Veneering rounded over speaker box

[pjpoes]

I had a speaker box cut for me on a CNC machine to my specifications, and wasn't specific when I asked for the round over. Well I thought I was, but oh well, they rounded everything over. I think it will be very hard to veneer now, and was wondering if anyone had any advice. My veneer skills are limited as is, I've only veneered a few boxes, and they only had the sides rounded, not the top as well.

One idea I had was to paint the entier speaker satin black to a meticulous finish, and then wrap the veneer around the speaker so that the front and sides are veneered, but not the top and bottom, or those rounded sections. Then I could cut a square for the top, and leave the rounded sections of the top and bottom unveneered. Not sure how it would look, and those sections would be inset, which might look funny. My main speakers are veneered so that most of the speaker is a satin black finish, with just veneered side panels.

Another idea would be to actually attempt to veneer the entire thing and cut strips with the right angles to go over the rounded edges, however it has no sharp edges at all, so I don't see that working well. I could veneer around the corners, which are the problem really, and then try and fit pieces over those rounded corners, possibly wetting the wood so its more flexible, forming it, drying it, then glueing it after its dry.

Any recomendations on getting everyhting smooth, as far as fill material. I have two issues. First, when I glued the back on, I didn't get it perfectly alligned, and so there is about a 1/16" inset space between the back panel and the side panels, but only in one corner. Regular woodfill generally seems to work fine when used under veneer, but since I'm painting it as well possibly, I think I need something better. Back in the days of car audio, I would use bondo and epoxy filler, then sand, fill, sand fill, sand fill till it was perfect. Let me know what you guys think, what advice you have. Oh and I don't have the stuff to vacuum bag this, so I will be holding the veneer down with clamps and boards and use the contact cement method, which worked great last time.
-Matt

[Ed LaFontaine]

What is the radius of the round-over?

[pjpoes]

I believe its about 1" or so. I would have to ask the shop to know exactly.

[Bob Barkto]

Bondo and epoxy work really well as fillers on mdf and plywood.
Either will make a good base for veneer or paint.
Bondo is cheaper and fills deeper imperfections with ease but it is somewhat fragile in thin sections compared to epoxy.

You'll have a tough time veneering those compound curves, maybe impossible in 3 dimensions with radii so small.
Heavily softened, very thin, backed veneer in a vacuum press might make it, but it would still be a long shot. I've seen some Italian stuff that was amazing but it wasn't nearly as small a radius as what you are faced with.

Hot hide glue and sand bags have been used for centuries for forming around compound curves, but only in 2 dimensions...

Piecing in to fit can be done but it takes alot of time and dedication to the task and you'll always have some serious grain mismatch in obvious places.

There are other alternatives to wood and paint if you're so inclined.

[BWRX]

Originally posted by pjpoes
Back in the days of car audio...

How about throwing some carpet or vinyl on it?

Get it nice and smooth with bondo and elbow grease then give it a dark black basecoat and cover it in acoustic grill cloth. Maybe a combo of veneer and cloth? I've seen some themes that make that work.

[andrew_whitham]

Hi,

Am I getting this right, you have a 1" radius along all sides of the front baffle? with a Bullnose at each corner? and the top and bottom of the side pieces are also radiused?

I think you are going to need to loose some radii.

I'm going to assume that the base box is MDF too. If so in the UK we have something called "plastic padding" (same as Bondo?) its a car filler that is supposed to be marginally elastic when its set. bonds to MDF very well.

You could use that to get the shape you need or at least a "veneerable" one.

I simply used iron on veneer, the heat from the iron has the side effect of softening the wood allowing you to gently form it aroud the edges. the glue is that thick stuff that fills the imperfections underneath so long as they arent too nasty

here's what I did, no radii on the top. but a 1" rad on the side

Andy

[carcass]

not exactly what you've requested, but tons of technique articles:

http://www.woodweb.com/KnowledgeBase...echniques.html

Bruno H.

[MJL21193]

I am good at veneering and I would not attempt it.
For painting: This box is MDF? If so you should sand it as smooth as you can, then prime it before filling any voids, imperfections. This stops the MDF from absorbing the solvent in the filler ( I use Bondo) the area around the filler swells slightly. If you don't prime the filler will ghost through several coats of paint as a smoother spot.

[jupiterjune]

Pipoes-

If you post some pix we will have a better idea what we are dealing with! Might be able to give some better ideas.

JJ

[dantwomey]

Originally posted by andrew_whitham
Hi,

Am I getting this right, you have a 1" radius along all sides of the front baffle? with a Bullnose at each corner? and the top and bottom of the side pieces are also radiused?

I think you are going to need to loose some radii.

I'm going to assume that the base box is MDF too. If so in the UK we have something called "plastic padding" (same as Bondo?) its a car filler that is supposed to be marginally elastic when its set. bonds to MDF very well.

You could use that to get the shape you need or at least a "veneerable" one.

I simply used iron on veneer, the heat from the iron has the side effect of softening the wood allowing you to gently form it aroud the edges. the glue is that thick stuff that fills the imperfections underneath so long as they arent too nasty

here's what I did, no radii on the top. but a 1" rad on the side

Andy

As Andy quite accurately point out. Veneering a radius is not impossible. Just challenging. I really disliked those solid wood corners on some beautifully veneered custom-built speakers. I also radius veneered my front baffles and they turned out perfect. I have the advantage of a vacuum bag though.

My Line Arrays

Regards,
Dan