[burnin240sx]

Can you paint MDF and veneer it later?
I was just wondering if this is a viable route I can take?
I would sand the box before I veneer it to make the glue work better. But I was wondering what any experts would say about this?

[burnin240sx]

Anyone know?

[Christof]

what kind of paint?

[woofersus]

what kind of paint?

Probably any kind you tell him will work

[Danny Richie]

I don't see any reason why you couldn't veneer over it later. If you paint over MDF you will have a really tough time hiding the seams. You could veneer it and then paint it if you wanted a painted finish, especially Black.

We used to offer some fully assembled speakers back in the day. So we veneered them in Oak and inserted solid Oak pieces in the corners. Then painted them Black. You can still see the grain and texture through the paint and it looked really good.

[Danny Richie]

Black painted Oak veneer on A/V-1 boxes:

[Danny Richie]

Paradox-1 in Black painted Oak:

[Christof]

Paper backed veneer with good contact cement as adhesive should work.  Don't round over the top edge of your baffles, just the sides and keep your corners as sharp as possible....this is the area you are going to have trouble with.  Did you build the boxes yet?  If not, to make your life real easy, just put solid wood corners in and you no longer need to have veneer line up on the corners.  Build your box and then run the sharp corners through the table saw and make a 1/4" x 1/4" rebate and fill it with a piece of solid wood and sand flush.  Do not do like Danny's first picture and round over all the edges if you plan to veneer later....do like his AV-1 boxes in the second pic.
 

[burnin240sx]

Depends on what kind I can use to veneer over it.

[dvenardos]

Just veneer them. If I can do it, anyone can do it.
http://picasaweb.google.com/dvenardos/Av1rs?authkey=Gv1sRgCOXw3sL01YrGMg&feat=directlink#
http://www.tweakcityaudio.com/forum/showpost.php?p=21492&postcount=17

[BrianH]

My two cents ...

The painted surface needs to be smooth, dry, no cracks, bubbles, drips, dust etc. deal with all the normal painted surface prep. Surface preparation is always important, not to be rushed. The devil is in the details.

Also rough it up a little with 60-80 grit so that the contact cement has a little more to grab onto.

Pay attention to what the paper backed and contact cement folks tell you about how to get a good job from that. You can pretty much ignore that its painted other than it will effect the prep a little.

The main thing is you don't want to use a glue that assumes its going to soak in, it won't, the paint soaked in already. Nothing much in the way of pores is left. That is why contact cement and paper backed veneer.

Brian

[Hank]

What Brian said.
My question is:  why paint now and veneer later?  Two big projects instead of one?

[burnin240sx]

I was looking at painting them now and see if I like it that way. If not then I can veneer it later if I don't. Also cost of the veneer was something I wanted to put off for a little while.

[burnin240sx]

Build your box and then run the sharp corners through the table saw and make a 1/4" x 1/4" rebate and fill it with a piece of solid wood and sand flush.  Do not do like Danny's first picture and round over all the edges if you plan to veneer later....do like his AV-1 boxes in the second pic.

I like this idea a lot. This would be my first veneer job and to not have to deal with corners would ease my anxiety about doing it right. I've already cut my boxes. I'm currently gluing my 2nd box. It's not much to put the box through the table saw to cut out the edges. I was thinking about finishing them in ash because we have some Polks that are veneered in black ash.

[newportcycle]

If you have a router with a flush trim bit, triming veneer is simple, couple of swipes with sand paper after trimming will make it perfectly flush.

[Hank]

I build my cabs, then round over the front vertical corners with a 3/4" radius roundover bit, then apply veneer.  Works great - been doing it for years with veneers from cheap oak to makore to rosewood.  Go for it - you can do it.