Update: Veneering the Menhir I speakers (DIY)

[elfranche]

Greetings everyone.

I just updated my webpage with a new 43-slide diaporama of my latest work, which is the veneering of my previously unfinished Menhir I speakers.

The new detailed section starts on diapo #88, and goes on to #130.
The pages allow you to navigate from one slide to the next.

Here's a link to the start:

http://www.stormpages.com/elfranche/photos/photo88.html

Enjoy.
:B

[dyazdani]

Looks very nice, must have taken a long time from start to finish...

[jonathanb3478]

I believe he said 27 days for the finishing phase.

All that is great, but I want a picture of how it sounds! :


Seriously, that really looks great. I would prefer a different veneer specie, but I understand not everyone likes what I like. Still, the final result looks wonderful! (allowing for the fact that it is maple )

I did notice you used a j-roller to press the contact cement. Everything I have read has "DO NOT USE J-ROLLER" with a heavy emphasis. I see that your j-roller was ~$30 CAD, however. Maybe they mean do not use a flimsy j-roller, which I doubt you did at $30.

How would you rate the ease of your contact cement experience? I plan to use it to attach the veneer to my project, once I get that far. I will be using it outdoors, since I fear the fumes.

I would also love it if you would comment more on the process of using the "crayons" to hide the line and the "infamous patch" defects you had. If either of those were on a project of mine, I would need to strip the whole thing and do it over. The fact that you got the final results you did, even with those two issues, amazes the crap out of me! Teach me (us)! Please???

[elfranche]

Jonathanb3478,

1. Maple.
Whats wrong with maple?

2. My experience using C.C.
I won't dilute my words: for this large curvy project, the contact cement was an utter nightmare. It required 2 people and we were both exhausted at the end. The veneer was surprizingly stiff, the glue drooled all over the vertical surface and there was no way to retouch it, the veneer section was huge and difficult to control, the waxpaper was fragile, the speaker's height did not allow easy manipulation, the waxpaper had to slide around the tight top bend, and on and on. Good thing I had extreme determination.

Most CC users report no problems. But if you need to glue thin paperbacked veneer on a flat surface, I see no drawbacks in using yellow glue. It's quite easy, I didn't have the slightest problem or defect on my flat surfaces. The method I used worked absolutely perfect. When using a J-roller over a thin flexible sheet, you can hear all those tiny bubbles slide away. You get the feedback that it is working. After 3-4 roller passes you hear absolutely nothing! That's because the adherence is uniform. Woohoo! You can then put weights on that surface with confidence.

3. J-Roller.
The $24.95 roller I found was the cheapest I could find locally. Most others cost $55 and more. There were some on Ebay at $12 but I did not want to wait a week. Besides the cost became the same once shipped here.
I had NO problems using the J-roller with the contact cement. It also proved essential for this perticular job because I had to apply hundreds of pounds of pressure per square inch to effectively bend the wide strip of veneer at the top, at the same time I had to leave no zone unpressed. The J-Roller was also my rock-solid ticket out of yet more contact cement, as I have stated.

4. Crayons.
Bare in mind, the defects are not completely invisible. If you stare at it from 6 inches away for awhile, you see a faint demarcation. This was my first ever veneering job. I could have started over, but I have a limited patience and budget. I knew I was going to use Jel'd stain, which is alot more forgiving than liquid stain, and there are many products on the market to work off surface defects once colored. I only 'dared' cutting the infamous patch at the top, when I had gained a strong confidence in my ability to hide defects. Of course, I spent alot of time doing tests.
Consider this:
-Very few people need to make demarcations because very few people need more than 96 inches of continuous veneer.
-Many times a demarcation can be incorporated in the design or be hidden by some feature.
-When a demarcation is properly made, using rulers and a sharp knife, it's almost invisible even before any work is done to conceal it.

When a defect, a big one, follows the wood grain, it can be concealed with a little work. But when it goes perpendicular to the wood grain, things get ugly: At first I tried hiding the defects before the stain. All methods failed because the stain made all fillers very dark. But then I went to the hardware store and got advice. I ended up with a convincing demonstration of wax crayons. I had brought a sample of my stained veneer and was able to match the general color perfectly. So I got back home and after the stain was done, I used the softest crayon (Mohawk) to crush a thick line of wax on the demarcation. This covered it completely in a good color and made the line invisible, but the wax was too uniform looking and it didn't look like wood.
I then used a much darker crayon to put a smaller line ontop of the first, to help simulate darker grain for the smudging step.
Finally I used a 'medium' tinted crayon, which had less color saturation than the first 2, and drew very tight lines going across the first 2, and those tight lines were in the same direction as the wood grain. I essentially wiped the 2 previous colors. Smudging wax with more wax works very well. I slowly worked my way up the demarcation this way. Then I used my fingers to smudge the rough lines this made even further. Then I used rapid friction with a tissue to soften it all to a wooden appearance. I tried many techiques, and did so on the speaker itself, because mistrials could be wiped away with ease. an hour of practice is all I needed until I got a decent method. I did have to redo some sections more than once, until I got it right. The first coat of Urethane finish did not adhere well in the bottom areas, but it did adhere very well on the top area.

Hope this helps. :B

[jonathanb3478]

That helps a lot, thanks! Good to know that a minor (or even not so minor) issue with the veneer is not a show stoper.



You asked what is wrong with maple (in my opinion only, obviously), so I will tell you. First, I just like a darker wood. Second, from a distance your speakers look too "uniform" for me. What I mean is that from a distance it just looks like one color. The grain does not contrast heavily enough from the rest of the wood, and the grain features are not large enough in scope, in other words.

I like a striking, variable, and large grain pattern. A rosewood (or a faux rosewood, like Santos Rosewood) is my preference. Teak is my choice for a more inexpensive specie. Even that is pretty uniform from a good distance, but there is a nice contrast to the grain, once you are close enough.

Well, we all have opinions, and that is mine. :T

[dynamowhum]

I like mahogony and redwood burl or something else highly figured on front baffle and something less figured on the side. J Salk speakers are pieces of art. I like a red tinted stain as well. Cheers