[PDR]

Nice Work!

Can hardly wait to see them complete.

[lacro]

Mike,
 Glad to see your back at it, looking great!   I am going to borrow some of your ideas 

Larry

[mlundy57]

Larry,

Feel free. That's what these forums are all about. I have borrowed shamelessly from a whole lot of folks. This is the first time I have tried building speakers or any type of cabinet for that matter. Build a house, yes ... build cabinets, no. I'd install the cabinets but we'd either buy them prebuilt or have a cabinet maker build them. I never have been much of a finish carpenter either. That was my brother.

Mike

[Captainhemo]

Looking great Mike 

Also glad to hear your hand is healing up  and you  are back at it

-jay 

[mlundy57]

I've got most of the NoRez in the CS Encore. After squeezing it around the Brace A's in the LS's I tried something a little different. I marked where the back edge of the Brace A's would be then installed the NoRez from the back up to that line. Then I installed the Brace A's. The NoRez is not complete in the following picture. I need to finish the crossover and dry fit it before I install the rest of the NoRez.





Mike

[mlundy57]

I've finished the crossover for the CS Encore. Now all three crossovers are built. However, I think I was a little wasteful with the solder and am not sure I have enough left to connect the drivers and tube connectors for all three speakers. I have some Cardas quad eutectic solder. Will this be an acceptable substitute for what comes in the kits?

Mike

[Danny Richie]

I've finished the crossover for the CS Encore. Now all three crossovers are built. However, I think I was a little wasteful with the solder and am not sure I have enough left to connect the drivers and tube connectors for all three speakers. I have some Cardas quad eutectic solder. Will this be an acceptable substitute for what comes in the kits?

Mike

That will be okay.

[mlundy57]

Thanks Danny

[mlundy57]

Moving right along on the X-CS Encore, here are some pics of the crossover:




and with the crossover dry fitted and the rest of the NoRez installed




Here are some pics of the grill frame:

Here is the frame with holes drilled for the magnets




Here is the frame with dowel points in the holes to mark magnet locations on the front baffle




Here is the grill frame with the magnets glued in and after two coats of ebony stain







 Here is the front baffle with the magnets installed




and here it is with the grill frame on the baffle




More to come,

Mike

[mlundy57]

Here's the grill frames for the X-LS Encores: with magnet holes drilled,



With dowel points installed





Grill frames with two coats of ebony stain







and here is an X-LS Encore cabinet with the grill frames on




Mike

[mlundy57]

I have finished sanding and putting a 1/2" roundover on all the edges of the X-LS Encores and the X-CS Encore. I practiced doing the roundover on the MDF cabinet I built specifically for practicing new cuts. Using a Workmate to clamp the cabinet and a hand held router to cut the roundovers worked flawlessly. However, when I tried cutting the round overs on the Baltic Birch cabinets the bit tore out the veneer.




I wasn't about to build a new cabinet so I used wood filler to repair the tear out








To prevent additional tear out I tried back routing first. This solved the tear out problem but results in an uneven feed rate. Sometimes the bit skips and runs while other times it hangs up and burns the wood. Routing back over the edge in the proper direction cleans up a lot of this but even with a fair amount of sanding some burn marks remain. Therefore these cabinets are going to have some unintended distress marks on the edges.













And the X-CS Encore:










I have finished final sanding and am now ready to stain the cabinets.

Mike

[mpauly]

Looks like youre already done and they came out pretty nice.  Hopefully that filler will take the stain you plan to use evenly and not stand out like a sore thumb.  Might make sense to do a test board with some gouges filled with the same filler to see how it looks with the stain/finish.

Qucik question, did you do the 1/2" roundover in one pass?  Sometimes doing it in two passes (the first one with the bit only half way down and the second pass at full depth) can help prevent splintering.

[Captainhemo]

Looking   great Mike,  nice  work 
Sorry to see you  had the  tearing issue with the roundover.

  Hopefully that filler will take the stain you plan to use evenly and not stand out like a sore thumb.  Might make sense to do a test board with some gouges filled with the same filler to see how it looks with the stain/finish.

Exellent point mpauly.  Doing  a stained test  board with some filler will be well worth the effort although,  not sure  what  your options  will be if  the  filler   doen;t take up the stain? 

-jay

[mlundy57]

It is a sustainable filler but it does stand out like a sore thumb. Luckily it is on the back side of the cabinet.

Yes I did it in a single pass. I thought of multiple passes as an option after I was done. Another possible option would be to start with a 1/4" roundover then progress up to a 3/8" then the 1/2".  This would be better with multiple routers then I wouldn't have to keep switching the cabinets out. I currently have two routers, a smaller trim router which would be fine for the 1/4" roundover and a regular size router. But that leaves me short 1 router. I was wanting an excuse to get a new plunge router with the dust collector built into one of the columns 

I have the stain on all three cabinets now.  It has not turned out as dark as I wanted. I'm thinking about adding a second coat of stain tomorrow after the first one has completely dried.

Mike

[mlundy57]

Here they are stained. first the CS Encore













And here the LS's are in the background



Now for the LS Encores, yes the repair shows but at least it is on the back






However the fronts and sides look better







I'm caught up for now

Mike

[Captainhemo]

hey Mike
Not sure this  will help at all, you may already be doing this   but...
One thng I started doing a  way  way back in high school on the advice  of a shop teacher  was to  apply    stain  using  400 grit  or finer  wet/dry  paper and really  "sanding" the  stain into the  wood.  Sand it in really  well  before wiping off any excess, the more you  rub it in, the darker it  gets and the smoother it becomes. After wiping off the excess,  really   rub it   down with a clean cotton "rag".   You  end up with a  beautiful finish   and if you   apply mulitple coats,  you  won't even  need a top coat  unless you  are  after a super high gloss finish.
I  built some ash tables   and did  3 coats like tuis almost  30 years ago and they are still  looking very  nice
It is time consuming  but in my opinion,   provides a   great  look and feel  if you  take your time.   
If you  haven't tried this, it may be worth   giving it a shot on a samll piece of scrap to see what you think

-jay

[mlundy57]

Jay,

I never heard of that method, thanks. I think part of my problem is that I sanded everything too fine before applying the stain. I sanded to 180 grit but both the pre-stain and stain said not to sand hardwoods finer than 150. Plus I used a pre-stain so the plywood would take up the stain more evenly. 

I have some scraps of the Baltic Birch and will try your sandpaper method on them. Do you think that will work on these speakers at this point? If not I may just use it on the X-MTM Encores I haven't built yet to finish out a five channel HT system.

I'm not after a high gloss finish. I'm after a deep, rich, mellow finish. To this end I will be using multiple coats of amber shellack.

Mike

[Captainhemo]

I can't say  if   using the  wet/dry  paper methoud will help at this point but I would say  it  is  worth the  attempt   as it will not hurt  .   If you  apply  2 or three coats to  raw hardwood ( I  DID sand    very smooth  before applying and did not use any pre-stain)      and then  "buff "  with ta soft cotton   rag after,  you will probably find  you  don't even  need a top coat,  it comes ouot very rich and you can actually get a  pretty  glossy finish depnding on how much you  "buff"..

I'll attach a pic of  the tables I did,  remeber though, these are  close to 30 years old now and haven't been  rubbed/buffed  in   many years

When you are applying   , really   sand that  stain in ,  till it starts to become noticably thicker  before  wiping  off the excess.  I think you  might be surprised   by the results

I still suggest trying it on  a  piece of scrap before proceeding just to make sure  you  like   the results 
LMK how it goes
-jay

[mlundy57]

Questions on the port tube. I'm using the multi-piece flared port tubes like the ones used on the N-1X.

Do you glue the pieces together and if so what type of glue? Would the multipurpose cement you get in the plumbing department for abs/pvc/cpvc (red label)work?

How do you secure the tubes in the cabinets, press fit or glued in. If glued, what type of glue works best for this?

Mike

[mlundy57]

Jay,

With already having used the pre-stain plus a coat of stain already dried on the sanding method didn't produce any different results than just wiping on a second coat of stain. I think your method of staining raw wood (no pre-stain) that has not been sanded overly smooth would work work best.

Mike