Bucket Sub Revisited

Sorry, I am a house painter and I mix up cement almost every day, Durobond. I mix it up in plastic buckets. To clean them to use again I let the Durobond completely dry and then knock it out with a karate chop or a slight tap from a hammer. It comes out with ease and in chunks. I also did this with cement when I poured foundations for tomb stones, a job awhile ago. I thought about the sub woofer I just made. Any pressure or vibration is going to loosen the cement from adhering to the buckets plastic. In time the sub could become a rattle trap. In my next build I'm going to put 8 1/8 inch wooden dowels about a foot long, any hardware store, and have those taped to the buckets side equidistant from each other and pull them out when the cement is close to setting. That would give me 8 holes on the sides of the set cement when dry. With my caulking gun I would force some silicone, Phenoseal, Home Depot, Lowes, into those holes. There are always some irregular surfaces on the set cement. Not only the 8 holes but the (fissures) that come off them will be filled with Phenoseal making sure the plastic inner area of the bucket adheres to the cement until the sun burns out. I'll take some pictures on bucket number two. I have noticed painting that Phenoseal caulking seems to be more dense but plyable than other painting caulks. When air hits it it dr

ies even though it might be going in an air tight space. Some other caulks don't do that.....hey take care...Mark Korda

You've overthought this simple project. My bucket subs have played continuously for a couple of years with no issues. Same for their designer and his have been going strong for 5+ years. We used Quikrete not Durobond which is a different product and the buckets are treated like any other piece of audio gear which means no karate chops or hammer blows.
 
Hi Poultrygeist, I've mixed up hundreds of bags of Quikrete and it still gets knocked out of the bucket the same way. I used it my sub. Just a slight tap and not even a karate chop ruins the bond of cement to plastic. The old adage (you got to rough it up) comes into play when you need to surfaces to bond. I'm glad everyones sub is working well but the many times I've had to clean out the mixing buckets got me wondering about what sub woofer vibrations might have in the long run with the bucket sub. With what you reported maybe it's a waste of time but it still gnawed at me.....take care Mark.
 
Hi Poultrygeist, I've mixed up hundreds of bags of Quikrete and it still gets knocked out of the bucket the same way. I used it my sub. Just a slight tap and not even a karate chop ruins the bond of cement to plastic. The old adage (you got to rough it up) comes into play when you need to surfaces to bond. I'm glad everyones sub is working well but the many times I've had to clean out the mixing buckets got me wondering about what sub woofer vibrations might have in the long run with the bucket sub. With what you reported maybe it's a waste of time but it still gnawed at me.....take care Mark.
Hi Poultrygeist, I don't know if the originator of the bucket sub had this in the really nice instructions but an easy way to remedy the best cement adhering to the bucket is to make scribing etching scratches where the cement will abut the plastic. When the cement dries and is in those tiny grooves and lines you made your going to have an even better anchor. The same goes for woodwork when your painting. Paint sticks better when you sand the surface. What are you using for an amp? Most sub amps I've seen need to be mounted in a box...Mark
 
Hi Poultrygeist, I don't know if the originator of the bucket sub had this in the really nice instructions but an easy way to remedy the best cement adhering to the bucket is to make scribing etching scratches where the cement will abut the plastic. When the cement dries and is in those tiny grooves and lines you made your going to have an even better anchor. The same goes for woodwork when your painting. Paint sticks better when you sand the surface. What are you using for an amp? Most sub amps I've seen need to be mounted in a box...Mark

No, the inventor merely says to screw some long deck screws through the buck and cast the concrete around them. When I built mine, I created a wire grid with rebar tie-wire tied to the screws. It's not going anywhere. On his own forum, the inventor notes the concrete is ballast, and the same thing can be done with a couple inches of sand.
 
I too have a bucket sub. Zero problems built as described. The concrete ain't going anywhere. OK....I suppose maybe if you tipped the sub completely upside down and hammered the concrete loose from it's moorings. But, we don't really need to precaution against that do we? Gawd...I'd sure hope not...
 
Is that chrome door edge trim? Nice touch!
Correct

It's been awhile since I built mine. Thinking back over it those long deck screws used to secure the feet act as rebar to anchor the concrete in place. As whoaru says "it ain't going anywhere" .
 
Since most of the early pictures in this thread were deleted by PB here's one showing my only modification to Ed's plans. The plywood ring added underneath the bucket baffle allows the drivers to be attached with screws rather than being glued in place.

P4170017.jpg
 
@Poultrygeist
Its treally easy to fix those images! You go back in for an edit, click on the image to edit, and add this extension, and then save.
The extension to add: ~original

add that extension to the end of the photobucket link, like this: photobucket.imagexxx.jpg~original
hit save, picture comes back
 
Anywhere I could get the plans to these? I'm in the market for new subs and it looks like a very fun DIY project!
 
For an amp for the bucket subs I use a BASH 500 watt plate amp.

Am in the process of building a second sub which will be run on the same amp.
 
I know Ed the inventor says you need at least 300 watts for the two bucket subs but lately I've tried them with a 100 watt plate amp which I found to be sufficient depending on the type of music. Ed rocks out at insane levels and no doubt needs the extra power. With two bucket subs ( 8 ohm Peerless woofers ) connected in parallel you'll get a 4 ohm load for a single plate amp and extract it's maximum output.
 
This reminds me of the famous "Bazooka" subs for cars. The SAS (I believe this is the company) corp. adopted a simple idea for their subs; feature a sturdy subwoofer in a tube structure made of hard plastic, patent the manufacturing process where the subs are engineered to be installed in small spaces inside of a car. Bazooka car subs have been around for at least three decades, and they are a dependable subwoofer package that delivers good sound at a convenient price.
 

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