Chris Reitz dot Com

Sorry to any of you who came here in the past few days looking for audio stuff. I hacked my own site, by posting some wrong files in the wrong places. Everything seems back to normal now. If you find something that isn’t, please contact me and let me know!

OK, now that the glue is dry from Part 1, we get to do the fun stuff. Read that ‘the complicated stuff’. Consequently, this post will have more pictures than text, because a picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case, the pictures are priceless. There’s no way I could describe in words how to put the foam tile together.

Marking the Bevel

So. First step is to mark off and cut bevels on the front of the now-wooden-frame that you just glued. There is only one tool that can really do this well and safely. It’s a bandsaw. Get one, rent one, do something, but I really wouldn’t try cutting these bevels with any other tool.

The bevels

Cut your 1/8″ particle board so it’s just a little smaller (~3/16″ on each side) than the outside of the frame. The reason why you want it smaller is so that, when the tile’s finished, you don’t have particle board sticking out past the sides.

Cutting Cloth

Now, get your cloth, and cut a square that’s a little bigger (~4″ bigger on each side) than the frame. Iron it. I know most of us reading this will be dudes, but ironing is a good skill to have, and it makes ALL the difference on this project. Last thing you want is a huge crease down the middle of your foam tile.

The foam in the frame

OK, now get the foam, and make sure it fits in the frame. If it doesn’t, cut the foam with some scissors.

Put the foam and particle board aside for a sec, and put the frame on the cloth.

We’re basically going to be wrapping the frame like a Christmas present, and leaving the back open, so we can put the foam back in.

Wrapping the Frame

It will be tricky, and your first couple tiles won’t come out looking too great, but after a few, you’ll get the hang of it. Wrap up two sides, and then staple the extra from the inside.

Wrapping Corners

Next thing that will be a HUGE help is to cut some excess cloth off, as I have done in the ‘wrapping the frame’ picture. That will make folding nice corners waaay easier.

Mine came out pretty decent. It’d be nicer if those wrinkles weren’t there, but considering I’m a dude, they came out pretty good! The trick is to try to line up the fold with the corner of the frame. It’s tricky, but possible. Once you’ve got it, staple it down from the inside.

Gluing the Back On

OK, now we can put the backing on. Put the foam into the frame, and get the particle board, a nail gun (staples work too, but brads are nicer) and some aerosol glue. Sniff the glue——–just kidding! find a well-ventilated area. You know the drill. For the glue, you can use 3M Formula 77 or Formula 80 (? – the green can) glue, or special Auralex Foamtak glue. I’ve used both with no problem.  The Auralex stuff costs waaay more, though.

Coat both the foam and the bumpy side of the particle board with glue, wait ~30 sec, and then assemble. While holding it down, use the nail gun to nail the particle board to the frame.

The Finished Product

Once you’re done, drill a 1/4″ hole 1.5″ down from the top, right in the middle, hammer a nail into a nearby wall, and hang the tile on the wall. Voila!

The process is a little time-consuming, and quite tricky, but the end result looks very nice. Especially compared to what the raw (nicotine-yellow / ultramarine-colored) foam looked like!

Nothing really new here…just a quick test to see if I can update while mobile…just in case there’s some breaking news in the land of audio production. HA.

Hey, everyone, welcome to my blog. A couple ground rules:

1. NO promises on how often I will update it.
2. NO non-audio related posts (well, there might be a couple, but I’ll try to stay on topic)

Hope you enjoy!