DIY Low Profile Acoustic Panels! With Beveled Edge!

0:00 Hello, this is Daniel from soundheadquarters.com. In today's video, we are transforming [music] these drum lesson rooms. We're getting rid of these old tired DIY style panels and upgrading to these nice beveled edge low profile panels. This client wanted a budget-friendly solution while making the rooms look amazing and that's what we're able to do. So, let's get right into the build. So, we're starting off with 2 by 2 lumber. This is 2 by 2 by 8. So, we are getting it cut straight in the middle. This is going to make our left and right sections for each acoustic panel. So, we're just marking out 48 in, half of that 8 ft length and cutting it right in half and setting up that stop block so we can make consistent cuts. Now, the next cut is going to be >> [music] >> at 26 and 15/16 of an inch. We are going

0:45 just shy of 27 in, that way the inside dimension of the frame is going to hold the acoustic insulation nice and snug. So, we're using that stop block, making sure all of our cuts are the exact [music] same. That way all of the panels are the exact same finished dimension when they are all built. So, now that we have two left and right pieces, two tops and bottoms for all of these panels, we can start getting everything screwed together. So, I'm just sighting down the boards, making sure that there's no weird knots or anything. And if there is, we can turn that to the rear side of the panel. And I'm using a countersink bit to pre-drill and then we have eight number three or number eight 3-in construction screws. So, I'm keeping that pilot hole close to the rear side of the panel. I'm using

1:32 the table as a guide to guide the drill and that way we're keeping all of the screws on the rear side of the panel frame. That way when we router this after to give it that beveled edge, none of the screws hit the router bit, which you'll see right here in a moment. Here is the router table. We have that 45° chamfer bit on there. That's what's going to carve out that nice profile on the edge of the acoustic panel. So, I'm doing one pass. That gets rid of the majority of the bulk of the wood, and then I do a second pass to make a nice clean consistent cut. So, I'm going to do two passes for every single side uh for every frame, and that is how we put that nice beveled edge on there. And there's a little close-up shot of the beveled edge.

2:21 And uh we can just get into finishing the rest of these frames, and then we'll be ready to move on to the next step. So, before we add our insulation and upholstery, I'm just going to give this a very quick sanding uh just to make sure there's no splinters or anything that's going to get caught on the fabric or bulge out of the the frame. So, now we're putting on the rear fabric, [music] and this is just a landscaping or yard work style fabric. Uh it's designed to be breathable and uh lightweight and designed to be a barrier, so uh that we're using it for that purpose. [music] Uh this is the insulation we're using for these low-profile panels. This is Rockwool Comfortboard 80. It's a rigid mineral wool, and this comes in at 1 and 1/2 thick, which um

3:06 is a nice low profile to meet up with our 2 by 2 wood, which the actual dimension is 1 and 1/2. So, that way we [music] have a nice thin 1 and 1/2 panel uh to keep uh as much space on the inside of these lesson rooms as we can. So, before I put the final fabric on, I just like to put a small piece of packing tape um >> [music] >> where the joints meet up uh just to make sure that the fabric does not bunch up into that joint. So, now we can cut our fabric, and this client wanting a budget option, [music] we just opted for some canvas. We're using black canvas as our final layer of fabric, [music] and we're also doing an initial layer in that same landscaping fabric. So, I'm getting all four corners tacked in uh for the landscaping fabric, and just a few staples here to hold it in place. And then we cut off all of the

3:52 excess fabric, including on uh the the edges of the corners, which you'll see here, right there. And that is so that nothing bulges when we wrap the canvas, which we're going to do right now. So, staple that first edge, the opposite edge, and then we can tension against that for the all four corners, and then we staple down one long side and the opposite long side we can tension against that as we staple in. And then we just fold over our corner sections neatly, and finish up the top and bottom sections, doing plenty of staples, cutting off all the excess, and now we are left with a finished acoustic panel. Now, all this needs is for us to install the French cleat into the rear side, and then install our French cleat into the wall [music] and that's how we hang these.

4:38 So, we've got the whole order ready for this client. We are ready to load up the car and head to the site. [music] So, here is the existing drum rooms. You can see these panels are kind of misshapen, fabric's kind of sagging, and just overall needs a just a little refresher for these rooms. Uh so, we're going to get rid of all of the old style panels, and remove the existing hardware, and get ready to install our hardware. So, here is the metal French cleats that we are using and drywall anchors. We're going to be using two drywall anchors per cleat, and just setting up my laser to shoot that level laser around the room that we can reference [music] and mount all of our cleats to. So, just marking out the first section [music] right now, and I'll show you how

5:23 we do this. So, I like to poke where my pencil marks are with a sharp bit just to give the just to give the drill bit something to latch into to keep the bit from moving around on the wall. And now we can use our 1/4 in bit, [music] drill out a 1/4 in hole for each of our drywall anchor locations. So, drill those out, and then we can screw in our number eight drywall anchors. So, screwing in those anchors right now. And making sure not to over-tighten. If we over-tighten these, [music] it'll chew up the drywall on the inside of the screw, and then uh the anchor will not hold. It'll just You'll just have a big hole in your wall. Uh so, you want to

6:09 make sure that we only tighten it until it's flush with the wall, and that's it. And then once those anchors are in, we are ready to screw in our French cleat, making sure that that bottom of that cleat is right against our laser line. And that's going to make sure when we hang all of our panels that they are nice and straight and all consistent with each other. So, just making sure this is on there nice and tight. And that is the installation process. Now, we're just going to repeat the same thing on the rear side of the acoustic panel. I'm just marking out the center, and then I'm leaving myself about an eighth of an inch from the top of the panel frame. That way uh you just don't see any of that metal cleat when you're looking at the panel. And uh it's as simple as that, then you just [music] drop it right onto that cleat. And the

6:56 great thing about using these cleats is that you still have left-to-right adjustability by a few inches uh to really dial in that final fitment. So, I'm just going to make sure that we're all level there. And that's good to go. Now, we can just repeat this process all the way around the room. So, for each section, I'm just measuring out, making sure that my gaps are going to be consistent, and um just installing those drywall anchors, getting those cleats in there, and hanging the panels. It's as simple as that. All right, that's the first drum room done, and now we can move on to the second room.

7:45 >> All right, here's the second room. You can see this room was a little bit worse than the first one. Uh these panels definitely needed [music] uh some TLC, so we're just going to get rid of all of the old stuff in the room, kind of tidy up a little bit, make some space on the [music] walls for us to do our install, and get right to it. Just setting up that laser, getting all of our marks, all of our locations. And I like to use masking tape uh anywhere I'm putting pencil marks on the wall. That way uh it's just nothing [music] that we have to erase. Just leaves us with a cleaner finished result. Got all of [music] our panels up, and here is a few finished shots of the completed drum room.

8:33 Thank you guys so much for watching. This has been Daniel from soundheadquarters.com. Thanks.