how to put fabric directly on 703

Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:35 am

Is there a way of nicely covering 703 with fabric without a wood frame. Do you staple the fabric to the 703. 703 does not look rigid enough for staples or glue. Help??!! I don't want to make wood frames if i dont have to. Rolling Eyes

Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 9:06 am

I made some panels with rigid foam ceiling tiles (Sonex Whiteline) which I'm sure have similar issues to 703 for covering.

What I did was layout the fabric on the floor and got it all smoothed out - I set down weights, boards, books, whatever I could turn up to hold the fabric in place.

Then I used a spray adhesive and put a light coat on the surface of the foam panel. I VERY CAREFULLY set the foam panel down on the flat fabric. I trimmed the fabric around the edges leaving plenty to wrap around the sides. I then used copius amounts of hot-glue to secure the loose edges of the fabric to the back-side of the panel. The panels look good hanging on the wall - if you take them down and look at the back, it isn't very pretty.

Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 9:52 am

I'm doing a similar thing to build 24x48" (and some narrower) absorber panels. My plans are to cut lauan plywood to slightly smaller than the 703, use Super77 adhesive to fix the fiberglass to the lauan and "upholster" the panels using an electric stapler to the lauan.

A question for the experts... There are some panels I'd like to space away from the wall a bit, exposing some of the absorbency there. I'm thinking of doing the same, except cutting 2 or three large rectangular holes in the lauan--leaving not much material left--just the perimeter and a stiffening "rib" or two. For those I'd Super-77 some pourous landscape fabric or burlap (something cheaper than the FR-701) onto the lauan, then Super-77 the 703 to that. Will that accomplish what I'm after?

Thanks

--Bob

Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 11:47 pm

Just so happens I'm working on this very same thing right now....

Glue is the easiest but:

* it can be expensive if you need to make a lot of panels
* you need to use a healthy lot of glue
* if the fabric isn't thick, the glue will be visible as a splotch

The alternative is to use safety pins to hold the fabric together. After you make a couple you'll find the best places to put the pins. They must hold the fabric very tight though.

Once you get the hand of it, it works better than glue and is much cheaper!

Another method I've heard of but haven't tried is to use silicon instead of glue. Seems like it wouldn't hold, which is why I didn't bother trying it.... Anyone tried this?

-arrow

Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 11:04 am

I used a method that is cheap, easy, but not the slickest looking.

I shrouded my sheets of 703 with a groovy purple fabric, safety pinned them together, then put them on 2X2 strips, to hold them off the wall. I affixed them to 2X2 strips with long screws and fender washers. The washers look pretty blatant and I learned near the end of the project, the great benefit of a little spray adhesive to keep the fabric wrinkle free.

Anyway, check out the pictoral.

The spray adhesive is key. You could also install as above with screws and fender washers before putting the fabric on, but that would be a hassle and a mess.

Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 3:12 am

Shouldn't you use denser material as 703?
You know the denser the better. It's a pitty it's double that expensive.

Have a look at the Acoustics FAQ, second in the list on the Author's Articles page:

www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html

It is clearly explained there with numbers.

Acoustics FAQ wrote:

As the data above clearly shows, 6 pcf rigid fiberglass panels absorb substantially more at low frequencies than less dense 3 pcf material.

It discusses in great detail OC fiberglass (as anywhere in studio groups), but use numbers from "something else" (not linked, hardly to find). . But that's not really important, it's the thought and general statement that counts.

Also note that the "something else" numbers were integrated in the FAQ after the Author measured OC 703 and OC 705 in the IBM lab. But it's just accidental that suddenly other, for studio groups complete non-standard, material numbers were used in the FAQ. Possibly it's just a matter of spilled coffee on the measurement data of the OC materials.
However don't mind such minor insignificant details, the Author doesn't bother either.

Don't look at official measurement reports they are all wrong, only made to confuse people.
The extensive work done by Bob, with the aid of several others, is only meant to distract people from the physical reality as outlined in the FAQ.
http://www.bobgolds.com/AbsorptionCoefficients.htm

Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 4:30 pm

I wrap my panels, almost like a christmas present. Then I use "T" pins to hold the fabric in place. You can get them at a fabric or hobby/craft store. They are about 2" long pins that have about a 1/2" across "T" at the top to prevent them from pulling through the fabric. Works like a champ.

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