[fcraven]

...my favorite putty to use under paint is Bondo (yes, the auto body stuff). Bondo sets hard and is sandable in 15 minutes, sticks like crazy, sands super smooth, and most important - it doesn't need any priming.

Yeah, so that IS what I use(d) for most of my filling. I also used a lot of epoxy to fill seams (mostly because I already had it out). Bondo is the painter's secret weapon, never under estimate it's power (or potency). I would suggest that priming is needed. But my paint is finicky around certain materials, e.g., it hates the epoxy I use, so I always bridge with some acrylic primer.

On to the fun...

My friend who loaned me his heat gun, so I could use it on the shrink wrap, informed me that he would like the gun back. So, I am rushing to get paint onto the cabinets, so that I can solder the speakers on, and shrink the wrap, and be done. All I needed was a good excuse to get these things done. And wouldn't you know it, we just went to half days on Friday. 

So I came home, and quickly decided that I liked the Dark gray-olive color, and got a a first coat on the three front speakers, and the sub. My approach with the finish is as follows:

• Convince myself that it will never be perfect and stop worrying. I'm doing this by hand, it won't be perfect, that's part of the beauty. It looks great, now get on with it, shoot, a bunch of audio nuts want to hear these blasted mini-towers. I WANT to hear these blasted mini-towers
• Apply a nice first coat making every effort to avoid runs (and this paint will run).
• Give it enough time to dry thoroughly--over night should do, I HATE THIS PART, but that's the price you pay with high pigmented oil paints.
• Become a paranoid schizophrenic again, and sand everything smooth. Once dry it's a dream to sand, so I start making everything as smooth as possible, I will break through to the primer underneath but that's OK.
• DO IT AGAIN, Paint, Sand, try not to break through to primer at all, remind myself that it won't be perfect.
• Either do a third and final coat or repeat until I'm happy with the results.
• For the final coat, clean the area where I will be painting (the night before) to eliminate dust, maybe spray water in the air, to make it as dust free as possible. stage everything so very little has to be moved. Clean the brushes.
• Thin the paint to the proper consistency (I will thin it more with each coat)Strain the paint to get rid of the crap that has been accumulating in it. Tack everything, remember that it won't be perfect, and start brushing
• Always resist the temptation to go back and touch up "that spot" because that's a sure fire means to get ugly brush strokes, let the paint level on it's own.
• blog on audiocircle between steps to avoid rushing.
• Enjoy a fine brew(at least after every step)

Right now I'm on the Second step, the penultimate step and soon I'll enjoy the last step.

Here's the mini-towers (and they really aren't that "mini")


and the center channel

[WGH]

Great looking speakers! I like the color too.

The last door I finished has a perfect imprint of a mosquito in the varnish. Luckily it is toward the bottom but I was wondering if I should sand it out and do another coat, then I thought nah too risky, the rest of the finish was perfect. The customer never saw it.

Wayne

[fcraven]

Here's a self portrait. I'm up to the third and a half coat of paint. Here your can see that the finish does have some "texture" to it, it's a smooth texture, but it it still texture.

At this rate I should be done by this weekend.




And here's a side view

[mpm32]

A few hours with a felt or cork block and some rotten stone or pumice and those will look like piano finish.

[fcraven]

A few hours with a felt or cork block and some rotten stone or pumice and those will look like piano finish.

You know, I may want to try that, hmmm...
In the past I have actually sanded down through finer and finer grits, and ultimately end with a satin finish--something I have been thinking of doing anyway. This would just take it a step forward.

Keep in mind that this is Enamel, not Lacquer so it is softer and probably won't polish out as much, and part of the beauty of this paint is the fact that it can be so blasted brilliant, without buffing out. And anything done will be done by hand.

So my finish options stand at

• Drop through grits of sandpaper/steel wool and Polishing compound that I already have (original idea) to produce a fine silky satin finish
• Just put the last coat of paint on and enjoy the ultimate in a hand brushed brilliant finish (what I used to do for front doors)
• Enter the world of rotten stone, which I have thought of projects in the past but never got around to.

Yeah, and I still need to make the grills, any opinions on what adhesive to attach the cloth the the grill frame?

[mpm32]

Rotten stone and pumice are cheap and while do it you feel like you're really old school. 

[Bob in St. Louis]

I bought a dual action low speed automotive buffer at Wallyworld for $26 this summer. How about that with some polishing/rubbing compound?

Bob

[fcraven]

I think I'm going with a satin look. Yes the paint is nice and shiny and all that, but, although this may be the best enamel paint you can buy, it's also old paint that has been sitting in my garage for a few years, seriously, and it's not handling like it used to, and I'm ready to listen to these things.

Last night I did some pumice, and rottenstone tests, and decided that the pumice did a nice job of silking things up. then I put on what may be the last coat of paint, earlier this week I accidentally added too much thinner, and there may be issues. Oh well, the thinner will evaporate, and the paint will become less viscous enough to apply another final coat if needed.

Ultimately, I'm thinking that it is time to solder the drivers on and start listening. If I feel compelled to do any more work on them, I can back-out the screws, mask the drivers, and do any remaining work later (if something bothers me). If I were do build this design again, I think I would explore the world of lacquer. it would be much faster.

I still need to make some grills (even though I will leave them off most of the time)

In other news, I have been using the my Servo sub a lot (when not being painted). Um....it's very nice. I don't know how flat it is in my room or anything like that, but it certainly can play exceedingly low, without sounding like the crap so commonly heard at big box stores. with Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I was actually surprised by what it did during the climactic ending.

OK, I need to go buy my own heat gun.

[fcraven]

You have to ignore the ugly wall and makeshift shelf More work to come after I take a break. Notice how the center speaker actually overlaps the TV, and the TV really is level, It's the floor and the picture that are not.


The back of the center speaker, yeah, I painted the the back of the tweeter red, just for fun.


One of the "mini-towers":


They sound good, but they are breaking in now, so I don't now how good, and I'm probably won't do any fancy tests.
Still no grills made--not that I want to cover the drivers.
There are flaws in the finish, but they look so good right now, I might just leave 'em as is. At any rate, it's best to let the paint cure more before trying to satin-ize them, should I choose to do that.
They really look black, but I'm telling you there is no black in there.

Kind of interesting listening to stuff. The last time I upgraded, I enjoyed hearing things that "weren't there before" and that has happened again, and that's always fun.