[usp1]

I am thinking of building some corner bass traps using OC 703 panels. I know the standard way is cut triangular pieces and stacking them together vertically. I was wondering if it would work equally well to layer  verticality cutting progressively smaller width panels. In particular, I wanted to know if stacking four 1" thick panels is equivalent to one 4" thick panel for absorption panel. The reason to use the 1" panels is that it would be easier to approximate the 45 degree sides instead of bevel cutting the edge of a 4" panel,

[Big Red Machine]

703 cuts great on a table saw.  Set the blade to 45 degrees and you are all set.  It would take 60 seconds to cut both edges of a 4 inch piece.

Are you cutting by hand with an electric knife?  Then the one inch would be easier to handle but now you have 8 cuts instead of 2 and if you draw a line one inch from the edge down the 48 inch length then you would have a reference point between the corner and the line to get close to 45 degrees. Steady hands required! And each progressive piece requires a deeper cut - 1", then 2", then 3", then 4".  Everyone of those cuts is scrap material.  You could throw it in the back as filler though.

In the end the one piece leaves a gap at the back and does not have the full absorption of the triangles method. And you waste more material trying to bevel edges.

You can get 8 triangles out of one 24 x 48 piece of any thickness and stack those. No bevels required, just straight cuts on an easier 45 degree angle.

[usp1]

Thanks BRM. Maybe I was not clear enough. I am not planning on doing the bevel cuts. My plan was to simply cut 1"thick panels of progressively smaller widths to approximate the 45 degree bevel. It would look something like this in plan view

                            ____________________
                           |____________________| 1
                                 |______________|      2
                                      |_________|          3
                                          |_____|             4

This way, I could use a 2" FRK panel as my second panel to get even better bass trapping.