Finally. It’s only been 6 years coming. 6 years and 3 months actually, but those 3 months have less impact when you’re adding it to six years. I finished my speakers.
Earlier this year we found some extra cash so we determined to single-handedly kickstart the economy by buying a big HDTV (I didn’t go absolutely apeshit, it’s just this one). We had the previous HDTV but that was old hat. We wanted bigger! So we did it. And, of course, it didn’t quite fit into the old entertainment center so we had to get a new one of those, too, which ended up being not so much an entertainment center as more of a stand. And the previous main speakers, delightful things that had served me well for 22 years — were now too damned big, boxy and out of place standing next to the hotness.
Then my mind went back to the Sapphires. Yeah! They’d be perfect standing next to the hotness! Thus a project shelved for 6 years — literally shelved, as the incompletely cut panels for the speakers languished on the top shelf in the garage — was rekindled. I hadn’t looked at them since we moved when I experienced a surge of guilt. I took them down, blew dust and insect carcasses away and picked up where I’d left off.
I had work to do. The above is precisely how they were for the intervening years. Router work on the rear panels and the internal brace. Then glue up and roundover the edges. That proved impossible. My router, a wonderfully useful Bosch plunge router, didn’t have a big enough opening in the base plate for the roughly 2.5″ diameter of the bit to fit through. So I took it to a nearby cabinet maker and paid them to round it over for me. They overcharged and didn’t do it right (they didn’t install the bit to where the cutting surface was flush with the base, so their cuts left a bit of raised area I had to sand to get it right) but it was done.
Then came the challenge. Veneering. I’d never done that before. I used the apparently tried and true “PVA glue + iron on” method and, frankly, had great success with it. My veneer was of the same vintage as everything else but it did fine. To cut down on visible seams I did the back first, trimmed, then wrapped the sides, trimmed, then did the fronts.
Note the Bondo on the top in the first picture there. Trimming these mothers over the edges that weren’t perpendicular was simply a pain. I Dremeled but I Dremeled too deep and nicked the edges as you can see. Luckily Bondo is a miracle worker.
Once the veneer was on I sanded them down nicely, did a water wash to raise the grain and resand, then applied some Transtint Golden Brown dye to them. This went okay but it was very hard to get a uniform color application by wiping. Were I to do it again — and I did, actually! — I’d probably use a spray application. After that it was finishing time.
This is where things went poorly. I chose a gloss polyurethane recommended at the WoodCraft. I used a foam brush as recommended and put on several coats. This stuff is thick and went on thick. It wouldn’t settle and lay flat for the life of me, even when thinned. There were brush strokes and, worse, runs because of the roundovers. I eventually threw in the towel and decided to leave them as they were. After letting them dry I put the drivers in, hooked everything up and brought them inside.
And I hated them. Not the sound, that was fine. I hated the finish. The imperfections were many and obvious. They looked absolutely ridiculous. I’d see them and instead of being happy I’d be ashamed. I decided to see if I could wet sand out the imperfections and apply another more careful coat. But the wet sanding only made things worse. I couldn’t get out all of the imperfections and to add insult to injury in a few places I burned entirely through the finish and removed some of the stained veneer. So now I faced even uglier speakers.
After taking a deep breath I decided to completely reveneer them. This time I sanded things down really well, Bondoed in several places that were less than flush, and really prepared the surfaces. I also took the time to route out some holes to embed magnets under the veneer so I could magnetically attach the speaker grills. I’d thought of it too late to do it previously but this was one of the things that made the decision to reveneer a bit easier. Veneering went well again and I’d learned my lesson with the trimming the last time so this time I didn’t have any problems requiring fixing with Bondo again. Applied the same Transtint.
This time I went with a supposedly foolproof finish, Minwax’s Wipe-On satin poly. I put on about 5 coats and I was very pleased with the result. It isn’t absolutely perfect but my seemingly lint-free applicator wasn’t quite completely lint-free resulting in some minor burrs that I steel wooled out as best I could.
I put them back together and brought them inside. Now I can be proud of them. The finish looks really good to me. I constructed the grills with some 1/4″ hardboard hand cut and sanded to fit with some grill cloth hot-glued to the frame and magnets to hold it down.
Ahh. It’s been a long time coming.
2 Responses to “Let there be sound”
Great job, Brian. Are you ready to quit your day job to make speakers?
Quite ready
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