The Besta Subwoofer

[Wolf]

Oooh, SHINY!!
Wolf

[wogg]

Baffle polishing all set. Not too bad for a rattle can finish, but definitely not top notch piano gloss. I don't have the patience to go further than this, likely would have needed 1 more layer of paint, more high grit sanding, and rubbing until my arm fell off.


Here's the point where I sanded as much as I was comfortable and had upped the grit to 2000 for the last round. I did a rather light full surface sand for both the 1000 and 2000 round. Prepping for rubbing and polishing now.



Rubbed and polished with cheap pads on the drill. I used a different polish than last round, that Nu Finish can separated and was tossed.



Finally, placed in the box with glue. There's 1.5" of depth in the baffle and a 1/2" rabbet for the glue joint. This should give plenty of surface for a strong hold, and I'll caulk around the whole inside to ensure the seal is good.



The Duratex is now rolled on the back panel, second coat pending and will be ready tomorrow. That's where I'll pre-fit the precision port and fine tune with DATS.

[Wolf]

Maybe they used to, but I believe that has changed.
Wolf

[Chris Roemer]

KRYLON's nozzle will work on a Rustoleum can.

[Wolf]

I find Rustoleum sprayers to be less than ideal, and drip like crazy- ESPECIALLY the trigger-spray types. I went for Duplicolor/Krylon and have not complained about theirs. Sometimes, Rustoleum is the only brand that offers the colors I want, and I deal with the agony.

Later,
Wolf

[wogg]

What rattle-can paint was splattering so much to begin with, and what was the better paint you found?

That would be helpful wouldn't it! Both are Rustoleum, the bad is an "automotive" gloss black. That has a crap nozzle. I got a can of "high performance", the tall silver can. Much better.

[a4eaudio]

What rattle-can paint was splattering so much to begin with, and what was the better paint you found?

[Steve Lee]

That sounds annoying but it looks great so far - good luck.

[wogg]

4 days... 2 rounds of paint and sanding.

I'm done with that rattle can though, tried different spray techniques to avoid the spurts to no avail. These buggers will ensure I can never wet sand enough to get smooth without breaking into the primer.



This is what the 2nd round wet sand looked like when I found the smoothness acceptable, the first round was a whole lot more exposed primer so it feels like progress.



The new rattle can of gloss black enamel has a much better nozzle and went on much better. This time I'm going to dare 2 quick coats before letting it sit 48 hours to cure before sanding. I'm crossing my fingers that I can sand smooth without primer showing up and this will be the last paint round.

[wogg]

The auto gloss black enamel I choose has a couple issues. First, the nozzle is terrible and throws drips when released. Second, it's a 48 hour cure between coats. I'm rolling with it, and will be wet sanding at 500 between coats until I'm happy with the thickness to up the grit and polish.

Meanwhile, I stuck in 4 cross braces glued in with Tightbond under tension against the surfaces. The knock test is now acceptably solid even without the baffle.

[wogg]

And the baffle, here's what the fit looks like unfinished.



Good fit. little tight so I suspect I'll have to plane or sand a bit more once I get some paint on there.

For the gloss finish, I've opted to skip an additional seal process and go straight to rattle can primer, using a 2 in 1 filling sandable stuff from Krylon. This worked well for my mini speakers, but this has a lot more surface. The consequence of that decision is that I've used a full can and a half of the primer to get good coverage, the sealer likely would have cut that down. It looks spotty when sprayed on, but is turning out good when sanded at 220 grit. I've done a few rounds of spray / sand repeat at this point.



At this point, I'm ready for the gloss black enamel. My mistake when doing my mini speakers was laying it on way too thick so it took weeks to cure enough to complete the finish and would still dent or take on patterns for weeks after that as it continued to cure. This round, I'll be doing this over the whole next week doing thin coats daily with a full 24 hours of cure between before the next coat.

[wogg]

It's been a minute, lost some weekends due to travel and what not. Work has progressed a bit, and I'm into the finishing mode for the baffle. First, here's the prep of the back for mounting.



The back was chamfered, then the pilot holes drilled for the hardware.



10-24 insert nuts added to my polar glued in supports, supporting the large head furniture screws I'm using to mount the panel.



Ta Da!

This panel will be simple rolled on duratex, so it's set aside while I do the baffle.

[wogg]

For fun... here's a few things I've f%^ed up in this build already

• Didn't measure the front / back spacing around the perimeter when I glued in the 1/2" MDF. I had a little slop around the port to get closer to center, but I didn't even check. The front will be recessed slightly while the back sits proud. I'll bevel the back to make it look like it was on purpose.
• Mis-assembled the top panel of the Besta by putting it on backwards. There is a very slight difference in the faux finish on the front vs. back edges of the Ikea cabinet, it will likely only bother me.
• I meant the port to be firing out of the rear left of the cabinet, but wasn't paying attention to front / back there either so now it's firing out of the front right. Due to the baffle coming in 3/4" I'll have to shave a flat spot in the internal port flare. Will have no effect on the result, but will annoy me slightly.

[wogg]

The 1x2 poplar lip is going in around the back side to support the hardware for the removable rear panel. No screws, so this is an exercise in glue, clamp, let sit 1hour +, flip, repeat.



The front panel is pressed in, not glued. I'll be doing the finish on that out of the box.

[wogg]

The outer frame is coming together. Squish top in with glue, lay in side and plop in 4 wood screws to add tension against the glue.



Flip it over and repeat, then put it top side down to weight the top panel against the glue. There's nothing for screws to grab on the top and bottom, so the side panels and the glue will hold them up. I plan on a vertical and horizontal 1x2 brace as well, so that will keep it all tight. The back panel is just shoved in there for a bit to keep the box square while everything cures.