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Heresy I cabinet repair


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Sorry didn’t specify, my damage is the entire bottom of the cabinets, where the veneer has warped and the whole sheet would have to be replaced. Also, on one cabinet there’s slight separation of the wood. The dinged corners are the least of the concern. Will get pictures up shortly. These sat on a soaked carpet. 

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On 6/23/2020 at 3:27 PM, Desron65 said:

I didn’t pay anything for them but a military buddy deployed and asked me to sell them, part them out, or buy them. I would have fit them in somewhere but repairs are way beyond my skills. 

yes -----you're going to need cabinet repair -------basicaly new panels -

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On 6/23/2020 at 3:27 PM, Desron65 said:

I didn’t pay anything for them but a military buddy deployed and asked me to sell them, part them out, or buy them. I would have fit them in somewhere but repairs are way beyond my skills. 

pm sent -

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  • 2 weeks later...

I did complete resurfacing to a pair with this same damage and I can tell you right now that the repair is much more extensive than a simple patch or it will look worse than if you just left it alone. I went for the strongest most durable repair possible and I have tried basically all wood putties, Bondo, glued wood pieces in place of chiseled and ground out notches, I found the best to be using crazy glue with backing soda built up over the damaged area that has been ground down to a stable base . Meaning any flakes or loose materials need to be removed to have a non affected base that has all the original properties of the original wood used. There is no short cut, you will need to completely veneer the entire speaker to avoid making it look like it has been repaired. Anything short of this will simply draw more attention to the repair and if you're going to spend my time doing this you might as well do it right the first time.large.20190525_171956.jpg.a3a8c2dc33a8e9fb919ea99f70f13d8e.jpglarge.158814205_heresy(6).jpg.6e4e27333e0d47f4d423aa5947b2f172.jpg

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 I used a peanut grinder along that entire edge on all 4 sides and down the back edge where water ran repeatedly, probably from a wife who had plants on top of the cabinets before they were put in the garage where or basement until it flooded and really took a toll on the cabinets. They didn't appear to be that bad until I decided to black Lacquer them and after pealing off the veneer using just my hands I knew I had to get the perfectly level and flat across the entire surface on each side. I placed a large framing square on the side and was checking for square to the top and saw that the wood was cupped about 3/8” from top edge to bottom. The square was touching the top seam and bottom seam but had 3/16” gap in the center of the front side edge and when I placed it corner to corner (top front to bottom back on the side piece) I had 3/8” gap in the very center of both sides. The back edge only had 1/8” gap since the back edge was swollen similar to the top and bottom. The real issue was the bottom 2 inches or so was swollen out the most. The center of course had no swelling, as I worked on flatting the sides I also built up the center a bit. On d I was done with the sides I started on the bottom and I got it pretty good all the way around and Eve had a number of layers of black sanded smooth. But I noticed when I sanded along the back bottom edge I heard a different sound. I tapped on the wood and it sounded hollow. Now I wAs nearly done sanding and was ready to start clear coating, which means I was only a few days from completing. I took a screwdriver and poked it around that area that had the hollow sound. I finally drove the screwdriver into the surface with a hammer ready to fill the void with wood putty. After I was done chasing the bad wood and gouging it out as I went along the path. I had a 3/8” deep gorge that was 2 to 2.5” wide across the back edge and halfway up one side where it tapered off and no more bad wood was coming out. I took pictures of it. That entire area had to have a piece cut perfectly to fit into that gouged out area. It took a day just to fit those pieces in and refinish that surface just to end up stripping the entire speaker and started over from square 1.  That cost $100 and 2 more weeks work to get it back to where I was before. Each restart cost $100 in paint and supplies. I have it figured that a speaker this size will cost a minimum (if all goes perfect and it has never yet) of $125 to mirror finish black lawyer 1 speaker cabinet. With no less than 150 hours of labor. That set ended up with 500 hours labor because I used the original cabinets. Had I fabbed my own (which I considered a million times in my head and decided to keep them original) I could have done it in half the time and half the paint and supplies, but they would no longer be Klipsch Heresy's. 

  Particle board or similar wood is very difficult to seal once it's been loosened up by dents or water. The fibers swell when paint hits it where the damage is. It goes in a vicious circle chasing the swelled area until you finally get rid of it, that's whatf355195736.jpg.c7e3e6ab24ea24b46d447b0edc457c6f.jpg you see in that shot and this is what I had to do to get everything back under control, after it already had 25 coats of black on it. It took about 15 tubes of crazy glue added drop by drop with baking soda tossed on top of the drops to freeze it in place. After a few edges you get the hang of it and a seam can be done in an hour or so with perfect results, that edge is stronger than the wood and that seam is now 1 solid piece, there is no line on the edges of these speakers. Then the bottom issue popped up.

 That's why I say do it right the first time and grind all bad spots all the way down to solid wood before you do anything. I learned the hard way that you can't just cover it up. Bondo will break loose with your fingers if you try hard enough, you'll never get the crazy glue to come off, it soaks into the wood and it actually smokes as it does! You can put some anchors in the area to help his the Bondo in place, a few finishing nails with the heads sticking out a bit will offer more reliable grabbing but Bondo isn't very strong and cracks easily when it's over 1/8” thick, it also doesn't always set properly, it's difficult to keep in place and droops after it's applied and gets everywhere. I  found it very hard to work with no matter what I did I only have about 30 seconds of work time and found myself scraping it back off with a knife because it won't sand at all. I used a special file that looks like a cheese grater and I was still hard to work with.large.Image4.jpg.7f093a00984f946500cf4068a091c1e0.jpg

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