SevenSixTwo - InDIYana 2018 Coax Design

[Kevin K.]

I've been thinking about building something like this for a while now. Mine needs to be something really easy to set up and break down since I can't leave it laying around after the weekend.

You know box fans don't have explosion proof motors in them, right. You're not the first nor will you be the last to do this in a garage but it's kinda dangerous. Be careful man and make sure your wife is home just in case someone needs to make that dreaded 911 call.

[KEtheredge87]

Cool spray booth. Easy to take apart?

Thanks sir! Yep, it should be easy to take apart. I didn't use any PVC cement for that reason alone. The whole design was napkin-sketch engineered last night. It's made from ten sticks of 10' long x 1/2" PVC pipe (maybe $15 at the hardware store) and some cheap 20x20x1 furnace air filters. The setup is a bit rickety, but its only got to hold up some lightweight plastic sheeting. It would be better if I used PVC cement, but I want to take this apart later and store it rather than scrap the whole thing.

Oh... and did I mention duct tape? Lots.. and Lots of duct tape! Can't have a positive pressure spray booth without a good seal.

[xsilverjag]

Cool spray booth. Easy to take apart?

[KEtheredge87]

Hey Everyone,

Mid-day update for you. I have decided to stop at 6 coats of Arm-R-Seal, and things look pretty! Good shine to things, and even retained some of that reflective look after it dried. I don't have a recent picture of that, since I've been working on this next step... a poor man's down draft paint booth! In an effort to corral and exhaust as much of the isocyanide paint fumes as possible from my upcoming 2K spray can job, I put this together after a little research. It's a positive pressure setup, such that fresh air is pumped into the sealed booth by a box fan and filter at the top, while exhaust fumes and overspray should get drafted to the bottom and out another air filter on the rear. I've got this set to exhaust out the garage door, so I'll crack the garage door about 2 feet while I do the work.

I'll be finishing the construction of this tonight, and hopefully prepping and masking the cabinets for primer tomorrow. I actually ran out of duct tape last night making this (knew I should have grabbed more than one large roll!), so I'll hit the hardware store for more today.

Finally for now, there's also been an adjustment to my painting strategy. I became very concerned about using the rustoleum "automotive primer" on this project since I wasn't confident it would play nicely with the urethane 2K spray paint afterward. Instead, I've returned that to the hardware store and bought a larger can of lacquer based black primer/surfacer from an actual automotive paint store local to me. With it being lacquer base, it will cure much more quickly than the enamel stuff I've been using on the SuperBees project. This way I can prime the cabinets, let them sit for a day or so to fully shrink back the lacquer as it cures, then topcoat with the 2K urethane satin paint without fear of further shrinkage under the topcoat. I'm squeezing every last minute out of my project timeline, and I'm set to finish just under the wire. Good ol' Murphy's Law at work!

[KEtheredge87]

Happy Sunday night, Friends!

Over the weekend I've put a total of 6 coats of Arm-R-Seal on the cabinets, resulting in the sleek photos below. I'll admit.. that's the still-wet 6th coat being photographed. Looked so good I couldn't resist!

At this point the protective film is certainly there, and the finish looks good overall. I could keep going, and maybe even get some of the small grain pores or surface inconsistencies filled in, but I'm not sure how long that might take. I've been going with very thin coats to make sure I don't get any runs, and things have been going quite well.

Next week I'll have to shift my focus toward painting the MDF edges between the veneered sections and getting final wiring and XO installation complete. I'd like to have enough time to do a final set of measurements and listen to these in stereo once or twice before the competition!

Getting closer and closer!

[Kevin K.]

Admittedly, I don't know if a total cabinet coat of Arm-R-Seal is required after that to make the painted surfaces and the veneered surfaces lock together as one layer... at the very least, it sounds good in my head. Anyone have thoughts on that approach? I've got a few days to consider it before I get to that point.

Even if the sheen doesn't match, you've got a contrast since one is veneer and the other is paint, I'm thinking it will look fine. If you do decide to try coating everything, test the Arm-R-Seal over the paint on a scrap, there could be compatibility issues. They're looking really good man, love the veneer and color choice.

[KEtheredge87]

Good Evening Guys,

One coat of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal has been applied to the cabinets! I'm aiming for three coats on the veneered surfaces before I give those a day or two to cure, mask them off, and then hit the remaining MDF with some primer and 2K satin black spray paint from Eastwood.

Admittedly, I don't know if a total cabinet coat of Arm-R-Seal is required after that to make the painted surfaces and the veneered surfaces lock together as one layer... at the very least, it sounds good in my head. Anyone have thoughts on that approach? I've got a few days to consider it before I get to that point.

Thanks for following along as I barrel toward InDIYana!

[KEtheredge87]

Sorry, a little off topic from the thread, but you brought it up ... One thing you can try is put a small round-over in your gaps (like 1/8" or less). Also, put a straight edge across and shim under pieces as necessary to make them all co-planar (strips of thin take make cheap shims). Also, you could make each side one solid piece and use aluminum t-slot instead of slots all the way through. I realize this means all new clamps, but hey, who doesn't like buying some new clamps .

Thanks Ben, excellent ideas. I'll keep those in mind for the future. Some of those toggle clamps on t-track could be quite useful!

[1100xxben]

All good Sir The table top has 3 sections to it, so it can be a multifunction type setup. I built it off these plans: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/projects/aw-extra-51514-ultimate-tool-stand

The side sections are screwed into place, and have slots cut into them to allow clamps to secure work against the table anywhere along the depth of the table. The center section is removable, and is where the router table lives. That section can be stored underneath, and replaced by my chop saw (bed height is matched to the side panel height), or any other tool that I chose to fit into the space.

In a perfect world, all of my table saw cuts to make those sections would have given me identical heights across the whole surface. Apparently, my world is not perfect, and those sections are not 100% flush!

I suppose I could go big with the KISS principle and buy a scrap section of countertop. I could clamp that down to my workbench and have one uniform router table surface. Although the more I think about it, I'd probably just make the router table part of the table saw wings (once I buy it) and convert the workbench into a more dedicated chop saw station.

One way or another... I'll be tweaking my shop to improve after this project is completed.

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Sorry, a little off topic from the thread, but you brought it up ... One thing you can try is put a small round-over in your gaps (like 1/8" or less). Also, put a straight edge across and shim under pieces as necessary to make them all co-planar (strips of thin take make cheap shims). Also, you could make each side one solid piece and use aluminum t-slot instead of slots all the way through. I realize this means all new clamps, but hey, who doesn't like buying some new clamps .

[Navy Guy]

Looking great!

[KEtheredge87]

Hey Guys,

Tonight begins the finishing stage of the SevenSixTwo Coaxials! I don't have loads of step by step photos on this one since my hands were covered in gloves and dye, but I've got an dyed and drying cabinet photo for you

I deviated a little from my test panel with the finishing, and I am glad I did. I wasn't 100% happy with the depth of the dye color that I got from three coats of 50/50 SolarLux and Denatured Alcohol on the test panel. I just wanted it a little bit darker. That's an easy problem to solve... add more dye! The result I'm sharing tonight came from two coats of 50/50 mix (sanded off with 220grit then tacked off between each coat), one coat of 75/25 mix (dye/alcohol) that was sanded off as before, and one final coat of 75/25 mix. I immediately wiped it down with a clean rag and some denatured alcohol to blend in any lap marks, as this stuff flashes off fairly quickly! Finally, a liberal application of boiled linseed oil was applied and allowed to soak in for 10 minutes before wiping off the excess with another clean rag.

Within the next day or so I'll setup and repeat this process on the second cabinet. Although I may need to buy some more dye. All that sanding off and reapplying to darken the curls is worth it, but it sure seems to blast through the dye supply.

Super excited to get these dyed, painted, poly'd and curing with a few days to spare before the competition!

[KEtheredge87]

...Draw reference lines the width of your cabinet on the back side of the veneer before applying the glue and starting the wrap. With the veneer sitting upside down on a table, you can place the cabinet between the lines to get it started and as you wrap it around, watch the lines to make sure you are staying true. ...

BTW, it's OK to point out your mistakes to us fellow speaker builders but don't go out of your way to do it for others, you'd be surprised how many people wont notice those things unless you tell them. This build is a heck of an accomplishment, plenty to be proud of.

Thanks Kevin! I appreciate the ideas and tips as always. I did something similar with some reference lines this time, except I made them on the cabinet rather than the veneer. I gave myself two lines inset from the sides of the cabinet to show where the 1/4" slot cut would start and end. Those were the goal posts to stay within. From there, I made sure to cut my veneer sheet 1/4" to 1/8" narrower than the widest mark (giving me ~1/16" to 1/8" of margin to either end of my goal posts if I centered the sheet on the cabinet correctly). In theory, this works great... but in practice, that doesn't leave much margin for error if my cabinet edges aren't 100% square! Being the tiniest bit out of square around one of my rounded corners throws the whole wrap direction a bit off kilter to the left or right. Best case I just get a difficult spot to glue at the round, or maybe a tiny bubble.

Time to go play with finish a bit more in the garage to complete the test panel, as well as finish prepping the SuperBees for paint. Even if those aren't 100% done from a XO perspective, I can at least get the cabinet work done while I'm set up as a paint operation in the garage.

[Kevin K.]

I vote for the Golden Fruitwood with BLO. Me likey, me likey a lot.

Meant to get back with you before now on your previous post but I've been at the grinding stone (CNC) and couldn't break loose. A tip for next time (I know, should have been before, not after). Draw reference lines the width of your cabinet on the back side of the veneer before applying the glue and starting the wrap. With the veneer sitting upside down on a table, you can place the cabinet between the lines to get it started and as you wrap it around, watch the lines to make sure you are staying true. That helped a little when I did Brian's speaker but I guess I forgot to reference that when I was uploading pics and updates. Too little, too late this time but maybe there will be another time later. They're still going to look fantastic when finished, keep up the great work.

BTW, it's OK to point out your mistakes to us fellow speaker builders but don't go out of your way to do it for others, you'd be surprised how many people wont notice those things unless you tell them. This build is a heck of an accomplishment, plenty to be proud of.

[KEtheredge87]

Those cabinets are really starting to look cool. Can't wait to see what happens when you hit them with finish. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Bill! I've actually got some dye samples drying on a test board right now As always... it's a good thing we test before we hit the final work piece. I ordered some TransTint Dark Vintage Maple dye based on the internet photos I've seen that have a beautiful burnt orange look to them. In the real world, the stuff looks more like a really nice brown than it does an orange color! Maybe it'll magically transform into something else once I hit it with some polyurethane.

In the photos below, TT = TransTint (Dark Vintage Maple), GF = Behlen Solar Lux Golden Fruitwood, and BLO = Boiled Linseed Oil. I pulled out the Behlen dye after reading some more on finishing this wood online. I think the Golden Fruitwood is much closer to what I had in mind here. Might make one more board and throw a dash of maple brown in with the golden fruitwood to see if that burnt orange look comes through.

These samples are kinda intermediate. It's just the two colors, and one of each with a pop from boiled linseed oil. Polyurethane comes next to see the final result of testing.

[4thtry]

Those cabinets are really starting to look cool. Can't wait to see what happens when you hit them with finish. Keep up the good work.