Show us your speaker finishes

[deewan]

Deewan,
What did you use to cut the Wilson Art down to size? i know i can trim it down with an edge trimmer once its laminated but was wonder how you rough sized it before gluing it on.

I used a jigsaw with a fine tooth blade. I cut the pieces about an inch extra on each side. Hope that helps.

[mischmat]

Any guru's on paint? I've got a problem with the finish on mine. I just put on the final coat and now I've got some spots that are crackling. 90% of the box looks great minus most of the cracking on the front and a small spot on the side. I"ve sanded the crackling and repainted but it continues to crack. Am I going to have to take it back to wood and start all over again?

[Txgrizzly]

Any guru's on paint? I've got a problem with the finish on mine. I just put on the final coat and now I've got some spots that are crackling. 90% of the box looks great minus most of the cracking on the front and a small spot on the side. I"ve sanded the crackling and repainted but it continues to crack. Am I going to have to take it back to wood and start all over again?

no expert but it sounds like you might have some oil or some other contaminant on those spots. try cleaning those areas real well with alcohol or some other thinner and try thinner finish coats...

[mischmat]

I ended up having to sand it down cause it crackled the 2 prior coats down to primer. I think that there must have been some reaction between the two paints that I had used on those spots. Looks like I'm going to have to sand back down to wood and start over. It just keeps on expanding the more I try to fix it.

[pixelpusher]

Beautiful work here! ;x(

Here's my last project, named "The Wall" when my wife came into my workshop and asked "What are you building, a Wall?

Solid and veneer ash finished with wipe on poly. Veneer was self adhesive kind from Rockler.

[impala454]

Both the stand and the speaker look awesome :T

I like how you snuck the wii sensor bar in there too

[stevovee]

http://diyourfaceoff.com/wp-content/.../bossesr71.jpg some SR71's I put together for a friend a while back

[captainobvious]

Beautiful veneer job Stevo! Is that bubinga?

[stevovee]

Veneer type

The veneer is Bosse, I have also made SR71s with santos rosewood and ash and a pair of BAMTM's with curly cherry. I use the diy vacuumpress kit from veneersupplies.com which works perfectly, although i don't have a big enough bag to handle floorstanders right now. I will be building another set of sr71's for me soon, needed something for the bedroom and will be keepin a build thread on my site https://web.archive.org/web/20121126...-diy-speakers/
you can also see my BAMTMS at that link

I have a question for some of the more experienced in wood veneer. How are you trimming your veneer. I've been using a laminate trimmer with a flush trim bit however this has been resulting in a lot of chip-out particularly when going accross the grain how do you prevent this?

[NickS]

I have a question for some of the more experienced in wood veneer. How are you trimming your veneer. I've been using a laminate trimmer with a flush trim bit however this has been resulting in a lot of chip-out particularly when going accross the grain how do you prevent this?

I've found that these type, with a down shearing cut, work pretty well. I use the 3/4" outside diameter size.

http://www.infinitytools.com/Flush-Trim/products/1023/

[snmhanson]

I have a question for some of the more experienced in wood veneer. How are you trimming your veneer. I've been using a laminate trimmer with a flush trim bit however this has been resulting in a lot of chip-out particularly when going accross the grain how do you prevent this?

I am not very experienced in veneering so take this with a grain of salt. I do find that hand trimming the veneer to within 1/8" or so to the edge before flush trimming with the router seems to help minimize tearing and chipping. I think this minimized the work that the router/bit has to do and makes a cleaner cut. Maybe you are already doing that though. Also, it is obviously helpful to have a sharp bit. Just some ideas...

Matt

[alteredbeast77]

WOW...those look awesome deewan :T

[Hdale85]

I agree those are some very cool cabinets! That center makes your subs look tiny.

[deewan]

I agree those are some very cool cabinets! That center makes your subs look tiny.

Yeah, it does look that way. Perhaps I need to upgrade from dual 12" subs in 20-inch cube cabinets to 15's in 24-inch cubes. Overkill is kind of my thing.

[Bill Schneider]

After a couple years' worth of procrastination, I finally finished my build of Zaph ZDT 3.5s.





I used mahogany paper-backed veneer.

The finish was about 5-6 coats of Watco Danish Oil applied over a two-week period. I'd wipe on a coat using pieces of old T-shirts, wait an hour, and wipe off the excess. A couple of times, I used white 3-M fine abrasive pads to rub the oil in.

After waiting about a week after the last coat, I used some #0000 steel wool to rub in some Johnson's Paste Wax, then buffed it off after a few minutes dry time.

The baffles were painted using General Finishes Lamp Black milk paint. It's partway between matte and glossy, but probably a little closer to matte. I used a small detail spray gun and compressor to apply this water based paint. Baffle prep consisted of Zinsser Seal Coat (shellac) and some automotive spot putty, then shellaced/sanded again before painting.



Build log here, in case someone wants more detail...

[build log]

[Silversmoky]

Bill - Those turned out very nice. Those driver cut outs are spot on. Great job! Curious how you've been liking the sound, especially the RS52's.

Deewan -Beautiful! I love the shape and accents! Those are amazing!

[Tieftoener]

Bill, beautiful work!

[Ray Collins]

Outstanding!

Doc

[impala454]

Awesome work, very precise! I love how the baffles are removable (excuse my ignorance if that's simply part of the original design).