Finished: DarrenK's Encores (as towers)

[andykriech]

Hi All,

A couple of weeks ago I finished building DarrenK's Encores as a tower. They are going to my brother out in Northern CA.
I built them into towers keeping the box volume the same, just changed the dimensions and added a open chamber in the bottom to house the XOs.

After a running them in for a few hours, they opened up nicely and sound very good. In the sterile garage environment, they tended to sound a little harsh on rock and pretty good on acoustic music. Once I moved them into the living room, they sounded much better on everything. They are reasonably detailed and the bass is adequate for smaller rooms for music. A sub is needed for larger rooms and/or HT usage.

Best regards, Andy.

Here is a link to some build pictures:

http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p...es%20-%202009/

[gc1]

Very handsome.... excellent woodworking also.

[Ludo]

Love the finish; nice contrast with the black stand and grill.

Is the grill held up with magnets?

Louis

[ktaillon]

Looks great, what did you use for a finish?

[andykriech]

Love the finish; nice contrast with the black stand and grill.

Is the grill held up with magnets?

Louis

Yep, I used magnets for the grills. In the future I will try and remember to embed magnets in the boxes under the veneer, but since I forgot, I mated them to screw heads.

Andy.

[andykriech]

Looks great, what did you use for a finish?

Thanks, I used simple wipe-on gloss poly.

Andy.

[tomzarbo]

They have a very clean look to them... almost like they were purchased at a retail store. Hey, are you sure you made them?

Just kidding, they look fantastic. I love that veneer, and the contrast with the black, especially on the back side, Great!

TomZ

[Audio-itis]

i am in awe...........

[christianb]

You need to work on your finishing skills. Seriously.

[donparsons]

Great grills. I have not been able to get myself to make grills for any of my projects yet.

[Thezeek]

Looks very nice mate!

[Mark65]

one word: WOW!


Very, very nice! (OK, I couldn't resist a few more words!)

Mark

[Ryan_M]

Wow those are nice! Wish I had finishing skills like that. How did you veneer around the roundovers?

[andykriech]

Wow those are nice! Wish I had finishing skills like that. How did you veneer around the roundovers?

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone. They look pretty good from a distance, but certainly have their flaws up close (thats why they call it DIY ;-). I had more trouble with this build than I have had with all the others combined. I was constantly scrambling to recover from this or that (much like my golf game Don ;-). I made the grills since they are going to my brother's house in CA. Don't know what his wife would think about bare drivers (they also cover a few flaws ;-).

Ryan, I used a 2x8 paper-backed PSA curly maple veneer on them. The wrap around is as far as 24" will go. I should have used a larger roundover (I used 1/2") and it would have been a little easier. The PSA comes with a paper backer and I carefully slit it (just the paper over the glue) down the middle so I can peel it back both directions from the mid-line. I line up the mid-line with the center of the front and peel back 1 side far enough to apply on the front side, then I do the other front side. Now I press it around the corner and so forth. I just use a scraper that I made from MDF and a rubber mallet to pound down the edges. I did end up woth some bubbles under the veneer that I had to carefully slit and squeeze out the air.

Andy.