# First time veneering! (African Bubinga on Klipsh)



## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

I got my Klipsch References seperately used whenever I could find a good deal on one, so now that I have a whole setup, they have a couple of different finishes.. Just a small drawback from saving a couple grand  On top of that, while the factory finishing is well-done, it's also a bit plain and done in fairly generic materials (some are Maple finish, and some are black Ash) so I decided to do something about it. Looking on eBay, African Bubinga seemed to be the coolest wood veneer available IMO, so I ordered up a bunch and got to work on my first ever veneer project.


So far I've done just my Center Channel, which is a RC-3II, same as in this picture:












First I took an iron to the old finish and peeled it all off down to the MDF foundation, along with removing the speakers and back plug panel. Being a first timer in dealing with higher-quality speakers than what you see at Wal-Mart, I was pleasantly surprised to see a massive crossover and heavy wires stemming from it. Thank you Klipsch!












After a redoing my first side and getting a groove going (first side taught me I needed to let the cement dry a bit longer :whistling: ), the technique for laying it on started making good sense and the rest went on without much of a hitch. For the sides with speaker holes and plug holes I simply put it on like normal, then punched some holes through and used a sharp knife to give it a good close cut. One of the biggest surprises came during sanding, when I saw that sanding the Bubinga is like polishing a lens- More and more detail comes out the longer you go at it. Cool stuff! I have the far side sanded in this pic, and the closer half not sanded so you can see just how big of a difference this is












First layer of Urethane on! I did a base coat of oil-base poly to bring out the detail of the wood, and will be following that with 3-4 layers of water-base Urethane over the next couple of days (water-base tends to hide details when directly applied to wood, while oil digs in and brings detail to the surface. Water-base isn't as pungent though, and it dries a lot quicker, so once the oil has done it's job, water-base can speed the rest of the layers up a bit.)




















The speakers aren't remounted in it yet as I have more Urethaning to do, but that's a general idea of what it'll look like with the grill on. Can't wait to see all of my speakers as finished projects with it!


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## gvimhoof (Aug 25, 2009)

Woof! Very sexy!:T


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Lookin good!


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## Lucky7! (Jan 7, 2008)

Wow, they certainly look very different from the stock black ash. Very nice work, especially for a first time effort.


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## Dave Upton (Aug 4, 2009)

Impressive results! I wish I could veneer that well on my first attempt.


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## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

Thanks guys, I'm definitely pretty excited to have a new hobby that actually _benefits_ my decor instead of cluttering it up 

Second coat of Urethane is currently drying, and I'll be putting a 3rd on tomorrow, hopefully along with the 4th and final coat. I've switched to high gloss water-base now that the oil coat is on, and the Bubinga is really coming to life with that extra shine now.. This wood continues to amaze me with just how "golden" it looks in any sort of ambient light; The stuff GLOWS! I highly recommend it to anyone looking at doing some veneering in the future. (And if you do go with Bubinga, make sure to do a base coat of oil-base urethane before putting on any water-base! You'll see why as soon as you start brushing it on)


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## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

Just got the 2nd layer of high-gloss water-base urethane (3rd coat overall) on, looks like one more after this should be good for what I'm looking for. The milky look on the top part in the pic is gone now, that's just from a bad camera/light mix along with still-wet urethane. This stuff looks wet when it's dry though so what you see is what it really looks like after drying anyways





















Any second opinions on the number of urethane layers? I want the finish to look like a piano more or less- maybe not quite that extreme, but definitely something good and heavy


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## 1Michael (Nov 2, 2006)

At least 7:T


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

buggers said:


> At least 7:T


That'll defininatly give it that piano look. Nice work man! :sn:


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## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

7 layers, eh? I like the way you guys think 

I'm done half of coat #4 right now, and I can say right now that it's gonna be at least 1 or 2 more, though not with a foam brush anymore- Somehow I've forgotten that my dad has a crazy good laquer spraying system for his custom cabinetry business, so I'm gonna see about teaching myself some to spray the finish on. I don't know how many coats that will equate to, but it should make for an awesome mirror-smooth finish if I can learn it correctly on the first or second try. We'll see what happens :T


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## Dave Upton (Aug 4, 2009)

Spuddy said:


> 7 layers, eh? I like the way you guys think
> 
> I'm done half of coat #4 right now, and I can say right now that it's gonna be at least 1 or 2 more, though not with a foam brush anymore- Somehow I've forgotten that my dad has a crazy good laquer spraying system for his custom cabinetry business, so I'm gonna see about teaching myself some to spray the finish on. I don't know how many coats that will equate to, but it should make for an awesome mirror-smooth finish if I can learn it correctly on the first or second try. We'll see what happens :T


Well that would explain it - I guess you inherited your veneering abilities! :T


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## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

Ha, guess so  To save on a lot of cleanup and waiting for my dad to be done with his gun, I decided to just get a can of spray polyurethane and give that a shot. I don't know how many layers this is the equivilent of, but we can all rest assured of poly's crassitude knowing that I emptied the entire 11.5 ounces in the can on top of the 4 thick layers of brushed on urethane applied prior 

It's not completely shiny right now (I believe it dried slightly too quickly due to being in the sunlight while I sprayed it on) so I'm letting the cabinet sit and cure for a week, at which point I'll follow through with progressively finer wet sandings up to 2,000 grit, then finalize the surface transparency with some quality finishing polish. Sooo until then, I have a couple of other things I need to catch up on (like fiberglassing my car hood.. the DIY's just don't end!), and I'll be back in about a week with some finished speaker pictures


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Very nice work, Spud! That will give your speakers a totally custom look!! Can't wait to see it after a few more coats of clear. Pretty much the more you do, the better it looks (within reason).


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## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

Thanks OJ, should be any day now- It smells completely cured at this point, so now I'm just waiting for the micro sandpaper I ordered on eBay to get here and I'll be all over it


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## Derry (Apr 10, 2010)

looking very good,,

if you spray outside try to move the unit into a cooler area for more set time,,

always use a good tack rag just prior a coat to assure no debris is left on the surface,,

Derry


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## Warpdrv (Mar 3, 2007)

Very nice work..... with having access to a workshop and skills behind you like you do, you should think about building your own speakers.... there are lots of great designs, the Dynamic 4T's are sexy, especially if you go the way Dougie085 did with a curved cabinet.

Here is a link to his photobucket showing the pics... He modified the original design, which IMO is beautiful. http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c30/Dougie085/Dynamic 4T/

I'll bet if you sold those Polks, they would pay for the entire build and have speakers that rivaled ones costing $5000 or more...


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## Be_Mo_Mods (Feb 14, 2010)

WOW, I love that bubinga. Absolutely beautiful! Very nice work.


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## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

Thanks again everyone for the ideas and compliments, and sorry about the wait on final pics- I was told 4-5 days shipping on eBay for my micro-grit sandpaper, so I figured ordering that way instead of going to the store would be the best way to make sure I have enough patience (I have a hard time looking at something that's getting sanded later and not just doing it NOW ) to do it right.

So two weeks later this stuff still hasn't arrived.. If it isn't in tomorrow I'll just drive to the store, but man this is frustrating 


As for building speakers from scratch, I've built sub cabinets before in my mid-teen years and will be putting together my rotary sub (which is completely from scratch, driver and all) when I finally have some time to dedicate again, but entering the world of crossovers and driver matching is something that will take a lot of time (I'm verrrry all or nothing, even for someone with Asperger's Syndrome ) and I still have to rebuild my Impreza's engine before Fall for higher boost from the blower I slapped on it last year, which is of course yet another thing I'll be teaching myself as I go along haha. I love the idea of making all my own speakers, but it really just isn't a realistic goal to try and meet at this particular point in life


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## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone- I am a perfectionist to the highest degree with anything artistic, and being as busy as I have been lately I simply haven't had the time available to be that fastidious, and therefore haven't done anything at all. I am currently looking at buying a house in a rural zone with a completely underground basement (higher SPL levels in the theater, anyone? ) and working tons of overtime to make the bills for it, so it's safe to say I am unable to veneer & polish my whole setup right now and in the near future. Bear with me for a couple of months though, and my Klipsch's getting a facelift will be only one of many theater improvement to look forward to


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## JCD (Apr 20, 2006)

It's already been said, but beautiful.. and I understand the patience thing. I just picked up a project that I'd dropped over a year ago. I don't recommend waiting that long, but don't rush yourself either.


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