These steps are what often lures me into glossy finishes over satin. Once you see that grain pop like that it's hard to want to tone it down.
Epoxy coating the veneer and speaker fronts. This veneer has no backing and has not been stabilized. I thin epoxy to like a water consistency with denatured alcohol, and saturate the veneer with it. I keep adding it until it won't take anymore. Since I did not use a proper veneer adhesive, this encapsulation will keep the veneer from creeping due to changes in climate.
With the MDF speaker fronts, this plasticizes the porous substrate quite deeply. As the alcohol evaporates over the time I am working these, the coats automatically get subsequently thicker, or, it turns from a super-penetrant, to a high build surface treatment. Clean, sanded epoxy will take paint, lacquer, oil/water based paints and varnish beautifully. It is the absolute best sealer/primer/surfacer all in one process. I once left a scrap of MDF, and a piece of marine plywood coated this way outdoors for 3 years and it was still as sound as the day I left it out there. This, over an argument on the internet about epoxy not being a suitable enough sealer for marine use.
I am still brushing this up for the next couple hours about every 20 mins or so on the veneer. This will somewhat suddenly level out pretty slick like near the end of this process.
