a framing square too.

- you can use the "factory" edge of the MDF of one piece as a straightedge to draw your lines to cut. Heck, you can use it as a saw guide if you have use a couple of wood screw and get a table saw quality edge to a cut, all with a hand held circular saw.

- Then just cut, glue and assemble. Want some carpet on the box to blend it into the trunk's look? Last time I looked they sell the stuff at Walmart - I kid you not. If not you can get it on ebay for next to nothing. Buy a can of 3M Super 77, and the carpet will stick very, very well.

It's really not much more than that.

Plus, making a box is fun. If you screw up, it's not the end of the world. If you think the bass sounds too tight, add a port, see what that does. Don't like the port? Change it's length. Don't want to even mess with things and just want good sound on the cheap? Then find the recommended box volume on the data sheet of your subwoofer and build a box with that and call it a day.