The first job is to disassemble the speakers. The top horn sections unbolt and unscrew apart fairly easily.
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The first job is to disassemble the speakers. The top horn sections
unbolt and unscrew apart fairly easily.
Here are the bass bins by themselves.
I have plenty of storage for parts.
The filler I use is like Bondo, it adheres extremely well to anything, but
it is made specifically for wood restoration.
The repairs made with this filler are stronger than the wood, and
they do not chip off like the wood edges.
Here I've made the new parts for the "B" style risers.
It takes several rounds with the filler to get everthing perfect.
Bass bins sanded and getting the first layer of filler.
3/18/07 Update:
I'm working on these every day.
I'm ordering veneer tomorrow. I will put another 6 hours into
these to prep them for veneer, and I hope to start veneering by the end of
next week. I should have the project done in two weeks.
3/24/07 Update
Please check back often. I've been working on a couple of other
projects which has slowed my progress just a bit, but when I get back on
the Khorns the pace will pick right up. I have been working on painting
some of the little pieces and I got the Santos Rosewood veneer and
boy is it beautiful. Pictures coming soon. I've got all the
pieces cut and it laid out perfectly. There will be the most wonderful
grain pattern on the
front of the bass bins, of course matching on both. These speakers are
going to look even nicer than the ones I did a couple of
years ago, I can't wait!
I have to say that Oakwood Veneer is just terrific to deal with. You can talk on the phone with the person who is actually picking your veneer. I worked with Jay on my order, and he took pictures of several different sheets and emailed them to me. Top quality veneer. I can't say enough about the quality and service.
I really think this 10mil paper backed veneer is going to work a lot better than the raw wood veneer I've been working with. I'll have to be careful about not getting glue on the face of the veneer because I can't do as much cleaning and sanding as I've been doing. The veneer is already sanded very smooth, and if I keep it clean, all I'll have to do is a finish sanding with very fine sandpaper.
I've still got some filling to do on the bass bins to prep for veneer, but I'm going to start the veneer very soon, probably Monday. Right now I'm figuring on an April 6th finish date.
3/25 update
Here's a couple of photos of the veneer. Imagine this on the front of
the bass bin!
Like liquid rosewood poured over the cabinets!
I don't know if I'm going to be able to sell these afterall. ; )
3/28 update
Multiple coats of wood filler and lots of sanding on the bass bins.
I'm spending a lot of time working on the backs of the bass bins that will only
be seen by the new owner before they are installed in the corners! But
I think it's going to be worth it.
Even the bottoms are being filled, sanded, and painted.
I found a couple of major voids in the plywood. I always check
all the panels to find things like this. Once I start to uncover a
void, I follow it until it ends and then fill it. This large void has
been there since the speakers were new. I wonder what affect that
had on sound quality? It was right in front of the woofer.
It's better now, and that's my overall goal, to make these better than new.
The stickers are carefully taped off so the black paint will go right up
to them.
3/31 update
I've made some progress, but things aren't going as quickly as I had hoped.
I've been working on a couple of other projects, plus my home-building business
has started to pick up again. We made 2 sales in the last three days!
This business drives me nuts. Feast or famine.
Anyway, I will get these done soon, but my time is more limited now than it was just a few days ago. I'm working just about every waking hour of every day. It's 12:40 a.m. as I write this.
I will not have these done by April 6th as I had hoped.
I've finally got the bass bins all filled, sanded, and primed. It was a lot of work doing this, and probably not worth the amount of time I put in. But the backs of these speakers will look very nice indeed.
I think I will put a coat of black paint on before I veneer them, and then a
final coat after they are veneered.
I've also removed all of the old cloth from the grill frames. There were
at least 41,000 staples holding that cloth on!
The next step is to work on the grills.
4/2 update
The paint is all on the bass bins now.
I've started working on the grills too.
And the first piece of veneer being glued up and ironed on.
Looking good! This is the piece that I'll rip up to make the
riser pieces out of.
4/3 update
I've been working on a set of grills. I'm showing these here for the
purpose of the photo-essay and showing the work that is required to do the grills,
but these are not the grills that will be going on the Khorns. I have a
perfect original Klipsch set that I'll be using on these ones. The ones
I'm building in the photos are for another customer.
I found a nice tool for working with the grill cloth to stretch it.
Here's the first one done.
Glueing up two panels.
I tape down the veneer so the glue doesn't get on the fronts.
The roller is a must to keep the amount of glue even and it results in a flatter
panel.
This new glue that I'm using seems to be working really well. It's
available from
www.joewoodworker.com
I've ripped down the small panel that I veneered last night into 1" strips for
the risers, and I'm glueing them together in a picture frame clamp to make
the risers.
2 panels all veneered, trimmed and ready for edgebanding.
Please click below to continue on page 3.