Need advice on whether to vaneer or not.

[davemar73]

I built a pair of speaker a few years ago, which are quite large. They are finished with iron-on vaneer (mahogany IIRC) and varnished. I didn't do a great job to be honest, but were fine back in my bachelor pad days. However, now I have a female in the house, she hates them. She wants me to get rid of them as she thinks they're ugly and don't match the rest of the units. Now, I want to keep them as they sound good (and much better than some tiddly little cheap tat she intends on replacing them with!), and they are so heavy that our toddler can't knock them over.

Now, if I can make them look better, I might stand a chance of keeping in the living room. The rest of the shelving is black vaneer, and it would be good to match that. I can't seem to find black vaneer (googled high and low), and to be honest didn't have much joy getting the iron-on stuff looking good. Does anyone have suggestions on how I can finish the speakers in a female-friendly way?

They are MDF based, with plenty of filler in places where the joins and screws weren't making the surfaces smooth. The boxes (there's a large bass box and a smaller mid+tweeter box on top) are trapezoid so I'm dealing with some non-right-angled angles.

[Elbert]

Go for veneer!

I have used straight veneer on a couple of occasions with good results.

My approach was to spread a film of PVA wood-glue on the surface to be veneered, and then I simply used an old Iron to smooth the veneer on to the surface, at the same time drying/ melting the PVA glue. For larger surfaces, keep some flat heavy objects handy for keeping the corners and edges from peeling up before the glue dries properly.

Work along the grain starting in one end moving forwards and outwards as you go.

Rather than going for something dark to match the furniture, you might consider a light finish. This might still compliment the dark furnityure nicely, whilst at the same time making the loudspeakers seem less dominating and heavy in appearance.

Considering the size of the loudspeakers, a matt or semi gloss finish will allso de-emphasise the physical presence of the loudspeakers. A gloss finish is allso more difficult on larger surfaces as it tends to offsett imperfections and uneveness more clearly through reflections and highlights.

You may look to catalogues of contemporary furniture for cues on "fashionable" wood-finishes" (walnut, Wenge, etc..) to improve the odds with the missis, or look to the more tastefull offerings in the high-end market for reference.

If the finish they use looks nice, chances are you wil be happy to.

As for my own last design, I went for the relative lightness of Cherry, which combined with a hardwood oil, still came out with a warm golden glow without beeing as "heavy" as mahogany or Teak. (see own thread)

In general, when choosing veneer, be mindfull of how any particular veneer changes in hue from ageing. Most woods do of course darken over time, some to a warm golden hue, some just yellow.

This was inspired by a ProAC Tablette 2000 Signature speaker I once saw.

Anyway, good luck with your project!

[tresch]

Is the shelving actually black veneer, or is it just a vinyl covering like this? Apparently it's a bit tricky to turn wood black without just painting it, and painting covers up all the grain. Most manufactured black stuff is just plywood with a vinyl coating.

I've worked with this stuff: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=261-610 and while it doesn't scream "natural wood!" It does, if you take some care in preparing the surface first, give a nice professional manufactured look that will probably match your shelving perfectly.

I must stress preparing the surface, though, as the vinyl is unforgiving and will make any blemish in the surface show. If there's any joinery that isn't mitered you'll probably want to sand the crap out of it and maybe even use a little filler/bondo to make sure you have a perfectly flat surface.

What I like to do is wrap the box itself, and paint the baffle. This is of course easier to do before the box is assembled. Are your baffles removable? If so, remove the baffles, paint them, wrap the box so the wrap overlaps to the front, so when you re-attach the baffle the trimmed edge of the vinyl is hidden under the baffle.

[parrymike]

http://www.iplacoustics.co.uk/cabinet_accessories.htm

IPL in the UK sells black ash sticky vinyl. Not used it myself but it may be worth a go.

[raypalmer]

Please please get real veneer. Iron on and press on won't be an improvement.

Buy wooden stuff, (2ply or paper-backed if you don't have the patience of job) and buy a good few square feet more than needed.

Then practice on a spare bit of mdf. I like the wood glue approach but contact cement gets more and more appealing the bigger your surface gets. Since you've gone and made not-square boxes you can't really trim the edges with a router. You can use a veneer trimmer tool or even an emphatically sharp knife. Just be patient and pace yourself.


A good real wood veneer will look like a million bucks.

De-emphasize by finishing with semi-gloss lacquer 4 or 5 coats. Gently sand 3rd coat with 180 and 4th with 220.

[prickears]

Good woman are easier to find than good sound.............

[prickears]

Davemar,

Nah, but seriously, Have you seen that 'piano gloss black'? how would that go? I reckon it looks great!

Regards, Mick.

[Elbert]

Just bear in mind that gloss black is absolutely the most difficult finish!

[davemar73]

I think I'm going to go down the veneer path as suggested by Ray and Elbert. The largest single area I need to cover is about 65 x 50cm, so quite large for a lot of veneers, and I would like to do it in one sheet rather than trying to join smaller pieces together. I've just bought a bunch of veneer off-cuts of various types to experiment with - though I've appeared to have chucked out all my old off-cuts of MDF when I moved house.

I suppose if I can't get the colour of veneer 'we' like I could dye it. What sort of glue is best for this job?

I've seen this place (http://www.slhardwoods.co.uk/Product...&Category=1169) selling flexi-veneer sheets that look nice and large, is that sort of thing suitable?

[raypalmer]

I like to use wood glue. But some people are big advocates of contact cement.