The difficult part was finding the exact right tree in Italy to cut down for the veneer!! Weeks of wandering the forest. But the speakers now have a woodsy sound.
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Well it all started out simple enough! Matter of fact, it kind of looked like this in the beginning...
I tested a dye finish I liked, a gloss finish, and showed the customer a veneer I thought would look good.
He liked none of it ... 😆
Aaaand this is where hell began!
He liked none of it ... 😆
Aaaand this is where hell began!
I mean .... HELL began!
I don't have a bag or press any longer. And sent the client probably 75 links of veneers that would work easily. He liked none of them, and chose some of the most figured unbacked Maple I've ever seen. It wasn't flat to begin with, and was very thin. It cracked from breathing on it almost!
When I first hit it with a spritz of veneer softener ... oh wow, it went crazy like a stepped on centipede.
I had to flatten 2 sheets at a time, and they needed 4 days of flattening for each 2 sheets. I used over a gallon of veneer softener. They would come out almost flat. Then when I rolled on the veneer glue, it would do what you see in the photos above. Making ironing them down an absolute nightmare. Several ruined veneer panels later, which had to be replaced, and we were finished except for the two top panels ... this was about to get custom!
I don't have a bag or press any longer. And sent the client probably 75 links of veneers that would work easily. He liked none of them, and chose some of the most figured unbacked Maple I've ever seen. It wasn't flat to begin with, and was very thin. It cracked from breathing on it almost!
When I first hit it with a spritz of veneer softener ... oh wow, it went crazy like a stepped on centipede.
I had to flatten 2 sheets at a time, and they needed 4 days of flattening for each 2 sheets. I used over a gallon of veneer softener. They would come out almost flat. Then when I rolled on the veneer glue, it would do what you see in the photos above. Making ironing them down an absolute nightmare. Several ruined veneer panels later, which had to be replaced, and we were finished except for the two top panels ... this was about to get custom!
After the top cabinets were filled and sealed, I installed and prepped the super tweeters for veneering over them...
Above you can see them sanded and ready for finish. They're looking whiter than Caspar with a bag of cotton balls, at a KKK rally in Antarctica!
Above you can see them sanded and ready for finish. They're looking whiter than Caspar with a bag of cotton balls, at a KKK rally in Antarctica!
Here's the first extremely absorbed coat of General Finishes Seal A Cell clear. Two coats of this.
This is the diy "paint booth" cut away after the 3rd coat of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal...
This was the first thing I saw after pulling them back into the light...
And this is when I noticed what they do with light ... just afternoon sun spot through the window...
This is the diy "paint booth" cut away after the 3rd coat of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal...
This was the first thing I saw after pulling them back into the light...
And this is when I noticed what they do with light ... just afternoon sun spot through the window...
They have a nice satin sheen, but they are a mirror of whatever light they can "see" ...
I'm going to be messing around with different lighting colors this evening. But I'm currently taking a break. That's a lot of posting! It's tooo quiet in here! Somebody has to say something! The walls are closing in!
Uh huh ... you all act like you actually have something to do on a Saturday, unlike myself. Keep pretending! 😛
Uh huh ... you all act like you actually have something to do on a Saturday, unlike myself. Keep pretending! 😛
I forgot something important ... I have been cursing myself for forgetting to take photos of the wildly improved horn lenses... But I spent some time looking at some backgrounds in photos, and found two blurry examples...
The horns were covered in pieces of FoQ material glued on to the horns, and Kill Rez mat pieces placed over those. Then 15 pounds of extremely heavy duct seal putty was pressed around each horn tightly. After that, extreme duty duct tape was used to hold the putty forever in shape (as if it needed holding anyway). That was completed with the addition of 50 pounds of heavy sand completely surrounding that mass around the horn lens.
The horns were covered in pieces of FoQ material glued on to the horns, and Kill Rez mat pieces placed over those. Then 15 pounds of extremely heavy duct seal putty was pressed around each horn tightly. After that, extreme duty duct tape was used to hold the putty forever in shape (as if it needed holding anyway). That was completed with the addition of 50 pounds of heavy sand completely surrounding that mass around the horn lens.