AR.com DIY crososver design

[poneal]

Heres a picture when I first started the boxes. When I have finished them I will post the finsihed product. This is my first time trying to get pictures up here so hope it works out.

[kexodusc]

There's that plywood...looking good Paul. Looks more organic than the 4 baffle-less boxes I've got.

Just remember, before you start brushing your teeth and fixing your hair in them shiny black boxes, send us a few pics.

[poneal]

i sanded through to the primer. Triple darn da*n. It was a very small spot so I thought to myself just leave it there, it's fairly inconspicious. I showed my wife my work and guess what? The first thing she said was what is that white spot there. Jeez. So i put some more enamel on the spot and hopefully it will feather out nicely. If so, then I will put another light coat of lacquer and begin the sanding, compounding, and polishing again. But I have to say that the box did have that piano shine that I wanted (shaving and brushing teeth in it look). So it's a long tedious process, but the payoff is a great finish. I just learned the hard way not to be so heavy handed when sanding the lacquer finish. Also, I thought I had them pretty smooth but when that lacquer goes on it tells the story whether you did or not. Well, I'll chalk that up to experience on the first box and hopefully the other four will go smoother now that I know what to do. This is taking longer than expected though so it looks like I might ( I stress might) be done this weekend if I can get all the other boxes sanded and lacquered before Friday. Have a good day! Paul.

[kexodusc]

Doh, tough luck, Paul...man I'm some glad I decided to go with veneer. (we'll see how that turns out)
I was thinking, for the PeeCreeks (which will probably go upstairs in the new office room) I might try a glossy red or blue colour for something different. If you had to estimate how many hours of prep, sand, and paint work you spend on each speaker after the cabinet is assembleed, what would it be?

[poneal]

First off choose a oil based spray can enamel (unless you have a sprayer). The darker the color the more mirror like will be the finish. Dark red or dark blue should work out fine. I used rustoleum black gloss enamel from walmart. I just used some .99 cent equipment primer (about three coats). Let the primer coats dry about a day (you can cut it short if you dont put it on to thick) but a day is good for my region where humidity is always a problem. So expect to spend a 2-3 days priming and sanding the boxes. You want to the primer coat to come out flat and shiny. Then apply the first coat of enamel and let that dry for 3 days. Then sand and put another coat and let it dry for 3 more days. Sand again, and then apply the lacquer. The lacquer dries pretty quick so 1 day is a good dry time even though it says 30 minutes. I would say overall that I have spend about 10-15 hours in sanding. Here is an article that I used as the basis for the piano mirror look:
http://linear1.org/gm/archives/00000157.php
the looks like a geek but does wonders with finishing.

[kexodusc]

Yeah, geeks build computers, cool people build speakers

That 10-15 hrs sanding is for what, 4 or 5 speakers Paul? (please don't tell me 1 or 2)
All by hand or can you cheat?

[poneal]

After spending about 3 hours sanding the lacquer and compounding, and polishing 1 speaker I went out and bought a $39 dollar orbital sander from walmart that came with a compounding pad, buffer pad, and some sanding discs. I wish I woulda done that from the start. It's farily ez to find up to 400 grit sanding discs but it gets harder the higher you go so the final sanding will probably be by hand. The 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 grits. It would be nice to find a 600 grit sanding disc because thats used the most. The 600 grit is used to sand the enamel coats and the first pass on the lacquer. Once its smooth, you move up to 1000, then 1500, and 2000 on the lacquer. So yes, the orbital sander can save copious amounts of time and energy. Hand sanding is tedious work but I sure have burned off a lot of calories doing it. Needed to lose some weight and lower the colesterol level anyway. Oh, I couldn't find the higher grits at home depot, walmart, etc. so I went to a auto parts house. They will have it along with the fine cut compound and swirl remover. Oh, and don't get acrylic enamel, get the oil based gloss enamel. The longest part is waiting for the enamel to dry. You must let it dry before sanding or you will muck it up cause it will be to tacky once you cut through the inital gloss layer. Anyways, if you dont have an orbital sander go out and get one and save yourself a lot of time. I hand sanded all my boxes and it was a pain. My fingers still ache, expecially the right index finger LOL.