jdplant Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 (edited) So my first post here. I've always been interested in vintage electronics but never had money or opportunity to grab anything good. I finally got lucky and snatched up a pair of one owner, amazing condition Cornwall I from craigslist as soon as they went up for $800. I have never done anything like this and have never stained or worked with wood at all. It was a super fun project! A few questions for you all. What is the best way to clean off the woofers? They have some dust and stuff on them but not sure the safest way to clean them. Also, I've read a lot of threads on replacing grill cloth. I have some OEM black cloth that I am going to use but am afraid to screw it up since that 3M 77 stuff pretty much bonds immediately. Any tips on gluing the grill cloth? They were raw birch with cane grills. The previous owner had rubbed oil on them about 30 years ago but they were really yellow/tan in color when I picked them up. The grills have seen better days but otherwise the speakers are in perfect working order. Edited January 20, 2018 by jdplant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdplant Posted January 20, 2018 Author Share Posted January 20, 2018 So the first order of business for me was to refinish them. I read a lot of folks saying not to stain the raw birch but I wanted a darker color and needed these speakers to be "wife friendly" so I went with dark walnut minwax and satin poly. I don't have any sanded pics but I sanded as much as possible while trying not to go through the top layer of birch. Pics of the guts on the table and right after the first coat of poly. I'm really happy with the way the stained birch came out! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdplant Posted January 20, 2018 Author Share Posted January 20, 2018 I also sanded and re-sprayed the motorboards with flat black. I have to say the worst part of this project was removing the sticky crap from the factor velcro! I ended up going with the strong stuff (3M adhesive remover). Goo gone and the like wouldn't make a dent in that stuff. Per Bob Crites' recommendation I also replaced the midrange horn gaskets. The old ones were brittle and kinda came apart when I removed them. I also re-capped the crossovers but for some reason didn't take a picture of that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdplant Posted January 20, 2018 Author Share Posted January 20, 2018 (edited) Here they are all done with sanding and painting. Edited January 20, 2018 by jdplant 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdplant Posted January 20, 2018 Author Share Posted January 20, 2018 I painted the backs flat black but left the original tags alone. The previous owner got a lot of oil on them so they are discolored and the writing on one of them is hard to read. I still wanted to leave them alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 Nice work. Those look great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cincymat Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 Dean's right, you did a nice job refinishing these. Enjoy! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mopardave Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 Those look fantastic. What was the stain you used? Nice color. Did you have to remove any clear coat? What grades of sand paper did you use? Sorry for all the questions as i would like to change color on my home brew CW's which i stained red mohagany when i built them. They have 3 coats of clear also. I like your color much better and would look great with the tweed grill covering Crites sells. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdplant Posted January 20, 2018 Author Share Posted January 20, 2018 Thanks all. There wasn't any coating on the speakers before, just some coloring from the oil he rubbed on them. I used a palm sander and used I think 150 grit down to what looked like bare wood. Then I stained twice using Minwax Dark Walnut (leaving it on as long as possible each time). Then 1 coat satin poly, sanded with 350 grit (just using a sanding block), another coat of poly and sanded with 400 grit. I actually did 4+ total coats of poly because I either found runs or bubbles that were driving me crazy. Finally thinned the poly with a little mineral spirits and the final coat when on butter smooth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave A Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 I like stained Birch and those look very nice. Between stain and Poly when I did a pair with Golden Oak stain they just glowed and when I build some this is what I will do then to. One other thing I do which may be heresy in some peoples eyes is to take a file and knock off a bit of that sharp corner Klipsch leaves everywhere. It seems to help considerably towards avoiding top ply chipping from being moved and dinged. Now I only do this on Birch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mopardave Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 what did you use to apply the poly? First 1 or 2 coats poly i used a foam brush, but i think this may introduce bubbles if your not careful. Last few coats i used poly from a spray can. From the spray can it may be simular to you thinning yours out with mineral spirits as it goes on very nice and smooth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjptkd Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 Wow those turned out very nice, really like the pattern in the wood grain too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizRotus Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 19 hours ago, jdplant said: What is the best way to clean off the woofers? When I asked a similar question, this forum’s @djk recommended a Kiwi shoe care product. It worked perfectly to return the faded grey paper cones to black. I’ll locate the old post and attach photos. Welcome. Your speakers look great. Here is the old thread: I Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJIann Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 Beautiful! Nice work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Looks good! Any luck with cleaning up the cane grills or are you going with the black fabric? I'd really try to save that cane if it isn't too far gone. Mojo tone has some fabrics: http://www.mojotone.com/Pickups_x?search=cane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdplant Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 9 hours ago, muel said: Looks good! Any luck with cleaning up the cane grills or are you going with the black fabric? I'd really try to save that cane if it isn't too far gone. Mojo tone has some fabrics: http://www.mojotone.com/Pickups_x?search=cane Thanks. I already pulled the cane grill off the frames:) It is probably in good enough condition to clean up and use again but I just don't care for the style. I'll keep it for now but probably will just end up selling it if someone wants it. I went with the black fabric from Bob Crites. I really really like the way it looks but man it is hard to work with. I got one looking perfect but the other I'll probably re-do again at some point in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 google "cleaning cane" for more info but saving it for someone who cares is a great idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mopardave Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 very nice work. again, curious to how you applied the stain and poly? Brush or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdplant Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 2 hours ago, mopardave said: very nice work. again, curious to how you applied the stain and poly? Brush or something else? I just used rags for the stain. For the poly I used a foam brush. At 98 cents each it was a lot easier than dealing with cleaning bristle brushes:) The foam does add lots of little bubbles but I found as long as the poly didn't dry too fast the bubbles went away. Adding a little mineral spirits really helped with that part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptorman Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Nice work, that grain really pops now. Have you shown any updated pics to the previous owner? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.