Panacea Engineering Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Taking a beautiful Saturday, with Spring like temperatures and making a day trip, to pick up Klipsch speakers. Yesterday was spent driving 600 plus miles, to pick up a set of K Horns, that need work, a FINE set of Cornwalls and three Heresy's, in great shape.....! It was great meeting other Klipsch enthusaist, seeing some great parts of the country i have not visited before and knowing that I am not the ONLY one with this passion or craziness, whichever meets your requirements, to justify it...! The prices were right, the planets were aligned and everything is back at the shop unscathed. With the cost of gas these days, it is getting very hard to align trips that can be productive and saving a bit on the logistics to boot. Shipping cost are geting outrageous, but the cost of gas is making it more difficult, to make these trips. I am afraid that the way the economy is going, it is definately becomming a buyers market, as more and more people are getting into financial straights and the speakers that they have cherrished for years, are some of the first things to go. The shame of it is; some people think that parting out the speakers will provide them more cash up front. I truly feel that a LOSS has occured, everytime I see a set of horns, crossovers or drivers that have been removed, from a perfectly good set of Klipsch speakers. In any event, I am accumilating quite a collection of Heritage speakers and when I finally retire in September, for the third time, I have something that I can devote my full time to (refinishing and rebuilding), that I truly love. It really has become a passion for the product and a want/need to see the older speakers refurbished, rather than stripped down for parts. When I see the parts on the bay, craiglist or the many other sources for them, it hurts to know that a SET of something has been dismantled for profit. That "matched" set of speakers will be gone forever....! Just some thoughts and it is time for me to get off of the soapbox, as the real value was the trip to pick up the intact speakers. Everytime I make one of these trips, I feel like I am saving a small part of the Klipsch heritage. W. C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I agree totally. i drove two hours to get my beat up La Scala's and then drove 14 hours(both ways) to get my Belles from Montreal. was worth it though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironsave Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I drove 1.5 hours to rescue my Heresy Is...... They had veneer chipping; but have since been "saved"..... [] I love them because they have battle scars; but still look presentable since the repair........ They are mine for life and I will cherish them..... Do not think I could sell them....... [:#] (Unless I was financially screwed ).... I empathize with those suffering with the economy...... [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I picked up my LaScalas during a trip from North Georgia to Wisconsin. They were in Northern Illinois. My plan is to never let them go, or at least leave them with other family. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jplatel5000 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 i recently "rescued" a pair of crusty old klipsch cornwalls from a friend of mine who wasnt using them for anything other than end tables, for a hundred bucks. Cabinets are beyond restoration unfortunately, but they still make sound (very well i might add), and they arent in the back of a dump truck! i (think) i uploaded a picture of one of them with one of my JBL c51s on top, im not very good with this forum layout, so hopefully everything is posted as planned Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironsave Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Cabinets are beyond restoration unfortunately, but they still make sound (very well i might add), and they arent in the back of a dump truck! You would be surprised....... Using a sander and filling the voids (first) with bondo will do wonders. Then you just recover with new veneer...... It is not super easy; but there are threads here showing this in detail step by step...... I believe Groomslakearea51 is one of our resident experts who has done this..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jplatel5000 Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 the bottoms, and bottom 10 inches on all sides have delaminated due to serious water damage(not the just the veneer mind you, but the plywood, at least half way into the board) ,im pretty sure id have to replace the bottoms, and cut all the delaminated plywood down to about the second ply , and fill the entire thing in with bondo. they are still structurally sound per se, and everything is dry on the inside, Would you recommend i do? basically, should i cutoff all the damaged plywood, and put in patches, or should i just remove the extent of the delamination with a box cutter, and use loads and loads of body filler to essentially rebuild the bottom half of the cabinets? i know this should probably be in a different thread, so sorry in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyeanderson Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I bought these Klipschorns last summer for $500, they were local so that’s why I went for them, as they were worth that much as parts. Well they were in standing water for a while and the Baltic sides were delaminated (but only one or 2 layers) up 4 to 7 inches and the fronts were also delaminated in several layers 2 or 3 inches in places. Yellow glue was poured in the voids (plies spread open with a wood shingle) and jammed in with a 7 inch long nail file and clamped with a ratchet strap or otherwise clamped. I wrote about the process on page 2 of "Damaged Goods - TSCM type enclosures for the wet Klipschorns" http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/142576.aspx I am not kidding myself on adding a lot of value as they are still just a pair of beater Klipschorn’s but they sound great for the $600 invested and I’ll add veneer when the right time comes. The fronts and sides are glued solid, squared, and filled (I used Minwax 2 part wood filler – aka - Bondo with white hardener) and look ok without further work but will really begin to shine when it get a new skirt put on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wwh Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 basically, should i cutoff all the damaged plywood, and put in patches, or should i just remove the extent of the delamination with a box cutter, and use loads and loads of body filler to essentially rebuild the bottom half of the cabinets? If the wood is still there (not eaten away by mold, for example), you could reglue the delaminated area as Gary suggested. I have used the same technique with the 'CPES' product from rotdoctor.com. It's essentially a very thin epoxy that soaks into wood almost like an oil, but then hardens. If you can clamp the laminations together (or apply a heavy weight), once the stuff cures the laminations will be fully rebonded. Just use a layer of wax paper against the wood so your weights or clamps don't bond. More information in this thread from the 'Updates and Modifications' forum: http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/p/74367/759558.aspx#759558 And there is a great wealth of veneering and refinishing information from Greg Roberts (greg928gts) and others here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyeanderson Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Hi Bill 2 F 672 and 2 F 673 were in a church on the north side of Boston and were banished to the basement. It also had a wet basement and these sat there for sometime until they decided to get rid of them. The person I got them from was working for someone else that retrieved them and got them as wages I believe. He was going to be moving to Brazil and sold them to me. The fronts were also delaminated a bit so more yellow glue and clamps to solidify the fronts. As far as the Cornwall’s go if they are veneer plywood I would attempt to re-glue them, If they are lumbercore plywood then its may be a bit more complex to fix. A good photo of lumbercore is the first photo of the following http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/p/94555/960851.aspx#960851 Tigerman did a great job of cleaning up his klipschorns in the above topic, these were not wet but much of the other info in the topic is great for someone to read that is restoring a pair of speakers. Getting back to 2 F672 and 673, I was going to fill and sand the fronts to make them ready for veneer. The problem is I just love the look of the fir-plywood front grain patterns and will most likely just leave them the way they are even if they are not perfect. Of course when I got them I didn’t know what the grain was as they were painted "church pew" white. It took the better part of a week with 80 grit paper and a sanding block to remove several layers. Fir is hard to sand without sanding out the soft light wood and leaving the darker grain standing proud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neo33 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 They are mine for life and I will cherish them..... Do not think I could sell them....... (Unless I was financially screwed ).... I empathize with those suffering with the economy...... Even if I am financially screwed, I will sell everything to save my Klipsch speakers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Drove 11-hrs round trip for a pair of Cornwall 1.5's....and donated and additional $60 to the toll-road enforcment agency of Illinois after running three of them (hell, in PA you pay when you get off not during the drive!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironsave Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Drove 11-hrs round trip for a pair of Cornwall 1.5's....and donated and additional $60 to the toll-road enforcment agency of Illinois after running three of them (hell, in PA you pay when you get off not during the drive!!) Yep.... Welcome to Illinois!!!!!! [:|] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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