Finally, some progress...

[tomzarbo]

Forgot to add.... the 1/8" HDF is a bit delicate, I dropped one on the cement floor when I took the clamps off, and dinged a corner. I had to open up and shoot some glue in the layers and clamp that for a few hours to get it hardened up again. It's better than new now, but I'll be more careful next time!

[tomzarbo]

Finished gluing up the other two side inserts the other day. Thankfully that went well. I'm still amazed when I pull two thin, glued-up pieces of 1/8" HDF out of a bent form and apply some pressure to the panel... it's SO strong that way.

Now I'm preparing the 1/16" Red Oak veneer sheets to glue to the front and top of the cabinets. I cut them on the band saw which always has the blade pulling down to minimize any splintering of the wood. It's prone to cracking at this thickness.



I've done this several times before and it's always a tricky operation as you have to create enough pressure to get the veneer formed to the curve of the cabinet, but using just wood cauls to do this creates high pressure areas and other areas with no real pressure at all, which isn't what you want.



for this procedure I have to create lots of smaller pieces to get the grain on the veneer going perpendicular to the length of the end grain on the MDF sides so it can add some resistance to the movement of the side panels. I've incorporated 1/4" cork with good success and may do that again this time depending on how a dry fit goes. I'll tape the veneer pieces together so it acts as one piece. It will likely be a combination of cork, 1/8" HDF and some curved cauls for the bottom tapered section as that takes a bit of pressure to lay flat... and a few layers of 1/8" HDF clamped with cauls for the rest of the cabinet. I'll start the clamping at the base at the bottom bend, and work my way towards the top to even out the pressure without 'pulling' the veneer.

Should be fun!

Hey, if past dating convention holds true, it's probably only 236 Days until MWAF 2021... it'll be here before you know it!

TomZ

[tomzarbo]

That didn't go too badly.




I did end up going with a 1/4" layer of cork underneath the 1/8" HDF panels. I spaced out the cauls to where it looked like the clamping pressure was fairly good and consistent. Glue squeeze-out is a decent indicator of how things are going clamp-wise, at least in my experience. I went with a good coat of Titebond 2 rolled on both surfaces and let it soak in for a couple minutes before bearing down on any clamps.

That curved piece in the first pic covered with sandpaper... that's a curved piece covered with sandpaper. ;) ... it's a piece of 3" roundover with some 180 grit glued and stapled to it for sanding convex curves on the front of these speakers. Also works as a handy and grippy clamp caul to keep it from sliding around.

Oh, forgot to take a pic, but I blue painters taped the individual pieces of 1/16" veneer together pulling the tape just a bit... it helps it stay together with no gaps for glue to squeeze out of whilst positioning and such. This was the widest pieces of veneer I could find easily. I've gotten it at one foot widths or close to that in the past but this was all I could find at the moment, I'd guess it's 7" wide or so. Should work fine, just a bit more fiddling with the tape is all.

Here's a close-up of the arrangement used...


The cork evens out the pressure and actually resists the curve a bit even; it squishes down more where it's clamped and where it's not, it still provides nice pressure to keep the 1/16" oak veneer pressed down. The 1/8" HDF really helps distribute the forces over a larger area.

I'll do the other one in a few days Lord willing. Then the tops.

Then... the biggie...I need to start figuring out how to accomplish the cutting of the fabric for the side panels, joining them together, and the French stitching and such.

More stuff I've never done before! Wahoo!!! Gotta love this hobby!

TomZ

[tomzarbo]

Things went well with the veneer. It’s glued down nicely.



More to come.

[tomzarbo]

The front of these cabinets have their 1/16" Oak veneer applied and trimmed, now to glue the top pieces.

Since the top is not too deep, I only had to use two pieces of veneer, taped together with blue painters tape at the seam. I also used blue painters tape to roughly keep the veneer in place until clamping commenced.



Again, I used a fair amount of glue, rolled on... then let it sit for several minutes as I positioned everything before bearing down on the clamps. The blue paint keeps the glue from running and making a mess of things. It can also make routing the veneer to trim it kind of difficult too.



Four layers of 1/8" HDF per side glued up with Tightbond 2 wood glue for a grand total of 25,000 imported Italian twinkle ligh----- Um, sorry, wrong Christmas time story.... that's four layers of 1/8" HDF each equaling 1/2" per side. That end grain is what I'm trying to hide with this perpendicular hardwood veneer application

The two cauls running from front to back have sandpaper glued to the face boards so they will be unlikely to slip as the top clamps are tightened down.



I used a 1/4" thick piece of cork against the veneer, and a 1/8" piece of HDF to apply the pressure evenly to the panel through the three cauls. I did the center of the curve first, then the front and back so the panel is always in tension.

No major pressure here while clamping, just enough to see the gap disappear and watch the glue start to squeeze out, then I turn until I start to feel a bit of resistance, full stop. Too much pressure can cause waviness if you crank down too hard in one place, and it just squeezes the glue out.

Tomorrow, I can unclamp and do the other cabinet. Soon I'll be applying finish veneer and routering driver openings. My wife is thinking black on the main cabinet body with brown or dark beige on the leather inserts. It will be going against a white section of wainscotting, so maybe that would look good. I was thinking bubinga for the main body and black leather on the inserts. I'll have to do a simulation and see which looks right to our eyes. She usually has good ideas with veneer and colors.

TomZ

[tomzarbo]

Here is an idea of my wife's preferred color scheme:




She is thinking a high gloss black with dark maroon or brown leather inserts on the sides. And when I say leather, I mean a simulated leather, not that 'Rich Corinthian Leather' that Riccardo Montoban was trying to sell older Chrysler cars with.

TomZ

[Steve Lee]

Most impressive, Tom.

I envy your tenacious efforts as well as your copious clamp collection.

[Liberator of Magic Smoke]

Nice work! That's an interesting project too. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[ugly woofer]

Real leather or nothing!!!!! Just kidding Tom, I think the color combo is spot on. Give veneer tape a try next time, I think you'll like it.

[tomzarbo]

Most impressive, Tom.

I envy your tenacious efforts as well as your copious clamp collection.

Almost all of them HFT clamps, to my surprise, I haven't had one fail yet!

Nice work! That's an interesting project too. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Thanks, me too. I should put up a poll to see how many people think I'll actually finish these. I'm not completely sure which way I would vote at this point.

Real leather or nothing!!!!! Just kidding Tom, I think the color combo is spot on. Give veneer tape a try next time, I think you'll like it.

Well, I'm going to look into it, the problem is... the 3-4 oz. (very thin) leather that I'd need to cover these with is really kind of expensive. I can see this leather business easily costing more than the entire project, twice over. I will try veneer tape next time I have a seam on finish veneer, I'm convinced of what it can do, just need to order some up next project. Since this will be covered up, I just went with tape.

Those side inserts look cool, but man, they are going to be some work!

My hesitation in doing these in gloss black is that any little dings or scuffs show up really bad. All the wood veneer projects I've done basically still look new, though they have a nick or ding here and there... it's hidden fairly well. Gloss black hides nothing. I could go with an ebony dye on veneer and then do the normal poly thing over that so I would still have a black finish, and a shine, but not have to necessarily deal with the pitfalls of a black lacquer finish. I've done that before with the 'RePas' subwoofer system I built for some friends a few years back...
The "REPAS" Subwoofer (REference Passive Alignment Subwoofer) - Techtalk Speaker Building, Audio, Video Discussion Forum (parts-express.com)
it wasn't as nice a a black lacquer finish, but much more 'daily durable' if you know what I mean.

Things to think about...

TomZ

[tomzarbo]

Even though this rendering isn't accurate to what I'm envisioning color wise, I think I'm leaning toward something like this:



The idea of gloss black piano finish scares me. Veneer can get scuffed and dinged and not really show it, where gloss black takes much more care.

TomZ

[tomzarbo]

Finished up the veneering work today. Tedious, but totally worth it when done.



Next I have to nail down the outriggers plan. I'm thinking something sculpted out of wood matching the angles of the sides, but not sure. Gotsta' think on it a bit longer.

July is coming fast!

TomZ

[mtmpenn]

Looks great! Why the 2 layers of veneer?

[tomzarbo]

Looks great! Why the 2 layers of veneer?

Thanks a lot.

The under layer of veneer should prevent the joint underneath from showing up as a raised area under the finish veneer later on, in a few years.

Here is a pic of what that could look like...



It is only visible on an angle in the light, but you can see it, and I would like to prevent that from happening to the ones I'm currently working on. I actually did the same thing with these speakers, but the veneer was slightly thinner, and not a hardwood variety... so not enough material to prevent the joint from moving slightly.

Also, the veneer has to be perpendicular to the seam to be fully effective.

I plan on keeping these as my forever set of speakers that I will keep until I'm old and shriveled up, so I want em to look good through the years.

TomZ

[lunchmoney]

WOW. Nice work.

Question: if going through all the trouble to make such amazing cabinets, why such a simple TM configuration? Wouldn't they be worth a nice 2.5-way or 3-way? I can't imagine two more drivers would break the bank on these.