Khorn veneering

[wwh]

Whew -- done finally!

Below are pictures of the veneered and finished left and right speakers,

respectively, with my "minimalist" system on top (Crown D-45 -- thanks for the

recommendation leok, and Slim Devices Squeezebox 3).

Thanks to all who provided excellent advice here. I ended up using stinky

contact cement for all veneer -- even the edge banding. To make the edge,

I just cut strips out of the 4x8 sheets I had -- it was actually easier than

I thought.

I sanded the veneer with 220 grit paper and applied 3 coats of natural color

Danish oil (I wanted a low-gloss finish).

I filled the peeled bottom edge of the one speaker with Bondo wood filler and

sanded smooth, and I found a couple of voids inside the face of the other

speaker (essentially, knotholes that had loosened beneath the original birch

veneer). I also excavated and filled these.

I did check each woofer back chamber for leaks, but they were remarkably well

sealed.

- Bill

[wwh]

And the right side...

[jorjen]

Awesome! Very, very nice WWH, very nice indeed! Job well done. You have got to be pleased with the way these turned out.

The contact cement is some pretty stinky stuff, but you did pick the better of the two methods IMHO. I have done several projects now using both methods and prefer contact cement for a more predictable result.

[PrestonTom]

Bill,

That looks absolutely fantastic!

The edge banding matches nicely and the color and tone are wonderful throughout. You should be very proud. I can only imagine the amount of time & effort (and headaches) that went into this project.

Could you tell us a bit more about where you got the material and any special tools etc that you found helpful.

Congratulations on a beautiful project,

-Tom

[3dzapper]

Great job Bill. You can be rightly proud of yourself!

Rick

[wwh]

Could you tell us a bit more about where you got the material and any special tools etc that you found helpful.

One of these speakers had been mold damaged on the bottom, so I

replaced the bottom panel and sealed the moldy parts of the remaining

wood (front face and sides) with "Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer" from

rotdoctor.com. This stuff soaks into wood like oil, but hardens.

However, when hard, it's pliable like wood (you can drill it, hammer on

it, etc.), and won't shatter like standard epoxy.

I filled the area on the front face where the veneer peeled with Bondo

"All-purpose Putty" from Lowe's. I also discovered a few deeper flaws

in the rotted area (2 to 3 plies into the plywood), and some loose

knotholes under the birch layer on the other speaker, so I dug them out

and filled with Bondo as well. Bondo works best if applied no thicker

than 1/4" at a time, but it sticks to itself, so for thicker patches it

just requires repeated application.

After curing (24 hours, but Bondo is usually ready to sand in about 30

minutes), I sanded the surface smooth using sandpaper wrapped around a

scrap of hardwood flooring (so, very smooth and straight). I had used

an orbital power sander, but the foam pad allowed the sandpaper to

conform to lumps in the surface rather than flattening them).

The veneer is flat-cut 10-mil paper backed veneer from tapeease.com. I

ordered 2 4x8 sheets because these veneer strips are already

"book-matched" and applied to the paper backer, so I didn't have to

align veneer edge-to-edge across the face. I did center the veneer

pattern on the speaker surfaces, though, for a nice symmetric look.

I cut the veneer using a standard utility knife with a new blade and a

metal straightedge. Cutting across the grain is easy, but when cutting

parallel to the grain, sometimes the grain will steer the blade where

you don't want it to go. In these cases, I found that many passes

across the cut (like 10-15), while pressing very lightly, worked best.

Each veneer piece was cut 1/8" to 1/4" too large in each dimension,

then trimmed flush with a utility knife after gluing.

I applied the veneer with Weldwood contact cement from Lowe's (the

"Original formula", not the gel or water-based kind). For the large

panels (tops and bass bin faces), I used 4 4-ft pieces of plastic water

pipe to keep the surfaces separated for alignment, then pressed the

cement together along the centerline and rolled the pipes apart,

working out air bubbles as the veneer adhered.

I was advised not to use a rubber "J" roller, so I just used a 4" wide

piece of wood with a sharp corner, slightly rounded, to press the

veneer down.

At first, I sanded the veneer with the sanding block mentioned above,

but found that this caused "shiny" spots where the veneer was harder,

such as at knots. So, for the veneer surface, a pliable sandpaper

substrate works best (a foam sanding block, or just a handheld piece of

sandpaper).

I applied 3 coats of Watco Danish oil (the "natural", untinted flavor).

After each oil application, I allowed the oil to sit for 20 minutes and

thoroughly wiped off the excess with paper towels. In some areas, this

can slightly lift the grain, so that splinters tear out tufts of paper

towel. So, to remove the splinters and paper I sanded lightly (very

lightly) between each oiling.

The single most useful tool, I think, was the Internet. Here are some informative links I found:

Leveneer veneer application instructions:

http://woodworkerssource.net/Contact_Us/links/veneerapplication.pdf

Another loudspeaker veneering project:

http://home.hiwaay.net/~rgs/ellis1801f/veneering.html

And the very informative articles from Greg Roberts:

http://www.dcchomes.com/WalnutKhorn.html (see links at bottom of page).

[RFP]

Wow, wwh, those are drop-dead gorgeous! You did absolutely great work, and I really admire how quickly you completed the project! I can't even find all my tools 'n stuff to do a project as quickly as you completely worked magic on your K-horns... Great work.

So... how do they sound?

All the best,

Rob

[wwh]

So... how do they sound?

Thanks for all the compliments.

This is the first chance I've had to listen to them in a proper room. I

first heard Khorns (in fact, these exact Khorns), at a neighbor's house

when I was about 8 years old. Of course, I found them impressive then

(and *big*), but didn't know about horn loading and such things. The

previous owner had them in diagonally opposite corners of an "L"-shaped

rec room, mainly used for parties but not set up for critical listening.

Then, when I bought them, I had to do the refinishing first due to the

mold, so I never set them up as a pair. I sent the networks to Bob

Crites to be refreshed while I was doing the veneer.

They sound better than I ever expected. My previous speakers were DIY

2-ways similar to the NHT Super One. They were fine in a smaller room,

but the Klipschorns sound much more controlled and detailed. I guess a

reasonable analogy would be this -- most of us know "flabby" or

"tubby" bass (vs. tight or well controlled). Compared to the

Klipschorns, my previous speakers have flabby mids and highs as well.

Now I'm slowly relistening to a file server full of music, and enjoying every minute...

- Bill

[RFP]

Bill...

Ohmygoodness! From "Super Ones" to Klipschorns in one step... you have pretty much gone to audio heaven in one giant step.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy... both your fantastic craftsmanship and the glorious sound.

All the best,

Rob