Rudy81 Posted March 28, 2019 Share Posted March 28, 2019 Question for you cabinet experts. When I visited the Hope plant during a Klipsch pilgrimage, I noticed the folks painting the plywood cabs with black lacquer just sprayed the lacquer and the cabinets were done after the lacquer application. Nice smooth finish. They went from raw to smooth finish in one step. I am working on some baltic birch cabinets and have experienced the grain raising on baltic birch when spraying lacquer....thus requiring a sanding step before I get a nice finish. Does anyone know what must be done to prevent the plywood grain from raising like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted March 28, 2019 Share Posted March 28, 2019 Sanding Sealer, but then one coat of lacquer only. Lacquer can crack on top of it. Imagine there are primers out there now that might be translucent. There are "conditioners" that can be used prior to stain to prevent splotchiness. I never used lacquer on raw wood myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted March 29, 2019 Author Share Posted March 29, 2019 I am aware of the conditioners for stain, but am trying to research the lacquer deal. I have always shot one pass with lacquer, and then had to sand. Subsequent lacquer layers were fine. I'm lazy and trying to avoid the sanding phase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
314carpenter Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 @Rudy81 The answer to your specific question is to pre-raise the grain before you apply finish to your wood cabinets. I usually pre-raise the grain using distilled water before final sanding of the raw wood. The grain will only raise once therefore eliminating the need for sanding out the applied finish, outside of those pesky few grains that always seem to hide out till later. If you are worried about those few grains, then you can go to the sealers and conditioners. I like to use shellac as my sealer. Shellac can be used in between any stage. It is completely compatible with anything and in between anything. As in anything painting or staining, prep is just as important as finish. Most just skip these IMHO important steps. A lot of misinformation out there, and also a great many varying methods that can also work. Find the one that works best for you and stick with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted March 29, 2019 Author Share Posted March 29, 2019 17 minutes ago, 314carpenter said: @Rudy81 The answer to your specific question is to pre-raise the grain before you apply finish to your wood cabinets. I usually pre-raise the grain using distilled water before final sanding of the raw wood. The grain will only raise once therefore eliminating the need for sanding out the applied finish, outside of those pesky few grains that always seem to hide out till later. If you are worried about those few grains, then you can go to the sealers and conditioners. I like to use shellac as my sealer. Shellac can be used in between any stage. It is completely compatible with anything and in between anything. As in anything painting or staining, prep is just as important as finish. Most just skip these IMHO important steps. A lot of misinformation out there, and also a great many varying methods that can also work. Find the one that works best for you and stick with that. Outstanding! Thank you very much. Makes sense. I like your technique. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awsjr Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 On 3/28/2019 at 4:47 PM, Rudy81 said: Question for you cabinet experts. When I visited the Hope plant during a Klipsch pilgrimage, I noticed the folks painting the plywood cabs with black lacquer just sprayed the lacquer and the cabinets were done after the lacquer application. Nice smooth finish. They went from raw to smooth finish in one step. I am working on some baltic birch cabinets and have experienced the grain raising on baltic birch when spraying lacquer....thus requiring a sanding step before I get a nice finish. Does anyone know what must be done to prevent the plywood grain from raising like that? the attached method is for musical instruments but is the best method (IMO) for any lacquer finish.. a lot of work but durable and beautiful... I've done this to acoustic guitars, cajons and my speaker cabinets... the speaker front in baltic birch with a "fender sunburst" lacquer finish using mahogany brown, amber yellow and cherry red... lacquer_finishing.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted April 1, 2019 Author Share Posted April 1, 2019 Many thanks! I just finished my first cabinet and hope to do some listening tests today. If all goes well, I will build 2 more the center and right channel. I got very nice response from 20hz to 450hz. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windashine Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 I've been working on a homemade Cornwall cabinet … o O (for what seems like months...) it's all Baltic birch, and I was careful to watch the glue dry on the exterior corners... however, the inside detail rival's my trial and error experience with a '52 pickup I restored... nevertheless... glue squeezed out on all the seams… so I caulked everything.... then brushed on two coat's of Bullseye white primer in the interior... sanding with 150 grit after each coat dried... keeping the outside clean and dry raw birch.... bought a quart can of Home Depot Flat Black paint.... brushed on another two coat's (note, the motorboard is not attached) so each time, after it dried, I'd check that it still fit's... and sand some more with some 180 grit... then it appeared to me, the Flat black looked too glossy, and strange, so I put on two coat's of Behr premium ultra latex house paint I had in the garage.... I like the way it cover's... it looks like olive green, but it's suppose to be dark brown... On the exterior of my raw cornwall, I used a foam brush, and with the speaker on the patio table, with a step ladder, I loaded up one coat of a Varathane sunbleached weathered stain with "nano" pigments, and then wiped in even with an old t-shirt... (the can instruction's said I didn't need to apply a sealer first - so I was glad to raise a can of Dos Equis to this experiment) then after 2 hour's, applied a coat of Satin water based polyurethane … sanded lightly with some 180 grit after it dried, wiped clean, and applied another coat (so far, I have used half of an 8 oz can) … and if it warm's up on my day off, I'm going for two more coats of poly today... I was thinking about a aerosol can of the same stuff for a 5th and 6th coat later this afternoon, if it warm's up outside. One of these year's, I might try lacquer, but I'm a fan of water based applications with an easy clean... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted April 19, 2019 Author Share Posted April 19, 2019 Things worked out very well. I sprayed the cabs with lacquer thinner, which raised the grain. Sanded, which was lots of fun, and painted with the black lacquer. Now I just need to wetsand with 1000 grit and polish. Should turn out nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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