Need advice on how to paint/add vinyl laminate to speakers

[Neville]

I completed my horn speakers from Madisound and now want to get them to blend with the rest of my speakers and decor. I want to either paint them black or give them a black ash look which is available from partsexpress.com - they come in a peel and stick laminate or peel, lay down and use an iron material. Since I have never done any of these, I would like to hear your advice/experiences.

Painting it or staining it appears to be the easiest option but I do like black ash laminate

Thanks in advance
Neville

[no xo]

The vinyl laminate from parts express is almost the same a using veneer. I recommend placing sheets of waxed paper between the laminate (glue exposed) and the cabinet until you have the sheets of laminate exactly where you want them, making sure there is enough laminate to cover the pieces and excess to trim off. Start at one end adhering the laminate as you pull out the waxed paper, moving from one end, then around the cabinet. The waxed paper allows you to move the laminate around without sticking. Try to wrap as much of the cabinet with a large piece, to reduce the # of seams. If you have to have any seams try to make them on the back edges and not the front, where they are more visible.

[Neville]

no xo, thanks for that advice, i did not think about seams until you mentioned it.

If I go to HD or Lowes, is there a dark enough stain to make it look black ?

[no xo]

I use Ebony stain on most of the speakers I build, usually on the back or inside the mouth. It will take several fairly thick coats to get them really black, 3 to 5 coats with a paint brush and don`t wipe them with a cloth, just leave the stain to soak in. After I get the wood black enough, I seal them with a few coats of wipe on satin polturethane and the finish looks great. Personally I would use stain before I would use vinyl covering. You can always cover over the stain if you dont like it. And if you want a finished look, use some birch edge band over the plywood ends. Good luck, and post a picture of your work when you`re done. I have a couple pics of my horns on the HP Reflectors thread posted by a friend noxonewbie.

[chrisb]

You might want to treat the birch plywood with a pre-stain conditioner, to reduce the possibility of blotching.

Even with a dark & high solids stain, raw rotary sliced birch plywood is not the easiest veneer to finish, and darker colors can be the trickiest of all with which to achieve furniture grade results on any surface.

[Buckapound]

For stain, I would suggest an aniline dye rather than a pigmented stain. Generally much deeper color and even coverage. Try a source like Woodcraft. or Woodworker.com.

For paint, check out the range of textured finishes available as spray paints these days. Krylon's got a ton of them, available at home centers. Some of them are pretty cool.

--Buckapound