[mlundy57]

I'm working on a pair of X-SLS Encores. This is the floor standing version of the X-LS Encore. They're getting upgraded crossovers with Sonicaps, Mills resistors, and Miflex KPCU by-pass caps.

Here's some pics of the build so far:

Parts cut and location of dados marked out. Normally I don't go to the effort of cutting dados for just one pair of speakers but they make it a lot easier to glue the cabinet up square.




Rabbets and dados cut




Cutting out and rounding over the internal braces








Gluing up the braces, sides, and rear baffle








Installing the No-Rez. The last two pics are of the No-Rez that will be attached to the front baffle. It's a lot easier to put it in before gluing the baffle on.









Gluing up the front baffle




Flush trimming the baffles




3/4" roundovers on the front and rear baffles and 3/8" roundovers on the top and bottom




Laying out for threaded inserts on the bottoms




Driver openings cut and a roundunder bit to put the roundovers on the back side of the woofer holes




After that it has been sanding. To start with I used a random orbital sander and profile blocks to hand sand the roundovers. Normally I am working with wood or wood veneer. That does not require a super flat surface so at this point the prep sanding would be done. However, these are going to be painted a satin black so I need a much flatter surface. I borrowed Jeff's ideas from his X-MTM Encore build and ordered in some long Dura-Block sanding blocks (16", 24", and 30"), sandpaper rolls, and powder guide coat to get the cabinets as flat as I can before spraying the primer. I'll be using Target coatings water borne EMTECH primer/surfacer/filler, black pigmented lacquer, and a satin lacquer topcoat.

The Dura-Blocks, sandpaper, and powder guide coat arrived today. Now the tedious part begins... sanding, sanding, sanding, some more sanding, and oh yeah, sanding......

Mike

[sumoking]

For those of us not as familiar with the GR line, which one is this ? I don’t see this on the site.
What does it look like complete?
Thank you.

[Danny Richie]

For those of us not as familiar with the GR line, which on is this ? I don’t see this on the site.
What does it look like complete?
Thank you.

Scroll down the page and you'll see plans for the floor standing version. http://gr-research.com/x-lsencorekit.aspx

The X-SLS version includes floor spikes and additional wiring.

[RonP]

Wow!

I never would have imagined so much hardware would be needed for a build.   


thread bookmarked!

   salivating started . . .

        ogling intensifies   


 
 

[jeffwhetstone]

That's awesome Mike!

I would certainly like to hear your opinion on the Dura Blocks and the guide coat after you've had a chance to use them.     Just to clarify from my build, I only used the guide coat on the BIN shellac primer I used to seal them and not on the raw MDF.      I'm also curious how those super long blocks work out for you.    The set I got topped out at 16" which is what I used.

Can't wait to see your final results.


sumoking - here is an X-SLS I built a while back:




Jeff

[Jmitchell3]

That's awesome Mike!

I would certainly like to hear your opinion on the Dura Blocks and the guide coat after you've had a chance to use them.     Just to clarify from my build, I only used the guide coat on the BIN shellac primer I used to seal them and not on the raw MDF.      I'm also curious how those super long blocks work out for you.    The set I got topped out at 16" which is what I used.

Can't wait to see your final results.


sumoking - here is an X-SLS I built a while back:




Jeff

How’d you get that finish?!? Looks amazing!

[jeffwhetstone]

Hi Mike, We haven't gotten any updates on this build in a while.   Any progress on your X-SLS Encores ?

Jmitchell3 - Thanks.   The short answer is persistence.    I documented my painting process in this build thread:
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=151895.msg1624159#msg1624159

Jeff

[mlundy57]

I got them up to the point of spraying the primer/sealer at the end of July. I was stuck at that point for almost the entire month of August. I don't have a climate controlled spray booth or area. Instead, I have to set up an EZ-Up canopy with sidewalls in my driveway. This means I can't spray when it's raining. Normally this would not be a problem. In the past I'd set up the canopy in early June and not have to take it down until mid September because we always had droughts in the summer, floods in April/May, storms in September but nothing in between. This summer has been different, especially August. It has rained every week this month. Not everyday mind you, just the weekends. It's like the weather knew I have to travel for my day job during the week so it rained on the weekends. When did weather learn how to read a calendar  ?

The pattern held this week too but I only had to travel one day, today. I was able to get the spray booth set up on Monday and start spraying on Tuesday. I had some problems at first with the primer, it's a new product I was unfamiliar with, and with a new spray gun. I ended up having to sand off what I applied on Tuesday and start over on Wednesday. I got three coats of primer on but am probably going to need at least three or four more before I'm ready to spray the black pigmented lacquer. More storms came through last night and today so I had to take the spray booth down to keep it from being turned into a pretzel. The rain is supposed to be gone for a few days so I'll set the booth up again in the morning and get back to it.

To add insult to injury (or just envy) my next door neighbor started pouring the foundation for a large workshop in his backyard....

Mike

[mlundy57]

Got the spraying done on these. I ended up using almost a gallon of black pigmented lacquer.








Unfortunately, even though I let the lacquer cure a week when five days was supposed to be enough, when I was buffing the finish out I went through the color in some areas. The weather has turned to wet and cold for me to spray another coat outside under the tents so I had to come up with a different plan. I tried brushing more lacquer on the areas that needed touching up but that didn't turn out well so I got an airbrush and compressor. The airbrush puts out so little product I was able to do the touch up spraying in my living room.

Once this cures I'm not going to use any sandpaper (I was using a 2000 grit soft pad). I'll just use some finishing compound and stay completely of the rounded over edges.

Mike

[jeffwhetstone]

Mike, that satin black looks great!       Sorry to hear about the rub through troubles when flattening the finish.   That it so easy to do, and amazingly frustrating.    Nice job figuring out the airbrush touch-up trick.      Unfortunately, the outdoor spraying season is done here too.

Were you happy with the surface flatness you achieved on the cabinets using the long sanding blocks and guide coat?

Jeff

[RonP]

Wow those look amazing! 

[mlundy57]

Mike, that satin black looks great!       Sorry to hear about the rub through troubles when flattening the finish.   That it so easy to do, and amazingly frustrating.    Nice job figuring out the airbrush touch-up trick.      Unfortunately, the outdoor spraying season is done here too.

Were you happy with the surface flatness you achieved on the cabinets using the long sanding blocks and guide coat?

Jeff

Jeff,

I found the 36" one hard to keep even pressure. The 18" and 24" were easier to control. Those worked well on the MDF but not so good on the primer/filler. I ended up going back to a 5" sanding block for working with the primer and lacquer.

Mike

[Peter J]

FWIW Mike, I've found that several clear coats over one or two of color makes the cut and polish process easier. That way you're cutting clear and not color. Less messy too, especially with black, where it seems sanding dust gets everywhere you don't want it to. Same principle as two-stage car painting or even stain & lacquer on wood.

[mlundy57]

FWIW Mike, I've found that several clear coats over one or two of color makes the cut and polish process easier. That way you're cutting clear and not color. Less messy too, especially with black, where it seems sanding dust gets everywhere you don't want it to. Same principle as two-stage car painting or even stain & lacquer on wood.

Peter,

Wouldyou use color coats and clear when the lacquer itself is dyed black?

Mike

[Peter J]

Peter,

Wouldyou use color coats and clear when the lacquer itself is dyed black?

Mike

Yes, almost always clear over color. It also has the benefit of adding depth to the whole appearance, plus opens doors to other things like multi-color under clear.  The "hot rods" in my X-LS thread are a good example. I cleared multiple coats over black-ish primer in that case. Also sheen can be adjusted, regardless of base color. The hot-rods are done in "dull" which IIRC is 15% sheen. Typical "satin" numbers are around 25-35%.

[Captainhemo]

We do the same thing here Mike,  always numerous clear coats over color base when using lacquer.  .  Nice thin  coats of lacquer seem to work best,  allowing for quick  dry times and  super light  sandings between  coats.
Old  car painting   methodology 

jay

[mlundy57]

I built the crossovers a little differently. Normally I build the crossover for an X-LS Encore on one board. However, with the floorstanding X-SLS Encore cabinet (same crossover) I ran into an issue. With the spacing of the internal braces, there wasn't enough room for both circuits on one board unless I mounted the crossover on the bottom of the cabinet. I'm not particularly fond of doing this so I put the woofer and tweeter circuits on separate boards that fit between the braces. This way I can mount the crossovers just below the woofer with one circuit on each side. This will also make them easier to get to in the future if needed.

I'm not the best with Lightroom. The smeared/blury areas in the pictures are where I obscured the values of the parts. In these pics I have not hooked up the wiring yet.




Mike

[mlundy57]

Yes, almost always clear over color. It also has the benefit of adding depth to the whole appearance, plus opens doors to other things like multi-color under clear.  The "hot rods" in my X-LS thread are a good example. I cleared multiple coats over black-ish primer in that case. Also sheen can be adjusted, regardless of base color. The hot-rods are done in "dull" which IIRC is 15% sheen. Typical "satin" numbers are around 25-35%.

We do the same thing here Mike,  always numerous clear coats over color base when using lacquer.  .  Nice thin  coats of lacquer seem to work best,  allowing for quick  dry times and  super light  sandings between  coats.
Old  car painting   methodology 

jay

OK, You guys win. I bought a DA polisher to do the buffing because it is less likely to cut through than the gear driven DA sander/polisher I had. It worked up until the final polishing compound when it cut through one of the areas I touched up. I decided to back up and punt. I put the spray tents back up and sprayed another full coat of color. I will spray clear tomorrow. I'm shooting for three coats. I normally don't get more than two coats sprayed in a day. If that happens I'll spray two more on Tuesday for a total of four coats of clear. The instructions say a minimum of three coats of clear. 

Mike

[mlundy57]

The clear has now been applied. I sprayed three coats on Wednesday. The weather report was wrong. It was OK as far as temp went, colder than predicted though and while wasn't supposed to rain, it did. That put the temp colder and the humidity higher than I planned. This resulted in having too much retarder and I ended up with some runs and bumps. I sanded most of the clear back and applied two more coats yesterday. I added a crosslinker to the clear which gives it the properties of a post catylized lacquer. This makes the clear much harder than it normally would be. I was out of satin clear so I used gloss. Here are some pics of how they are now. After the clear cures, I can rub the gloss down to satin.







Mike

[Peter J]

Sounds like it's fighting you the whole way...stay vigilant! Some projects just seem never ending.  Are you pleased with result?

What's the finish again?  Some catalyzed finishes don't like to be cut and buffed.