[Icedsounds]

I couldnt resist the price on Al's LXII kit price so I went ahead and bought a kit from him. Then another kit, And now I am also working on a LXII center channel but thats for another thread.
I built the mdf cabinets 3 months ago and got them wired up to have a listen. They sat that way until a few weeks ago when I finally got around to veneering them(It is hard to have to unplug a speaker and put the out of commision for a few weeks when they sound this good). Unfortunatly I didnt have my camera at home for the build of the cabinets But I did for the veneering process so I would like to share a few photos.

First off was the cutting/trimming/ of the raw santos rosewood veneer


Then the matching of the veneer sheets


And seaming them together


Finished sheets for 1 speaker done, Top, Bottom, Back, And sides/front wrap

[Icedsounds]

Now some speaker cabinet prepping. After routering the edges I sanded the entire cabinet with 120 grit sandpaper to prepare for glue. I am using HEATLOCK glue. It was my first time using this glue and was surprised how simular it is to using titebond for veneering. The only real diffrence in the 2 is the crosslinking capability of the heatlock. In other words No creeping of the veneer after its set (yellow glue can creep).

The back of the cabinet with a coat of heatlock on it


Glue on the veneer back and bottom. Bottom was veneered first, then the back, then the top, and last the wrap. My pictures were not taken in order.


Veneer placed on top of the cabinet, Then a cotton cloth over top of it to prevent scorching the veneer. Then the last is after ironing on just before trimming.




Trimmed and sanded



I didnt take any "action shots" of doing the wrap as it was pretty labour intensive. Here are a few pictures after all the veneer was applied, trimmed and sanded. And the driver holes, port, and terminal plate holes were cut and trimmed




And a quick picture of the seam down the center. Nice and tight. I was a little worried about the veneer shrinking with the heat from the iron so I took the veneer before trimming and soaked it in a softner and then ironed it dry to help "pre shrink" the veneer. Also while doing the corners of the wrap I did spray softner on it before ironing

[Icedsounds]

Last but not least is the finishing of the cabinet. I will go through the steps I take to finish them.
1. Sand the entire cabinet with 120, then 220, then 400, and last was 600 grit. Nice and smooth

2. I used tackcloth and a vacuum to remove all the dust. Then it was 2 light coats of target coating USL (Ultimate spray laquer) water based laquer to seal the wood. Laquer was mixed 50/50 with water.

3. I used a brush on grain filler to fill the grain.

4. Then a 600 grit sanding being careful not to sand through the base coats.

5. And finally I applied 2 more full strength coats of laquer.

I will apply 3 more coats before rubbing the finish out but I HAD to hook the speakers back up to have a listen. I actually like to let water based coatings to sit a few weeks as they seem to settle into the grain a bit more as the laquer fully cures.

heres some pics where im at now.






Sorry if you have a dialup connection

[RAW]

 
Nice work Steve those look great, like the added touch of the bases as well.

Veneer work with Rosewood have to love the over all look.

See you added Foil inductors as well!

[mca]

Love that grain pattern 

[RAW]

Yes nice work I do agree

[S Clark]

Was the jig in the first photo used to trim straight edges on the veneer so that they would butt properly? If so, how was it built.  I have a big project (GR-Research LS9) that will require lots of joining veneer pieces and have never done it before.  The strips I have to join will be 82" long and I am more than a little nervous about this project .

[S Clark]

Also, is that a special veneer tape or just masking tape?

[Icedsounds]

Yes that is a jig I use for cutting the veneer straight. I made it out of some scrap mdf. The bottom of it is 18" x 56". I attached 2" x 15" strips on the top to hold the fence square and the built a a fence thats 2.5" deep x 2" high to hold the veneer saw vertical to the pieces being cut. Couple clamps to hold the fence down tight and it works better then i hoped it would.

The veneer tape is a standard no hole veneer tape. It holds better then the holed designs but is a little trickier to get off the veneer before finishing.

[Icedsounds]

Al
The bases are actually temporary ones I threw together and sprayed with black bbq paint then a coat of laquer to make them shiney  . I was stuck using dayton spikes until I can get my hands on some Wavezorbers

[Hank]

Nice work!  Rosewood is my favorite veneer so far.

[RAW]

Will be interesting to see your second set of LX II plus matching center channel once complete.

Are you going with the same veneer as the first set?

[Icedsounds]

The center channel will have the same veneer as these towers. I wont have enough veneer left to do the next set. I could always buy more but man is this hobby getting expensive

[RoarkS]

Hi Icesounds, beautiful job.  I have a couple of questions I was wondering you could help me with:
1.  The santos rosevood veneer you used. Did you have to clean it with denatured alcohol or acetone before using it?  I had heard that this was a pretty oily species.

2.  Was the veneer paper backed?

3.  did you encounter any problems with checking working with this material?

Thank you.

[Vapor Audio]

Stunning bookmatch on the front baffle!  That's beautiful how you matched the figure with the driver layout ...

And a quick picture of the seam down the center. Nice and tight. I was a little worried about the veneer shrinking with the heat from the iron so I took the veneer before trimming and soaked it in a softner and then ironed it dry to help "pre shrink" the veneer. Also while doing the corners of the wrap I did spray softner on it before ironing

You were right to do that, because it certainly would have shrunk and pulled your seams apart.  I've found that out the hard way myself ...

[Icedsounds]

Hi Icesounds, beautiful job.  I have a couple of questions I was wondering you could help me with:
1.  The santos rosevood veneer you used. Did you have to clean it with denatured alcohol or acetone before using it?  I had heard that this was a pretty oily species.

2.  Was the veneer paper backed?

3.  did you encounter any problems with checking working with this material?

Thank you.

1. I didnt have to clean it as it was pretty dry. I did soak it in veneer softner that contains alcohol and then whiped off the excess before ironing it dry.

2. The veneer is raw so no backing

3. Checking is an issue with rosewood and I had a few problems with it. There were 2 1" cracks that appeared near the center of the knot but I was able to fill and match it before painting.