Basic questions about veneering

[JonW]

I’m about to start building some stereo speakers out of Baltic birch ply. I’ll probably want to veneer them, maybe a basic cherry or something to start. Two edges of the speaker cabinet will be a 3/4" rounded over, so I’ll want to wrap the veneer around that. I saw somewhere that I should go for “10 mm NBL” veneer and avoid paperback or 2 ply veneers (because of the curve). I’ve never veneered anything before, so I have some basic questions…

-Where do you guys like to buy your veneer from?
-What glue do you use?
-What do you use for tools- brush, scaper/smoother, etc?
-Do you fine sand the veneer before finishing it? What grit? By hand, presumably?
-Any recommendations for a finish?
-Anything else I should know?

Thanks!

-Jon

[kwgeorge]

Well the first thing I would do is to change your substrate from plywood to MDF as you will get better performance out of your speakers. As to suppliers I get my veneer from various sources. You can find a lot on ebay as well as here;

http://www.joewoodworker.com/catalog...t.php?cPath=37

As far as glue I find I get really good results from Titebond Coldpress. As to the tools that varies greatly on the teqnique used. I do very little sanding on my veneer work and instead mostly use hand scrapers.

For a project like you are attempting I think I would consider some Kraft Paper backed veneer from a source like Rockler and then consider using contact cement with that. The site I listed above will give you a ton of information on veneering.

[drumpriest]

-I've gotten my veneers from Rockler and Woodcraft in bundles, thus far.
-titebond coldpress
-no real special tools. I use a glue roller, but that's about all.
-Yes, I sand the veneer with 220 lightly with sander, then 320 by hand. I also sometimes use scrapers, when I have a fine tuned one handy.
-Arm-R-Seal is a great finishing product, regardless of veneer or solid wood.

I have done the bulk of my veneering with a vacumm press, but I agree with George, this might be a good project for contact cement veneering.

[JimD]

Jon,

I built my last set of speakers from 1/4 plywood glued to 1/2 BB plywood - both scraps from other projects. I found a sheet of 1/4 oak on the HD that had walnut on the back. There were a couple small flaws in the walnut that I had to work around but it was a pretty cheap way to get walnut veneer. I am currently working on a bedroom set for my daughter. The backside of the luan plywood I am using for backs and drawer bottoms again has flaws but also has some nice curly grain in some non-domestic wood I do not recognize. It is light in color and coordinates pretty well with maple. You might want to look around at the local home center and see what they used for back veneer on their plywood.

I have also purchased both paper backed and non backed veneer and used it. I do not have a vacumn press and my projects have been small enough that I just cut a couple pieces of scrap MDF, plywood, or particle board to sandwich the veneer and substrate and put a bunch of c-clamps on it. I used yellow glue. This is messy but has worked fine. I did the same thing glueing the 1/4 ply to the BB ply.

I had some pieces of curly maple left over from some jewelry boxes. The pieces were a strong 1/8 thick, left over from ripping 3/4 boards to 1/2 inch thickness. I laminated them to plain maple to make a couple more jewelry boxes using the same technique.

My way of doing the edges is to biscuit solid wood all around the panels of veneered plywood. In the case of the most recent speakers, it was walnut. I cut a bunch of strips 3/4 by 3/4 and then picture framed the front and back pieces and added pieces to the corners of the box that goes in-between. I find it useful to trim to final size after glueing on these pieces so you do not have to mess with perfect alignment during glueup. I then round over the edges with a 1/2 roundover bit. The biscuits help a lot in keeping the solid wood flush with the surface of the veneered pieces.

I typically do not sand the veneer of plywood with less than 220 grit. It is already pretty smooth and it is too easy to go through.

Jim

[JonW]

Thanks for the help guys.


kwgeorge-
Yeah, the whole MDF versus birch ply has been debated a lot for speakers. After many discussions and thought I think I’ll stick with the birch ply for my first outing. Thanks for the excellent link. OK, Titebond Cold Press.

drumpriest-
Thanks for the info- great. Cement, a roller, a little sanding. Sounds easy enough.

Jim-
I had not thought of using vennered plywood. Interesting idea. I see what you’re saying about the corners. Biscuits are a bit beyond my very limited abilities at the moment, but maybe some day.

Looking at the photos of veneers on the web… maybe I’ll go with a quilted maple rather than a basic cherry? Then urethane to finish? But maybe I should stick to something with long grains to go around the corners of the cabinet. Hmmm…

[jonathanb3478]

I will be purchasing some 4'X8' veneer (just enough to do a pair of the floorstanders I plan to make) from this place:

http://www.tapeease.com/nblwood.htm

I plan on using contact cement.

I got the scraper from joewoodworker.com that is recommended by the makers of the paper backed veneer that they sell. I want NBL, not paper backed, however.

I plan on using flat cut Teak for my first pair, then upgrading to Santos "Rosewood" for my next pair (assuming I to not screw the pooch on the first one). There will be lots of practice with small test strips before I mount the first 47"X45" sheet to wrap around the enclosure back. The baffle will be leather wraped!

[gimpy]

Jonathanb, show pics when you get them finished, you, too, JonW.

Frank

[jonathanb3478]

Jonathanb, show pics when you get them finished, you, too, JonW.

Frank

An army could not keep me from posting pics of the finished project

I am going to try to get inprogress pics, but my digital camera does not like dust

[coastalb55]

DIY Audio Page

A website I lurk around when I'm not doing so here is http://www.diyaudio.com/ . If you haven't checked it out already, it is a good source of info for all things DIY audio. Just from what I've read (and I built some speakers a while back), most builders (DIY and commercial) use MDF and then veneer. It's cheap, easy to work with, and has uniform density.

I look forward to seeing the finished product.

[JonW]

Thanks again for the further tips. I'll definitely post pics, but I've first got to make the things. I work slowly- time for woodworking is all too rare. The shelves I built (and just posted pics) took me something like 2-3 months. These speakers might be even longer. Should be loads o' fun, though.

[mpauly]

As a long time audiophile and budding DIY speaker builder (nothing built yet), I was just wondering what speakers you were planning on building? From a kit, plans or something you've cooked up yourself?

I'll echo what coastalb55 has said, most people build speakers out of MDF for its low price and uniform density (voidless).

Michael

[coastalb55]

And another thing...

The DIY Audio website can be as addictive and financially dangerous as this website. USER BEWARE!!

[JonW]

Here's a DIY audio site I really like a lot:
http://www.htguide.com/forum/forumdisplay.php4?f=6
The speakers I'm gearing up tobuild are the Modula MT's. They have a stickied post up top. They look like a good place to start, as a first attempt.