Portable Free Standing Acoustic Panels made with PVC Tubing

First post here... I've just purchased 18 sheets of OC703 2" 2'x4' rigid fiberglass(pretty cheap) for acoustic treatment of my rented room, so wall mounts wont do. For starters, I've seen on the web one person using PVC tubing for the frame. Ive ponder this idea and came up with the following: Create a Frame to enclose the panel 2' by 4', free standing(All PVC with possible T Tubes to connect adjacent Panels) Use Velcro on the fabric to wrap around the 703 and hang on the tubing in on whole sheet. Fill the tubing with sand or other material for sturdiness and minimize resonance. Any thoughts? The purpose of this is to have it behind me so I reduce the reflections when Im mixing, I keep my average Decibel level around 83-85db. I'm also thinking of building a frame to have a hanging "Cloud" over mix station as well, portable of course I'll post a Sketch Up when I get a chance to give a better idea. Cheers!

:? (I realize that it is a little incomplete as to the cutouts on the fabric etc...) But here is my attempt at a concept done in Sketch Up 8. A little clarity: The two tall Minecraft looking things is the fabric cut out in what I believe to be the an efficient layout that may need tweaking. The black strips are the velcro, the top most would attach to the fabric backing(May need more velcro strips :oops: ), the strip under it would attach to the tubing for support. The side strips attach to the adjacent strips on the long flap that is pulled tight from the underside of the structure.(These may need to be reversed for a more seamless look, tweak tweak, tweak). Keep in mind this is a rough Draft and will be reworked.(Ideas to better it are welcome as well) Your thoughts good or bad is warranted. Im no picasso. :) The the Tubing can be covered in another material to look more presentable, perhaps carpet or speakerbox carpet I couldn't get the curve to do what I wanted on the edges so use your imagination

I also thought about making the Base in a more Diamond shape to make multiple panels closer when side by side.

I think it's a great idea, I'll look into making some when I get to the end of my build, I like the idea of joining them together too. Keep the good ideas coming :) Pete

That's a pretty neat idea, actually! Cheap, simple and effective. One suggestion: you could pour some dry sand into the bottom of the frame, to give the base a bit more weight and stability. No real acoustical benefit to that, but it might make it more stable, and keep it from moving around if it is bumped accidentally. - Stuart -

UPDATE! This part is way too easy!!! :D I decided to build this with out the back handle part to lower cost, with the understanding that it could be added later. The sand in the bottom is definitely the way to go, Ill try that once I complete the entire thing. I could also put caster wheels on this as well using a 3way elbow(upside down) with a "plug" i think its called, I have a bookmarked site for the caster wheel, I might try that once this is complete, Trying to keep the cost down at this point, so far around $50 - $60 complete The fabric part i will do tomorrow, as i may have to rethink the layout a bit, sticking with sowing on Velcro The PCV pipe construction went super smooth. Here are some pictures... The Finished Frame in real life :) No Glue, or nails. Just Slip it on, has a nice tight fit, easy to breakdown... I will post the bill of material once this is finalized, with tweaking and all the material cost may changed. By the way, I'm no plumber or carpenter for that matter, but I went searching for 2" PVC pipe and found it was larger than 2", the size I'm using is 1-1/2 PVC pipe, it worked out to be slightly smaller than 2" may 2/8" smaller, somewhere around there...strange though :?

Here is a dimension layout of the frame, the measurements are for the PVC pipe only as the corner fittings are standard and do not require cutting. :lol: Talk about uncovering gold, there is a whole community of people making things out of PVC.(Flexpvc) even working transportation, go figure. I might just create a room in a room of pvc for my workstation area with the cloud connected to the panels, side panels as well of course.

simply amazing man. You rock. and thanks for sharing!

Thank for the support guys, its keeping me working on this project. :) So I've thought about how to get the 703 and the fabric on without it looking like crap. Unfortunatley SketchUp does not have a gravity simulator and in the real world, just wrapping the thing would more than likely yeild undesirable results. So I may have to put velcro onto the 703 top and bottom to keep it to stay put. Thing is I know it would be a hassle if I had to break the thing down and it might tear the 703, but perhaps ill keep the 703 velcro peices small enough to matter but easy enough to disassemble. The original idea with velcro was it would provide a way to tighten the fabric around the frame and 703 panel, now that im going to attach the 703 directly to the tubing, I can be a little more flexible with the fabric application. Here are some ideas for the fabric application: sow it together inside out, then flip it back around and simply slide the fabric onto the frame for a nice neat and tight fit, im no needle expert, so I may botch that a few times before I get it right.(I think I like this one best.) I could extend the fabric to the bottom of the frame, hmmm or Sow on the velcro anyway and pull and apply to the fabric for a tight fit or Get a button hand machine and put snap on buttons to the back of the fabic.

Just found out they make a flange for PVC as well, meaning I could simply make the base out of wood, concrete or metal and attach the pipe onto the flange caps which screw onto the base instead of having a PVC base. Being portable and easy to breakdown means I can upgrade to this later, nice :D Well off to the hardware store... pictures later.

Okay the Fabric is a pain in the arse as far as how to wrap this without having to result to permanent measures. The velcro approach was discouraging, so I haven't actually attempted it yet, I ll try it with a new sheet of fabric since I hacked the original :oops: FWIW, I tried sowing it as a pull over bag but my sowing skills blow, too much hassle any way. I'll keep you all posted.

I wonder if it would be very expensive to get a seamstress to sew something for you. It seems like something that would be pretty easy for an experienced person with a sewing machine. As far as attaching the finished pad to the frame, how about a bungee cord or some kind of quick release strap to go all the way around the pad and frame?

Okay, since I want to keep the entire process as easy as possible and still be able to break the thing down for portability, I made some compromises... The pictures I have are for the unfinished prototype in which the differences will be... the length of the fabric will be the entire height of the panel minus the base, the backside(ugly at the moment, I ran out of both fabric and materials) will have an additional layer of fabric snapped onto the existing with easy to apply snap-on buttons. I bought the last of the fabric which was too short. To attach the fabric to the frame, I used 6 eyelets(3 for each side, more will be used on the final version, 1 pack of ten perhaps) which are simply hammered on or can be applied with special pliers, then I tied the sides with elastic and walla. Note: This was simply my fed up solution. The pull over idea is the cleanest most practical way to do this, but since I was trying to find a fast and easy solution while also finishing a record, and i need of a little sound control, I opted for this instead. The frame idea is way cool though. Keep in mind this is not the end of it, ill more than likely try some other ways to apply the fabric. I will post a Finished version once I acquire more fabric, Ill also be pondering on bass traps as well.

I like this idea very much. clever!