Piano like high gloss black finish how to video?

[Do It Yourself]

anyone ever tried this? thoughts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M27R7MqV2yI

 

[oldmanaudio]

I'm in the middle of spaying black lacquer on a set boxes. multiple coats with wet sanding in between with 600 grit paper. the final sanding is with 2000 grit then buff it with and automotive buffer and polish. The pics are before the final sanding and polish. Spray can rustoleum lacquer.

 

[Richidoo]

I have watched those videos about thinned enamel. Interesting, but I've not tried it. Here is another similar one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qPJTTRWttQ

If you spray all your lacquer coats after only a short flash between each, not letting them dry hard between coats then you don't have to sand between coats. The solvent of the new coat will melt the previous coat and weld them together into a single homogenous coating. Once that coating is thick enough, then you can sand and polish it to final finish. Less chance of peeling and a lot less work.

 

[oldmanaudio]

If you do chose to do spray multiply coats it takes a longer time to dry and if you put it down on any surface it makes marks. So let it dry a long time. I have a spray room with a heater in it and when drying it can be days.

 

[oldmanaudio]

Here are some pics of my current project.

 

[oldmanaudio]

pics

 

[evanc]

For me the key to super hard shine is wet sanding and polishing. The finish itself needs only dry hard enough to polish.

 

[gbuilder]

The video posted at the top of this thread is interesting but I don't think it gets the very high quality finish you'd want on a pair of speaker cabinets (looks like quite a lot of orange peel effect). I think it is better suited to larger jobs where you can be more forgiving of the finish.
For typical speakers, e.g. standmount stereo pair, the amount of cabinet area is quite small so you can afford to devote a lot more work per square metre.

There was a thread posted by Shinobiwan a few years ago (sadly the pics are now mostly gone) which was a comprehensive guide to a piano finish using spray cans. I've have a lot of success with that method. It was a lot of work but quite fun and the result is incredible. Worth a read of you are not ready to invest in a full spray gun system.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/construction-tips/83141-how-high-gloss-finishing.html

Lovely work by the other posters, I love that cabinet evanc - and yes wet sanding is key. I agree the finish only needs to be dry enough to polish but then treat it with a lot of care because the clearcoat/paint takes a couple of months to cure and can easily be bumped/scratched before then.