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Old KG1.5s, new look


AndreG.

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Fellow Forum Memnbers,

 

in another thread i mentioned my long-term project of refurbishing a pair of Heresy Es; this one is more of short term project.

A few months ago i got my pair KG1.5 back from my sister. They are the first speakers i bought from my own money, back in ´94. in 2001 they were replaced by RF3s and my sister got, moveed with them to France, came back and soon they went to a garage.

Now i got them back because She does not have the space to keep them (having moved again.). Now i use them as my computer speakers, hoked them up to Yamaha A-S201, and they still play just as great as they did the first time i heard them!

But all this moving and finaly storage in a garage have not been kind on the cabinets. The´re scratched and in places the paint chiped off the wood. So i started to strip them, i plan to just oil and wax them.

I know, as far as natural wood goes, these came in oak and walnut. Maybe there´s someone here who, from the attached pictures, can tell me what kind of verneer this is?

 

Stay healthy, Andre

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KG's commonly came in a lacquer or poly coated medium oak, looking at the pics after sanding it looks like they could be a coated & not oiled finish.  either way if you sand them down they should be ok to use oil or restain & coat with a polyurethane for added protection over oil.  also be careful sanding, the veneer is pretty thin.  

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Todays progress, still on cabinet one:

IMG_20200713_183144331.thumb.jpg.7e14a6e2cacce63eaca969bec3cb28fd.jpgIMG_20200713_183157303.thumb.jpg.c199cb1b761ca5b0603aa497ff093903.jpg

 

IMG_20200713_183221755.thumb.jpg.19694888b61f325b07f66f933942a1bb.jpg

 

And this is why i think they got a black paintjob before:

 

IMG_20200713_185457650.thumb.jpg.a5809ab0a281376cc880b854f24bbe2f.jpg

 

IMG_20200713_185440799.thumb.jpg.103c75615327e07f8c3698c2911a9320.jpg

 

This groove/ grap is a bit more pronounced on the other cabinet. I plan to collect sanding dust from the bottom wood, mix with wood-adhesive and fill those gaps, than sand smooth.

Andre

 

 

Edited by AndreG.
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I forgot! What i did until now:

 

- Put a rag onto the surface i wanted to strip and soaked with acetone. Waited a few minutes until the paintcoat started to disolve.

- Used a scraper to get rid of most of the disolved paint and used another rag to wipe off the rest of the paint.

- Dabed fine steel-wool in aceton and scrubbed the veneer to get into the groves of the wood and wiping up with acetone and a rag immediately afterwards.

- After all of the acetone dissolved, i gently sanded the surface, using sandpaper with 180 grit. Wiped the dust of with a wide brush, wiped with a damp cloth and used an old toothbrush    to clean the grooves of the wood.

 

Done, so far.

Andre

 

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I´m in the process of filling the gaps between verneer-halves with dust from sanding, mixed with wood-glue. After sanding i will take some pictures.

After stripping paint, panels of the verneer are ofcourse show some patches, were the paint seeped deeper into the wood. I hope to lessen the effect through sanding, the rest by using an oil of darker hue.

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just an FYI on the sawdust & wood glue thing, wood glue wont take stain or darker oil, it will fill the gap but will likely be a different color than the rest of the speaker if you use stain or tinted oil.    

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  • 4 weeks later...

They are done! The finish is not perfect, of course there would be spots where the black paint got too deep into the verneer to remove. There also blemishes on each speaker i couldn´t remove completely, one has a "hot coffee-cup"-stain still faintly visible and the other what looks like two dark scratches, although the surface is smooth. there are fine gapps between verneer panels, where two were used. Maybe i´ll fill those later with a repair-wax.

After finall sanding i used a wood regenerator fluid, which brought vibrance back to the colors and grain. Finaly i did two coats of wax and after drying, polished with a brush.

 

All in all i´m pleased with the way the KGs turned out. I´ve learned a thing or two, which i will put to good use when i start working on my Heresy E´s.

 

André

 

 

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Looks good and the KG's are great for the size, just add a little sub to reach full potential.

 

Wax is a great looking finish with minor upkeep.

 

To fill those little seams and gaps epoxy does the trick (before waxing of course), just sand after application

 

Enjoy those great looking speakers.

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Compared to the black factory-paintjob it´s 100% better. Yes, they sound great, used to use a sub before but don´t have the space now. I wish i knew if there was a way to upgrade, for example with titanium tweeters. Probably could get some improvement through recapping...

 

Next will be some small risers to lift them up about ten centimeters from my desk. I already found all the wooden parts ineed on amazon.

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15 minutes ago, AndreG. said:

Compared to the black factory-paintjob it´s 100% better. Yes, they sound great, used to use a sub before but don´t have the space now. I wish i knew if there was a way to upgrade, for example with titanium tweeters. Probably could get some improvement through recapping...

 

Next will be some small risers to lift them up about ten centimeters from my desk. I already found all the wooden parts ineed on amazon.

Yes, Crites has the Ti tweets for the KG1's, same tweet as for most of the KG series.  I had him upgrade the X/O's on one pair of mine to compare to the un-restored pair.  Not a night & day difference but the Ti tweets absolutely smoothed them out.  Really a fun little speaker for their size & age.

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Yes, i still thank the guy who took me to that HiFi-Dealer in Bremen. These were the first speakers i got from my own money, so they are kind of special to me. They seem to be rated good by a great many people, even now a days.

I think i´ll mail Bob Crites these days and ask for his recommendations.

 

André

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

New sub-project. This is some of the wood for the risers i will make. They´ll be only around 10cm high, but it´s enough to raise the 1.5s to roughly ear-level on my computer desk. Parts on the left already received some oil.

 

IMG_20200912_182153.thumb.jpg.6d9761db8a489e639d1e14326cbf6cd5.jpg

Edited by AndreG.
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  • 3 weeks later...

Apart from doing the other riser, i´ve got to fing the right bolts that will fit the mounts on the bottom of the KGs. This could be a challenge, since they are non-metric. I have to see if any local DIY-market carries bolts that i could use...

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