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Drey Chennells wrote:Yep I see it's raw I thought maybe a clearcoat for that natural color would be in it's future

I've strongly considered this based simply on the beauty of the wood. I think she would prefer a shade or two darker if I go that route, but not much more than that. We both agree the grain really looks nice.

I thought filler wouldn't take a stain though. How difficult is it to match the stuff to a color? Doesn't regular filler shrink somewhat?

Bas Gooiker wrote:if you want a "natural" finish, mix some of your sawdust with ordinary woodglue and use that to fill your cracks and screwholes. will never look perfect from real close but should be a close match.

I dispatched the sawdust when I cleaned up the shop last weekend.

Sanding sealer is the way to go for staining for a uniform finish with less grain pop, which helps when you have putty or filler products to consider. Plugs cut from the same birch, lined up on the grain and sanded down is my favorite filler for countersunk screw holes.

Radian wrote:

Bas Gooiker wrote:if you want a "natural" finish, mix some of your sawdust with ordinary woodglue and use that to fill your cracks and screwholes. will never look perfect from real close but should be a close match.

I dispatched the sawdust when I cleaned up the shop last weekend.

Just as well. You do NOT want sawdust in your crack. Trust me.

SirNickity wrote: You do NOT want sawdust in your crack. Trust me.

Sage advice.

Regarding finishes, it's going to be Minwax Golden Pecan Semi-gloss. The GF pitched-in for the make up, I'll pitch-in the time and fuss to put it on. Time will tell if that was an okay decision. I haven't put stain & clear on a wood working project since high school.

Also swept it....It's officially a THT

Radian wrote:Regarding finishes, it's going to be Minwax Golden Pecan Semi-gloss. The GF pitched-in for the make up, I'll pitch-in the time and fuss to put it on. Time will tell if that was an okay decision.

Well when you put the stain on and think the screw holes you'll fill (in some fashion) are too obvious/obtrusive you could then choose to either laminate or paint it. It's never too late to paint.

You'll have to get some pictures and technique of filling the holes since I know my GF would appreciate some finished wood and not just a black box.

Here's some tools that could help out a little during assembly. They are ideas contributed by other members over the last few years.

I don't make cabs often, but these items have made it easier to hit the quality mark when I do.

In the back is an oral irrigation syringe for injecting RTV sealant into the gaps between the driver gasket segments.

In front from left to right:

-8D finishing nails with the heads ground off and then rounded over. They slide right through the pilot holes if you happen to use screws. Placed in the corners of the cab, these act as alignment pins when it comes time to lay down the final side. Makes the process a clean, one-man job.

-2" Socket head cap screw with the threaded portion cut off and ground squarely. This is used to mark the locations for the driver mounting holes. Once the baffle is centered evenly around the driver gasket, flip the entire assembly over, then tip this with some wet ink and place this through the driver basket holes to mark a perfect spot to drill

-2" Socket head cap screw with the heads cut off and rounded over. Placed in the t-nuts ahead of time, they allow the driver to drop down and line up perfectly with the baffle to avoid possible cross-threading. Not all cab designs have the space required to use these.

Some folks like finishing. Personally, I can't stand the mess involved, exposure to the fumes, and the cure times. But here goes....

At the store I went to, this brand is sold in two quantities..enough to spackle a tooth, and enough to spackle an entire warehouse.

Directions say, "Apply liberally to the area."

That would've been fine if they'd actually filled the tube with a liberal amount to begin with.

It's like a bag of potato chips...half air, half product.

I had just enough to do this cab.

Charles Warwick wrote:I'll be curious to know how it performs since I think that's the first slim THT I've ever seen. It'd make a slick coffee table.

Bryce wrote:I'm definitely interested in some war volume SPL charts in whatever your listening room will be.

If it's any consolation, I ran a track from Blue Man Group through it that has some 25-20 Hz kettle drum action going on @ 15V.

Even with the cabinet placed haphazardly in the middle of the room, it had my pants flapping from 7 feet away.

10V @ 16Hz and the living room floor started rocking and rollin' like the Tacoma Narrows.

Nice looking build!

What can I say....me and stain don't get along. Normally I take the advise of the folks here...but I called an audible mid-play, and this time it'll cost me $13 and my pride.

Instead of sanding sealer before the stain, I followed Minwax's instructions to use their "wood conditioner" instead. Sorry Drey. Things were looking very promising when I applied the stain initially. But it didn't take long for the nice Golden Pecan to turn into an angry case of rosacea. 3 minutes and the finish was beyond recovery. My dwell time was too long. I didn't wipe it quickly enough.

The instructions should read, "Working in sections, apply the wood conditioner, now while the wood is still damp apply the stain, count to 10 (no seriously, 10 seconds fool), then wipe it all off."

Entire books have been written on the chemistry and technique of wood finishing. F*#K that.

So take heed....if you haven't read them, or happen to know finishing by trade, stick to paint.


Plan "B" is for black. Enough farting around in the garage. I don't have the patience to experiment and get high on fumes. I'm tired of looking at this thing instead of listening to it.

Patience, Grasshopper, patience.

The mess... The only part that came out even half-way decent, is the access panel.

When I look at it, I know the Matrix is telling my mind that this job is a train wreck. But I know deep down, there's still a kick ass subwoofer in there.

Radian wrote:What can I say....me and stain don't get along. Normally I take the advise of the folks here...but I called an audible mid-play, and this time it'll cost me $13 and my pride.

You wouldn't be the first.. A good stain is difficult. If you decide to go for another round, of course you could rough sand it all out, start over. Or, finish sand it with say 220, light sealer coat and use a dark stain. The most consistent stain (least grain pop) you can get is by mixing your stain into sealer, no more than 30% stain (similar to but better than minwax polyshades). You can spray this mix as well.