BillFitzmaurice.info

The business of the day is finishing. Sanding out the sealer put on yesterday.

I am wet sanding these, so I need paint thinner for the wet part, gloves (paint thinner is not as bad as other solvents, but still not good - and it would not get the PL Premium off of my hands) and lots of paper towels.

I just used our regular pad sander paper, which is pretty course -120 grit, but for this part of the finish, I am not as concerned about the fine scratches this paper leaves behind as any of the imperfections left behind after sanding. Courser paper means faster sanding through the first steps.

I used a flat decently thick block of wood as a backer for the paper. Guess how I made sure my wood block was flat and square - edge sander, such a useful tool! Sanding with the flat block gets everything flat on boxes. This is fantastic for stuff sticking up above the level of the panel, but when there is a dig or gouge, ugh, trouble. I have used wood putty on stuff even after it has been sealed when I found a low spot or unseen crack or hole with decent success.

The clear coat is not very helpful in showing defects in the finish or substrate.

Use lots of paper towels to wipe up the slurry you create wet sanding and regularly wipe off your paper with the towels to keep it from clogging up. Switch out the paper towels regularly. When done sanding, wipe off the cabinet with clean dry towels.

After spraying a second coat of sealer on, I got lunch and went by the paint store. Found out they could tint the sanding sealer I use. What a discovery! Got a gallon of black sealer and a gallon of the gloss black topcoat.

Wish I would have started with the tinted sealer - it shows all the imperfections so much better. Well maybe after the first coat of clear to see how it looked

Here is what they look like with a coat of the black sealer.

Lookin' really nice.

could you do a size reference standing next to them? I may want to make them for a home music studio, but they look hella big! btw I envy your shop and access to nice tools!

They are 4 feet tall and 15" X 15" - and I can pick them up pretty easily. My old speakers are big, but I am going to refinish them too. The empty cabinets are ~ 150 pounds and awkward.

publicIdaho wrote:The empty cabinets are ~ 150 pounds and awkward.

I assume that refers to your old speakers.

publicIdaho wrote:
<snip>
I love the 1" round over on those old timers.<snip>

Now to get them out of the lower level of the house - I am betting they weigh ~ 200 lbs. each. Maybe I can get the 4-wheeler around the back with the trailer on it...

publicIdaho wrote: My old speakers are big, but I am going to refinish them too. The empty cabinets are ~ 150 pounds and awkward.

Haha, sounds like thy're losing weight! LOL

Tom Smit wrote:

publicIdaho wrote:
<snip>
I love the 1" round over on those old timers.<snip>

Now to get them out of the lower level of the house - I am betting they weigh ~ 200 lbs. each. Maybe I can get the 4-wheeler around the back with the trailer on it...

publicIdaho wrote: My old speakers are big, but I am going to refinish them too. The empty cabinets are ~ 150 pounds and awkward.

Haha, sounds like thy're losing weight! LOL

They did - I took the drivers out Actually, I weighed the drivers and they added up to about 22 pounds for each speaker cabinet.

They feel like they weight over 200 pounds when trying to move them. I put a bathroom scale on the carpet and weighed a driverless cabinet; could not get it to balance so I had a hand on the cabinet. The scale said 140+ as best I could tell.

I was looking at them a little closer - they have a 2" thick MDF front baffle - the overkill master. Switching between the speakers today, the Davids were so nice, just pick them up and set them on the work table. The old ones were lean over on low table, walk around, pick up the bottom and swing around.

After getting the 4-wheeler and trailer around to the back of the house to pick up the old speakers, it was off to the shop for more finishing.

If there is interest in my attempt to revive Lacquered MDF that got wet and really swelled, I will detail my attempt on the old speakers too.

As for the Davids, the black sealer really showed up the imperfections and I decided to power sand.

The air sander we have has a pretty stiff pad, so it sands pretty flat. I still used lots of paint thinner and wet sanded and regularly wiped my wet paper off with paper towels.

Wiping the wet sandpaper of keeps it from getting clogged and really extends the life of the paper. I only switched paper once on both cabinets, and that was because the paint thinner eventually got to the adhesive backing on the sandpaper.

Here is a good shot to show how a low spot on the panel was sanded out. The low spot was from a missed dig from the belt sander.

It all looks the same, but for what it is worth, here is how I left them after another coat of black sealer.

I mixed in about 50% regular clear with my black so it would go farther. In the spots like the one shown above, I hit the bare spot a little first, gave it a little time to dry a bit before going back and doing the whole cabinet.

They look pretty good, but the old speakers were across the shop a bit and even all goofed up, that high gloss black that remained was so much more intense. This gets me hopeful for what the Davids are going to look like when the gloss black goes on!

It is so cold here, I want to let the finish sit overnight before working on it again.

I think in the tips and tricks sub forum you should post a detailed thread on getting that gloss!

Finishing the cabinets = a few minutes of spraying and hours of sanding. Not much to show for progress.

I did move my old speakers to the shop and worked them over quite a bit. Still debating on starting a thread on my attempts on that repair. I have taken a few pictures though in case I do.

Got the old dogs up on carts so that means they are ready to hit the spray room.

Speaking of old dogs - the old timers got to meet the new dogs so to speak - not much butt sniffing going on though...

Can't wait to do a little DIY show down at the homestead.

I did manage to get a coat of gloss topcoat on the Davids yesterday. Did not fill in the scratches from my course paper that I have been sanding with - shows me how much I am having to thin my lacquer to spray it in this cold. This was expected. Switching to finer paper from this point forward.

We have discovered a foam sanding block that we really like for sanding down our sealer.

The one shown has abrasive around 4 sides and is pretty stiff. It is great for the flat surfaces. We also have a thinner type that only has the abrasive on one side and is good for the rounded corners.

Again, when wet sanding, use a paper towel to wipe off your sanding blocks to really extend the life of your paper.

I also found that when the stiff foam block got to where it was wore out and not sanding much any more, I could wrap a piece of regular sandpaper around it and get the advantage to the stiff block that has just a little give. With the slight give, it allows you to blend things in better where a flat hard block makes you have to sand everything totally flat, which makes for lots of work (and lots of coats.)

Hopefully more updates tomorrow - it is hard to motivate myself to go out and work in the spray room at 40°F - with the fan blowing on top of it. But my son is flying in tomorrow night, so the excitement can spread!