Pat's DIY Speaker Finishing:

All photos are copyright 2002 by Patrick Sun. Unauthorized use without written consent is prohibited.

Table of Contents: Painting Veneering Wood Dye Finish

Welcome to my DIY speaker finishing page. After a year or two in the making, I finally decided to put a finish on my DIY speakers (with an emphasis on a 5 channel home theater speaker setup. I have links above to the webpges regarding the construction and design of the speakers:

• Sun Ones - a 2.5-way front speaker (tweeter is a Morel MDT-30, midwoofers are Peerless HDS439s).
• Sun Twos - a 2-way rear speaker (tweeter is a Morel MDT-30, midwoofer is a Peerless HDS439).
• Sun CC - a 3-way center channel speaker (tweeter is a Morel MDT-30, midrange is a Morel MDM-55, midwoofers are Peerless HDS439s).

I'm just going to show the overall process for the Sun Twos, but I did the same process with the other speakers as well. Once you see it once, no need to show the rest of the photos for the other speakers.

Navigational Hint: When you click on your first picture link, don't close the window, I've designed it so that you can leave that window open, and you can click to your heart's content, and the images will only show up in that one other window. This should also speed up your visit here. So just open up my web pages, and leave the picture window open, it'll seem like the photos just magically appear as you click about the page here.

The prep work for painting is always a pain, and so is the wait for paint to dry. I followed the alloted drying times on the paint can directions:

• I covered up the sides of the cabinets with flyers and masking tape:
  
• I cut out a piece of cardboard to prevent paint from getting inside the box:
  
• That's the rear panel:
  
• I used primer in a spray can to prime the edges:
  
• Here I prime the rear panel, let it dry, sand where necessary:
  
• After primer dries, I paint the edges with black spray paint:
  
• I do the same with the rear panel:
  
• I prime the front baffle, and let it dry, and sand where necessary:
  
• I use green Rustoleum Hammered Metal spray paint on baffles, After it dried, I also applied a clear coat as well:
  

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Veneering the sides

This was my first time veneering, so I was apprehensive. I used to "dried glue/iron on" method. The glue must be totally dried on both surfaces, else the wet glue will stick together, and you can't adjust the placement of the piece of veneer easily. I used two 24"x96" sheets of red oak 10mm thick paper-backed veneer. It was tricky to figure out exactly how much veneer I needed, and making sure the grain of the veneer would run as I had planned. This does require some planning to get the most without wasting veneer. As it turned out 2 sheets would be just the right amount for 5 speakers (4 sides veneered on each). Using a veneer trim bit require getting the right cut depth set, this required experimentation to get it right. But once it's set, you're good to go for the rest of the veneering trimming.

• Here's one sheet of veneer, I marked the cut lines on the paper side:
  
• 5 speakers' worth of veneer right on the bed:
  
• I start to tear off the masking tape/paper:
  
• All of the masking tape/paper is removed, showing the newly painted front baffle:
  
• Wood glue is applied to the cabinet surface, and to the veneer paper side:
  
• I iron on the veneer, and I make sure that the veneer doesn't separate from the cabinet by running my finger along the underside edge of the veneer and lifting up gently. If loose, I applied more heat with the iron at that spot:
  
• For each set of sides, wood glue is applied to each cabinet's surface:
  
• And here's the veneer sides being glued up for a set of sides:
  
• I use a veneer trim bit (mine was a 2-flute bit) to trim the veneer. I did apply masking tape along the side that the bit's roller rolled on.:
  
• It's very important to sand the edges smooth as possible on each edge. I used 220 grit sandpaper:
  
• A close up shot of the newly veneered Sun Twos:
  
• Just a shot of all the speakers veneered from the front angle:
  
• A shot of the speakers all veneered from the side angle:
  

Applying wood dye to veneer

After playing around with wood stains, I never found a red enough stain, so I went with using wood dye to give the veneer the color I wanted. I used Woodburst wood dye (Bing Cherry is the color that I liked the best) that I got from a local Wood Craft store, they have a website as well. For the 1st coat I used a paper towel to apply the dye. This step took about 3 days to finish the 1st coat, and then I ran out of wood dye and had to wait a week or so to get more from the store (ordering from their website would have taken just as long). The 2nd coat also took 3 days, and I used Q-Tips to apply the dye to get into the places I missed with the paper towel application of the wood dye. This took slow and steady patience to find all the little crevices missing wood dye on the first go-around. It was worth it to do the second coat of dye to fill in the cracks and get a deeper, richer final color on the veneer.

• This is what the wood dye in a bottle looks like:
  
• I shook up 3 bottles of dye (to even out the color) and poured it into a plastic bowl:
  
• Here's me using papertowels to apply the dye:
  
• First coat is done for this side:
  
• I also do the adjacent side at this step:
  
• So both adjacent sides are done, waiting to dry:
  
• Another view of the dye application:
  
• And I did this for all 5 speakers:
  
• Once those 2 sides were dry, different sides of all 5 speakers wait for more dye:
  
• A shot of the Sun Twos waiting for dye application on their last 2 sides:
  
• Finally all sides are dyed once. Then I applied one more coat with Q-Tips to get the dye to seep into the cracks that weren't dyed on the 1st coat.:
  

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I used MinWax Wipe On Polyurethane (Clear Gloss - for a nice shiny coat). I applied 4 coats of the polyurethane (waiting 3-4 hours per coat, and overnight for the final coat to dry). This took about 5-6 days to finish up. You can't really hurry this step, so don't even try.

• Here's what I used, and I only needed 1 can for all 5 speakers:
  
• I used old t-shirts to apply the polyurethane to the dyed veneer:
  
• Here's a shot of all 5 speakers on their last coat, waiting to be dried:
  
• Finally, a front side and backside shot of the Sun Twos all finished:
  
• A shot from an angle of the Sun Twos:
  
• A solo shot of the Sun Two from the front:
  
• A solo shot of the Sun Two from an angle:
  
• A shot of the Sun CC speaker from the front side:
  
• A shot of the Sun CC fron an angle:
  
• A shot of the Sun CC from the backside at an angle:
  
• A shot of the Sun Ones front and rear from an angle:
  
• A shot of the Sun Ones front and rear from straight on:
  
• A shot of both of the Sun One fronts from an able:
  

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That's it! All done! Hope you enjoyed the finishing tour for my DIY speakers.