Cool, that's just the look I'm aiming for, only in a different color. The red mahogany looks nice, maybe I'll try that on the sides of the speaker, I mostly want the front to stand out and contrast with the sides.
Keith D said:
Unless you can spray the stain mixed in with a varnish, you will have to get the colour difference from using different veneers, as it is just about impossible to mask areas when using a hand rubbed finish. Because the stain is penetrating, it will always make it's way under or around whatever you use, giving a fairly nasty edge.
I used pre-ban Brazilian Rosewood I got off Ebay. This is raw 1/40 veneer. This tops use four pieces butted up against each other. They are glued down with wood glue made for dark wood. The glue is actually brown so it doesn't show in the seams. The finish is DEFT in a semi-gloss. It comes in a spray can, so it's easy to apply and dries in 20 minutes.
Attachments
Looks pretty nice. It'll be a few weeks since I'm going out of town monday, a few days before I get back I'm going to order veneer, dye, glue, and stuff for a subwoofer hopefully. To do the circles do you veneer the surface first and then use the router or the other way around? I know probably noone has, but have you used bubinga before, because it looks pretty cool. Here's a pic.
That's an 18X20 sheet from www.joewoodworker.com
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
That's an 18X20 sheet from www.joewoodworker.com
I think it is better and easier to glue it down first and then trim to the existing hole. You can use a router with a triple flute trim bit and get a very clean edge. I just use a very sharp utility knife and make several passes to slowely cut through the veneer and then sand lightly with some 220 grit paper.
Put some masking tape or similar on the base of your router though, it lessens the risk of scratching up the veneer. 😉
rwagter said:
Do you mean glue or is gleu some special compound I am not aware of? If it is plain wood glue, it will still expand when it absorbs water, so I doubt it will keep the edges from moving as humidity changes. Maybe the waterproof variety of wood glue (e.g. Ponal Super 3, www.ponal.de) will do? It can be thinned with water while it still liquid, so it would filter down into the wood well enough.
Or maybe one of those clear coats used to seal wooden staircases would do when thinned, either the water-based PU/acrylate dispersion or the petrol based PU/alkyd stuff?
Have you ever tried appling white wood glue and ironing it on while it was still wet? The standard way it seems is to let both sides dry and iron on the dry stuff.
When you talk about contact glue, do you mean something like Pattex? I was under the impression that some of the contact cements people talk about in this forum are not available in Europe.
Regards,
Eric
I'm curious too about sealing the edges of the wood. I had them expand with my first speakers and now you can kind of see them through the veneer. Do you coat them with glue, sand, coat with water, sand, or is it a mixture of both at once? I will be making some more speakers soon, if all goes well, so this artifact is really concening me. Thanks,
George
George
Eric,
I mend glue (my mistake). I just roll in the cut sides with water and glue en waits until it is set (couple of days) The MDF will have absorbed both water and glue and will get very hard. I then sand it , that's it.
With my first project only the open sides (saw cut) expanded which you see thru the veneer. When I did the water/glue trick in a later project this problem has not rissen (so far (2 years later)).
With contact glue I indeed mean pattex( or something like it). I don't use that because once you made I mistake and want to move the veneer it's already stuck.
I also iron when it's dry. Beware though that you hold the veneer down when roling the glue onto it because it curls up like hell and you get glue on the wrong side of the veneer. I iron it with a piece of paper (absorbing) and use clean sheets regular. When you get a airbuble trapped somewhere in the middle just make a small cut (surgens knife) and iron again.
Ralph
ps keith I really like that veneer. And I don't use a router I just gleu and use a ordinary knife (very sharp though) and some sanding paper to trim the edges . Works perfectly
I mend glue (my mistake). I just roll in the cut sides with water and glue en waits until it is set (couple of days) The MDF will have absorbed both water and glue and will get very hard. I then sand it , that's it.
With my first project only the open sides (saw cut) expanded which you see thru the veneer. When I did the water/glue trick in a later project this problem has not rissen (so far (2 years later)).
With contact glue I indeed mean pattex( or something like it). I don't use that because once you made I mistake and want to move the veneer it's already stuck.
I also iron when it's dry. Beware though that you hold the veneer down when roling the glue onto it because it curls up like hell and you get glue on the wrong side of the veneer. I iron it with a piece of paper (absorbing) and use clean sheets regular. When you get a airbuble trapped somewhere in the middle just make a small cut (surgens knife) and iron again.
Ralph
ps keith I really like that veneer. And I don't use a router I just gleu and use a ordinary knife (very sharp though) and some sanding paper to trim the edges . Works perfectly
Good to see other people doing it on the cheap too. So your saying rwagter that you just seal the edges with glue and apply the veneer after it's all dry and sanded, what kind of glue are you talking about? I like the ironing idea but do you have to use a special kind of glue for that to work? Is it hard to put it onto a rounded over edge? I'm thinking contact cement would be good for this and you could just role the edge across the veneer and trim it after it's stuck, am I right or would that be doomed to peel off later?
Keith,
you're right that you can nopt peel or correct errors with contact cement.
I just use ordinary woodglue (PVAC). With a iron you can relatively easy bend around a corner but beware the the wood shrinks a little bit so only iron the bend part last. Always work from the middle outwards.
btw the joewoodworkersite (from you're lovely piece of wood 😉 ) has an excellent glue FAQ which makes me want to try different types of glue.
Ralph
you're right that you can nopt peel or correct errors with contact cement.
I just use ordinary woodglue (PVAC). With a iron you can relatively easy bend around a corner but beware the the wood shrinks a little bit so only iron the bend part last. Always work from the middle outwards.
btw the joewoodworkersite (from you're lovely piece of wood 😉 ) has an excellent glue FAQ which makes me want to try different types of glue.
Ralph
So, to summarize, is it acceptable to use contact cement with raw unbacked veneer? I used contact cement on my first project and would like to go that route again if possible. My only concern is making sure the glue will bind to the veneer without the paper. Normally I would use paperbacked but I found some beautiful redwood burl that I would like to use. Thanks,
George
George
rwagter said:
Can you elaborate on how this is done? What about using high end birch or oak hardwood on the outside? Can one veneer this way better?
The problem with MDF is that it expands over time because it sucks the humidity out of the air. This is only the problem on the edge which is sawn. When you saw flush (excact term ??) ( two 45 degree angles) there is no problem but most speakerbuilder glue two perpundicular pieces.
When you smear the water glue mixture on the sawn edge you make it expand and settle (because of the glue). The result is an edge that is slightly higher than the area it's glued on. Just sand it and veneer.
Hardboard is a bad alternative because mdf has excelent density and dampening properties, some peolpe use it though.
Ralph
When you smear the water glue mixture on the sawn edge you make it expand and settle (because of the glue). The result is an edge that is slightly higher than the area it's glued on. Just sand it and veneer.
Hardboard is a bad alternative because mdf has excelent density and dampening properties, some peolpe use it though.
Ralph
I see, so you basically seal the sides. Now that I think about it, some manufacturers/people perposly leave a very small seam at the edges, and color it black (I have seen white too). This way even if it expands a little it looks like it was designed to look that way.....
Precisly, like dynaudio and when making a small groove you don't have sanding inperfections.
Ralph
Ralph
Painting
I'm going to paint my speaker box, will i need to seal the edges with the glue/water mixture?
I'm going to paint my speaker box, will i need to seal the edges with the glue/water mixture?
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