Curly Cherry 1x12 refinish

[Geeze]

Those of you who have paid attention to my errant mumblings and foolishness [thank you!] over the years have heard me reference the very first beautiful wood speaker cab I ever built. I found some spectacular curly cherry and laid down a big pile of clams [wish I'd bought the other three planks] and drug it off to my wood buddies shop where it languished for the better part of three months.

I didn't dare cut it - what if I F'd it up?!? I'm waaaaayyyyy past that now!

My older and wiser buddy brow beat me into to cutting it and finally I did. Walnut trim on a 1960 A style cab for one 10" and two 8" speakers . I needed to take it to a guitar show and the grill cloth didn't make it in time so I found some outdoor fabric in an Escher pattern my teenager dubbed the 'Dad, it hurts my eyes!' grill cloth. I also was into oil at that point and I slurry sanded 20+ coats of oil/mineral spirits into it.

Fast forward six years and a state away and it looked a bit muddy and dinged up. Cherry also darkens with age. I want to stuff an EVM12L in there and maybe do my first ever semi open back cab as I believe it may be on the small side of good sounding. Also fix the corner rounds.

Pictures #1 & #5


Holy crap. Oil, especially 20+ coats don't want to come off and / or out of the wood. I sanded with 80 grit - went through a bunch of disks. Hit it with stripper which worked sorta OK, more sanding, then 220 grit with mineral spirits and more sanding with 120 grit. Finally got to some semblance of bare wood with some cured oil still in the softer bits.

Picture #4

Today sanded down to 220 and sprayed the first 4 coats of clear to be wet sanded in three days. Already looking better.

Picture #2 & #3

Russ

[pompeiisneaks]

oh man she's a beaut, nicely done!

~Phil

[Leo_Gnardo]

Ohhh yusss... that wood! She's a beauty for sure. And that grill cloth, junior is right, it hurts my eyes. In a good way! WOW! Where can I get me some of that?

[stelligan]

Wow That'll do, I'd say.

[Geeze]

Ohhh yusss... that wood! She's a beauty for sure. And that grill cloth, junior is right, it hurts my eyes. In a good way! WOW! Where can I get me some of that?

Thanks!

I got that cloth from Joann's fabric store. It was in the outdoor section.

Russ

[Geeze]

I stripped the Escher print off the baffle and recut the front section as there was up to a half inch of 'overhang' on the angled bottom edge in the speaker's path.

The large void also bothered me and after contemplating lining the two circle edges with plastic I chose the easy way out with expanding foam.

It's sand-able and and will hold paint so we'll see if that reverberation chamber was the reason I didn't like the cab's sound with a 12" speaker.

Tonight -

400 grit sand and two more coats.

Painted the baffle and started the grill cloth only to be defeated by the top and bottom edges which aren't square to the front but have a 3/8" step that interferes with getting the grill cloth on straight. I'll add some wood strips and plane them back.

Russ

[Guy77]

Beautiful looking cabinet! Love the designs in the wood grain.


Cheers

[Geeze]

Got it finished. Had to redo the top and bottom of the baffle to remove a kludged in step.

Speaker installed.

A couple of glamour shots in the sunlight.

Now I must find a place I can blast it. So far with moderate volume it's just a bit brighter than the TL806 with an identical speaker in it. My new 30lb grab and go.

Russ

[Geeze]

Me being me I just had to build a matching head cab for a Satellite Barracuda. Obviously the cherry is lighter - I've been told UV will darken it so I suspect I'll leave it outside for a few days.

I also went full nut bag on the logo as I didn't like the metal badge covering up wood - routed in by hand with a 1/32" bit in a dremel plunge router rig from Stewmac.

One of things I love about woodworking - at least my general BANZAI! approach is the ability to 'artfully' fix fubars. I cut the bottom pine plank too narrow. No problem rip it in half and glue in more wood - looks more interesting too.

I don't know what I'll be doing this weekend - cold here in TN - luckily I have a heater in the garage.

Russ

[norburybrook]

Beautiful work there Russ. I'd love to re house my Tweedle De and 1x12 cab in hardwood cabinets. Doesn't look like many people doing it here int he UK that I can find.




M

[stelligan]

Very handsome micro stack. If I hear some loud noodling, I'll know you're close by.....

[Phil_S]

I'm working on another table with cherry. After running it through the planer, I see that it darkens naturally in a very short amount of time. I am not sure if applying finish will retard this effect.

Nice job on the bottom fix. It looks intentional. I am learning that all wood workers encounter this. I cut some tenons that were a hair too fat. After working them to fit the mortises, some of them were a hair too thin. I glued on some new cheek wood and I'll recut them. No one will see it. As I'm sure you know, it's not whether you'll make a mistake, it's when and then how you deal with it.

What you're showing us looks terrific.

[Geeze]

Very handsome micro stack. If I hear some loud noodling, I'll know you're close by.....

If you can hear me from 80 miles east of Nashvull that will be the day I'll be evicted from the townhouse.

I'm hoping there will be another swap meet in Nashvull as I want to drag some bits there.

Russ