RC-5G construction

Thumbnail for The Pau Ferro flitches unrolled. I bought 9 flitches running over 120" each. - I bought the Pau Ferro flitches from www.certainlywood.com per Rick Craig's recommendation.
Thumbnail for The assembled V2 - Venturi vacuum press pump - This took me a weekend to build and figure out. Also took a long time to research to determine I wanted to buy, assemble, and use it.
Thumbnail for The first side of the speaker (back) is freshly pulled from the veneer press. - Actually I flush routed the edges and then took the picture.
Thumbnail for The first hole cut in the speaker! - This is the back of the speaker and this is the hold for the rear port.
Thumbnail for I used cold press glue and a roller. - Using a colored veneer glue was the way to go because any gaps were hidden by the underlying closely matched glue color. I think my seams were tight enough that I didn't have to worry so much, but buying the right glue color is the way to go. I think they have light, medium, and dark and this is dark.
Thumbnail for Getting closer on veneering the entire speaker
Thumbnail for All the holes on the speaker were routed. - For the record this took 3 passes per hole. I used a 3/4" router bit to cut the outer seat, then used a 1/4" inch cutting bit with the router to cut the inner circle and create the hole. For the inner cut I cut 1/2" down, then another 1/2" down to get through the baffle. The holes of the inner brace were already cut before assembly and the front of the speaker is 1.5" thick. I highly advise you precut a scrap board and make sure you are cutting the holes the right size.
Thumbnail for I feel like slapping the UPS guy for the condition of these boxes with my expensive drivers and crossovers.. - The UPS driver left them on the sidewalk on Christmas eve at the bottom of my front steps and on the sidewalk stacked on top of each other!!! Not even hidden behind a column on the porch and ready for anybody to take. Fortunately I alerted my neighbor they were being delivered as I was at my parents and he kindly grabbed them for me.
Thumbnail for Screwing in the back ports...the fronts are next.
Thumbnail for The drivers needed per speaker
Thumbnail for This is after my first or second coat of Waterlox original sealer/finish - Waterlox is normally used for floors and really brings out wood's beauty. Because it is a combination of tung oil, resin, and other solvents it dries faster than tung oil. A member at AC suggested I try it and I'm really happy with the results. It dries pretty fast and self levels pretty well. Also, scratches are easy to fix down the road as any additional coats blend right in. Apparently repairability and getting the "almost sprayed" look is easier with products like this and that is why I chose it.
Thumbnail for The sanded RC-5G before adding the topcoat. - These are pretopcoated and there is no finish on these shown. There are so many selections for topcoating. I chose to use Waterlox original sealer and finish (4 coats) followed by 3 coats of Waterlox original gloss finish (see next photo). I made a mistake and overdid it on the sealer. Apparently you can get the same results with 4 or 5 coats of strait gloss. In the future I'd probably do 1 coat of sealer and 4 coats of gloss, cutting out 2 of the coats. Actually, as nice as these came out in the future I'm getting a spray setup.
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