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Cornwall grille question - Cornwall Refurb Final Pics Project Complete


ryanm84

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I am refinishing my cw1. I used the old grilles as a template for new ones rather than the motor board. I believe the grilles to be original. However, when lining up the old and subsequently the newly routed grilles, the tweeter and sqawker holes partially obstruct the motor board cut outs. I plan on fixing this but realistically what kind of impact does this have on the sound? I assume minimal as this came from klipsch this way. Thanks.

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On a CW I the grill board should be an 1/8" smaller on each on the 4 sides than the recess they sit in. This makes room for the grill cloth to wrap around each of the 4 sides. And, yes, it's a good idea to make the grill openings larger than the driver opening on the motorboard. When I made mine into Cornscalas I opened up the grill board about 3/4" to 1" to allow the horns to do what they do best.

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I've got several pics of in progress work.

Grilles ready to be covered.

Veneer on one riser (testing trimming with a router) as I work out that process.

Backs off and sanded.

New type B xovers installed.

Motor board painted black.

If I could just find enough time to finish!!

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My Cornwalls had typical issues for a 30 year old set of speakers. The sounded great. As I said to my wife last night, they'll stir your drink for you.

But I couldn't let the looks not match the sound. This gives you an idea of the scars that came with the boxes.

photo3_zps5bce6d73.jpg.html%5Dphoto3_zps5bce6d73.jpg

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I decided to go with walnut veneer rather than cherry. I have built some other cherry pieces and even with a finish, cherry will get red over time. Sunlight has that effect.

I am using paper backed veneer and contact cement. I tested the bottom first to ensure that trimming with my router wouldn't tear out the veneer. Some non-backed veneer can do that when routed. Once down, this is not coming up.

photo6_zps238b1544.jpg

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Of course, the risers were also beat up a bit. I could have made a new set, bought some from Bob Crites, or even bought some thin walnut stock and refaced. I actually started veneering these first to work out the whole process. I trim with a flush trim bit, a very sharp razor knife, straightedge, and a fine grit sanding block.

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Both bottoms have been veneered and trimmed. I made a mistake when ordering my veneer. I accidentally ordered a 48x96" sheet. You need a couple more inches than 96 to finish Cornwalls, so I'll be waiting a couple days until my 120" sheet comes in. Oh well, I still have grilles to do.

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The grilles didn't look bad, but they had been dropped or something so that the board material itself was broken along the bottom corners and someone along the way had applied Velcro on top of the grille fabric so that every time they removed the grilles, the fabric wanted to pull off. If you are considering re-doing your grilles, do a search on this site to find the best set of instructions. My old grilles provided a template for proper sizing and routing of horn/woofer openings. Gotta paint em black on all sides to seal. This part was pretty easy. The next ones take some planning and patience.

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Projects of any size require planning. This is no exception. The picture below is my version of the fabric stretcher that several others have used here. It helped make sure that the lines on the fabric were straight and lined up where they needed to. This is my stretched fabric before setting my boards.

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I'll skip the pictorial, but applying a liberal amount of contact cement, pressing quite firmly on the board, and then applying clamp or weight to the board and fabric gives a good result. Folding over again applying some pressure (I used a hammer and small block of wood) to ensure the folded material is in contact with the cement on the board means you get a nice tight fold. I re-applied my Klipsch badges and these are ready to go. The corners are tight and fit wonderfully in their home.

photo5_zpsfd9904cc.jpg

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Because I'm waiting for my new sheet of walnut veneer, the only other thing that I could do was to install the new Bob Crites Type B crossovers. I have messed around with some Watco medium walnut oil. It was much darker than I wanted. So I grabbed a light oak oil from Watco too. I tried a couple different applications but find that if I apply the light oak first followed by the medium walnut, the finish is much closer to what I want. So everything will get oiled at the same time so that it all has a consistent hue. More to follow and a final wrap coming soon.

photo9_zpsf6efe72b.jpg

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I always get so excited when I see pictures from the DIY threads... because I have near zero skill sets to do this myself.

one question though, as a former silk screener... wont the tension on the grill frame be significant if you over stretch/tension the fabric causing some warp?

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