How to Make Acoustic Panels

Hey there!

This is my take on making some Acoustic Panels. There are some tutorials about those on here already, but I wanted to do some things differently. Here are the materials & tools I used for one Panel:

• 4x Wooden planks 52x8x1cm

• 6x Wooden planks 51x1x0.6cm

• Fabric of your choice 58x58cm

• 50x50cm Basotect Foam (You can also use Insulation Wool, or any other kind of acoustic foam.)

• Wood glue

• Saw

• Chisel 6mm

The First thing I did was to cut the planks to size. You can basically use any saw that can get you a straight cut. It doesn't have to be perfect as you can sand the edges later on.

Secondly I cut a mortise and a tenon joint into the ends of the boards with a chisel. The cut is a little deeper then the board is thick. After glueing and clamping you can sand the rest that is sticking out away and you get a beautiful joint. This was my first time doing a joint like this but if you clamp it right there are no gaps between the boards left, even if the cuts were not perfect.

You could also simply screw the boards together which would work too.

In the third step I made a little grid. It's purpose is to keep the foam in place and create an air gap between the wall and the foam for some more bass reduction. I cut 6 rods to length and cut out the notches at evenly spaced spots (divided into quarters). After some adjusting to make the notches fit perfectly I sanded all the edges and glued the rods together to make a grid.

The next step was to cut out some more notches in the frame. To do so I put the grid in the middle of the frame so I could mark the spots I had to cut out. Then I used my 6mm chisel to cut out the notches. They didn't fit perfectly at first but after some adjustments it worked out.

Since the frame is now finished I sanded it for the last time. You could also prime it and do a finish, but I left it as is, since I'm just going to hang it on my wall and it doesn't really need any treatment.

Next thing I did was stapling the fabric to the frame. I cut the fabric to 58x58cm and glued some spacers to the frame so the fabric would stick out a bit later on. This was probably one of the harder steps as I struggled a lot. It requires some trial and error to get the fabric straight and without wrinkles. The pattern of the fabric was really useful though as I could see very easily if I was off.

The last step was to squeeze the foam into the frame and hold it in place by glueing the grid into the frame. Then you're basically done.

All that's left to do is hang your new Panel on a wall. You can simply use screws or leave a couple cm gap between the wall and the panel to improve noise (especially bass) reduction. I think this is really important as most of the Acoustic panels are just thin foam which basically just cut out the high end (Thicker foam = more bass ist absorption). You want the sound waves to be cut out evenly and also spread evenly. So if you want to improve the sound in you room even more I would recommend building some sound diffusers too.

If you have any questions about the process feel free to ask.

Thanks for checking in, Will.