Sound Panels

[Alex2507]

So I been collecting a various assortment of stuff for several years ...

Actually this is Eddie's stuff. It makes up the inner frame.

This is a pile of Mahogany that I scavenged from an elevator lobby some time ago.

Here's the 703 and some more ply that makes up the back of the inner frame.

This is an assortment of fabric in the back of the fofo that ran me about 70 bucks ... not to mention 20 more dollars for decent fabric scissors. That's just the tool junkie in me.

I stuffed a couple of pieces if 703 into the inner frame on top of this fabric that doesn't breath for beans but sound has to go through 4 inches of 703 to get to it.

I covered the 703 with cotton muslin and then the fabric of my choice.

Then I put together this Mahogany outer cover and ran a router around the edge to give it a little detail.

Maybe other people can do this quick but it took me all day today, part of another day and I still ain't done. Here's some of the toys I had to round up and use.

Good thing Eddie has one of these. It made quick work of getting the finish off the Mahogany.

I like to disable the guard so I can see where the blade is going to cut. They say if you turn the saw on and put your fingers into contact with the blade the red will come out but I'm really big on keeping the red in so I don't put my fingers in there. Therefore the guard is completely useless as a safety measure but it impedes you from seeing where the blade will cut the wood.

I'd rather have the money it takes to order panels from GIK. My panels will be very nice but there's no way $300 bucks for a pair of these would be enough for the labor never mind the materials ... and I still gotta put a finish on this. $300 bucks and a phone call gets you some GIK 242 Elites delivered. That my friends is a bargain.

 

[just-some-guy]

nice shop ..............

 

[skyline_123]

You shouldn't have given away my Christmas present, now I won't be surprised.

Mahogany outer cover! That is beautiful, you and Sherl have nice taste (must run in the family ). I can't wait to see how they turn out. As jealous as I am, I'm also sad too because my living room layout will not allow for treatments like that.

 

[Alex2507]

Yo, Yo , Yo ... these be for Mantown, y'all !!! I was wanting to custom size a couple of panels for our back wall in the living room above the couch. When I held the fabric up to ask Cheryl if she preferred the lines horizontal or vertical all I needed to hear was her saying, "you're not hanging that up there, are you?" ... nope, wouldn't dream of it.

I have a different fabric in a solid light neutral color for the living room any way. There is more 1/2" Mahogany but it will have to be painted black to match a shadow box we have hanging there. The dark red accent will be gone from that wall. It will be a light neutral color. I actually took paint samples with me to pick fabric. I got the distinct impression that everybody in the store had me sized up as a ... person who could really decorate.

nice shop ..............

Eddie's shop is amazing. Eddie's okay too.

I forgot to take a pic of the drill press I used to pre-drill and countersink all the screw holes. There are 20 in each panel making it 40 holes total (2 panels). The thread really isn't a 'How To' on panels. It's more of a 'Don't Try This At Home' but look at all the stupid pic's.

The narrow shelves and that counter which is 8' long BTW came from a Block Buster. There are 3 more counters like that in Eddies main shop. It was a pain getting them out of the store but they make great work benches. That rainbow looking thing on the narrow shelves is wood bleach ... Doug.

 

[Swerd]

This is a pile of Mahogany that I scavenged from an elevator lobby some time ago.

I have a different fabric in a solid light neutral color for the living room any way. There is more 1/2" Mahogany but it will have to be painted black to match a shadow box we have hanging there.

You have solid mahogany and you're thinking of painting it?

Go look in Bob Flexner's book and see if you can apply a dark stain, or better yet apply a dye on top of a clear sealer coat, so that it looks like solid mahogany and goes with your black shelves. Then let Cheryl choose the fabric covering and she will love them.

Eddie's shop is great. You should be using some of that mahogany as the front baffles for speakers like Sean's instead of building those wall panels. You don't want your sister and nephew to have better speakers than you do?

 

[just-some-guy]

Eddie's shop is amazing. Eddie's okay too.



That rainbow looking thing on the narrow shelves is wood bleach

so, that is a pro shop ? i thought it was your garage or basement. not that it matters.


i though that was your gay recharge drink.

just kidding

JUST KIDDING

 

[Alex2507]

so, that is a pro shop ? i thought it was your garage or basement.

Nah, that's the shop of a serious wood working hobbyist. I'm a condo dweller. That particular wood bleach is the wonderfully poisonous oxalic acid. I've used it on a little oak table to remove black marks left by metal tacks but went on to treat the whole top. It took the red right out of the oak and made it look pretty cool with the added contrast of the brighter light part in the tangential grain.

That little table reduces the sound of my fan blower motor by either 3 or 6 dB (I forget) at my listening position.

You have solid mahogany and you're thinking of painting it?

Go look in Bob Flexner's book and see if you can apply a dark stain, or better yet apply a dye on top of a clear sealer coat, so that it looks like solid mahogany and goes with your black shelves. Then let Cheryl choose the fabric covering and she will love them.

Eddie's shop is great. You should be using some of that mahogany as the front baffles for speakers like Sean's instead of building those wall panels. You don't want your sister and nephew to have better speakers than you do?

Fine, I won't paint the Mahogany. I just figured it's free and it's stable. The grain in this Mahogany isn't pronounced enough to benefit from stain. It just obscures the nice red color. I'm not in a hurry for more panels. I just wanted to use up the 703 and Mahogany that I have been hanging on to.

On our GIK 242 Elite panels in the living room that Greg so graciously gave me I am going to add a 1" thick piece of 703 or 705 to the back and cover that with some other fabric that I picked up just for that. The hope is to get a little more broad band performance out of them because my speakers have to live pretty close to our front wall. Those passed the Living Room WAF but my panels will smoke those on appearance and performance. However they are unsuitable for the living room front wall because they are thicker and the fabric was specifically chosen to be highlighted by the lighter green in Mantown. I think my estrogen levels just sky rocketed.

The finish is the hardest part for me and now the weather has turned. I'll have to see how that goes. I might do a little shading or glazing to the part that I routed in the edge detail and go with a shellac finish. I probably should do that as this is about the nicest wood I've ever worked with ... sorry Doug.

Sean has me smoked in the speaker department for 2 channel but his mom has Behringer 2030P's. My 360's are unafraid of Behringers ... especially now that I have quit mucking with trying to EQ them and have separated and corner loaded my subs. Beethoven's 9th never sounded better ... except at Greg's ... and Rick's.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Alex! Stop mucking about with room treatments and finish that component stand! Geez!

 

[Alex2507]

Alex! Stop mucking about with room treatments and finish that component stand! Geez!

I know, I know ... but you're not taking in the full scope of the work environment there. I spent a whole day reorganizing the crap we're storing there (read women's shoes, summer clothes and X-mas ornaments) in order to be able to get to tools and materials. Then I further de-cluttered the place and re-acquainted myself to the shop by jamming out a couple of panels.

The stand needs to have the finish applied and I'm sort of getting mentally prepared for that. There are a lot of options. The face and doors which will obviously be seen from the living room deserve better than the high gloss dribble job that I'm qualified to provide with a brush. I'm not suggesting that anybody hold their breath waiting for a breath taking finish. My forte is cutting two pieces of wood and making them one. What happens after that has typically not been my concern. The design thing is also new to me. When I first went to do the panels I quickly realized that despite having watched and read a number of tutorials I really had no clue where to begin. I went back home and mulled it over while I wasn't thinking about it and when the idea came to me I drew it out on some graph paper. Well, there's a couple more planning type decisions I need to make with the entertainment center. Now that I'm back to hanging around at Eddie's I'll think on it while I'm not thinking about it ... which reminds me ... I gotta get out of here.

Thanks for the encouragement ... later.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I know, I know ... but you're not taking in the full scope of the work environment there. I spent a whole day reorganizing the crap we're storing there (read women's shoes, summer clothes and X-mas ornaments) in order to be able to get to tools and materials. Then I further de-cluttered the place and re-acquainted myself to the shop by jamming out a couple of panels.

The stand needs to have the finish applied and I'm sort of getting mentally prepared for that. There are a lot of options. The face and doors which will obviously be seen from the living room deserve better than the high gloss dribble job that I'm qualified to provide with a brush. I'm not suggesting that anybody hold their breath waiting for a breath taking finish. My forte is cutting two pieces of wood and making them one. What happens after that has typically not been my concern. The design thing is also new to me. When I first went to do the panels I quickly realized that despite having watched and read a number of tutorials I really had no clue where to begin. I went back home and mulled it over while I wasn't thinking about it and when the idea came to me I drew it out on some graph paper. Well, there's a couple more planning type decisions I need to make with the entertainment center. Now that I'm back to hanging around at Eddie's I'll think on it while I'm not thinking about it ... which reminds me ... I gotta get out of here.

Thanks for the encouragement ... later.

This is how I've finished my last couple of projects (fireplace mantel and COMPONENT STAND ):

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=45090&cat=1,190,42942

This stuff is too easy to use. The Deftoil leaves a nice satin finish, which I much prefer. Wipe it on, wipe it off. You may prefer more of a gloss finish. In which case, I hear ya - it's hard to get it right. Well, now that I've given you any easy finish option - Git 'er dun!!

 

[Alex2507]

This is how I've finished my last couple of projects (fireplace mantel and COMPONENT STAND ):

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=45090&cat=1,190,42942

This stuff is too easy to use. The Deftoil leaves a nice satin finish, which I much prefer. Wipe it on, wipe it off. You may prefer more of a gloss finish. In which case, I hear ya - it's hard to get it right. Well, now that I've given you any easy finish option - Git 'er dun!!

Oil finishes need to be recoated periodically which I'm not into but that urethane resin mix has me scratching my head some. It goes on to say that you can put a coat of something or other on it for added protection which completely made me suspect of it's durability ... not to mention that it's only available in Canada.

However I do want to wish you luck in hurrying me along ... you're gonna need it.

 

[Rickster71]

I know, I know ... I spent a whole day reorganizing the crap we're storing there (read woman's shoes)...

You complain about how much those shoes kill your feet.
Why don't you just stop wearing them?

 

[Alex2507]

You complain about how much those shoes kill your feet.
Why don't you just stop wearing them?

Nice of you to chime in on a particularly sore point and plight we both share. My favorite was you saying that Marie easily had a hundred pair of shoes to which she replied, "no, I don't". I really liked your response of total silence. Very ballsy of you, my man.

I am able to learn from that exchange ... never mention shoes. They will take that argument to Def-Con 5 and nuke you if need be. My strategy is to happily take her stuff and store it at Eddie's but never bring stuff back. This approach has met with a certain amount of success in that she was forced to go down there herself and do the work of sorting through the vast assortment of stuff I consider to be of no use.

Alright, that's it ... I'm outa here. I got stuff to not finish.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Oil finishes need to be recoated periodically which I'm not into but that urethane resin mix has me scratching my head some. It goes on to say that you can put a coat of something or other on it for added protection which completely made me suspect of it's durability ... not to mention that it's only available in Canada.

However I do want to wish you luck in hurrying me along ... you're gonna need it.

This doesn't need to be re-applied. As for durability - you're making a component stand, not a picnic table. It's perfectly fine for your application, I can assure you. It says you "can" apply other products on top, but you wouldn't need to.

As for availability, it's made in the good 'ol US of A. You must be able to find it somewhere.

If I wasn't such a luddite, I'd figure out a way to automatically send you PM's every hour, 24/7, saying "Go finish that component stand, Go finish that component stand.....

 

[Swerd]

… Sean has me smoked in the speaker department for 2 channel but his mom has Behringer 2030P's. My 360's are unafraid of Behringers ... especially now that I have quit mucking with trying to EQ them and have separated and corner loaded my subs. Beethoven's 9th never sounded better ... except at Greg's ... and Rick's.

Read Sean's recent thread where explains why he is building these

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

 

[Alex2507]

This obviously isn't like one of Anunaki's threads where he practically comes to your house and builds it for you but in honor of the DIY crowd here's how it's done. The sides are 1/2" and the top, middle and bottom pieces are 3/4" so that you have something to screw into.

Here's the router detail at the miters. I could have used tiny biscuits to join the floating part of the mitered joint but ... well, you know.

This is after washing with mineral spirits. It shows what the grain figure will look like with varnish. After looking at the close ups I think I might fill the pores before finishing to achieve a desired effect.

... and while I was there yesterday I slapped this together out of scrap pressure treated 2x4's.

... and if you believe that one ...


... gotta run.

 

[skyline_123]

That turned out amazing! As usual, the craftsmanship is top notch.

 

[Alex2507]

That turned out amazing! As usual, the craftsmanship is top notch.

Thanks, Sean. Don't think it went smooth though. First I cut the trim pieces for the first panel way too short and had to mill up some more stock. Then a silly 1/16" of extra length on the trim pieces had me sanding up a storm. When attaching the trim pieces on the second panel my brad nailer blew a seal. I had to grab a finish nailer that uses 16 gauge nails instead of 18's. It left larger nail holes. I screwed the pooch on those miters because I was freaked about the glue setting up while I swapped guns. I mixed sanding dust and glue to fill the nail holes with a chisel and 5-in-1 painter's tool only to have it turn black from contact with the metal. The second batch for the second panel got mixed with plastic spreaders. My mineral spirits wash wouldn't evaporate because of the cold but I had to sand the nail hole filler off because I was afraid of what it might do to the wood surrounding the nail holes.

I've got the inner panels at home and the outer pieces are still at Eddie's. I didn't want the fabric getting dusty and smelling of mineral spirits in the shop and I didn't want to transport them as a single unit because the weight and size of these things makes it hard to get them in and out of the fofo without banging into stuff. I can't finish the outer panels over there because the heater is on the blink so I have to bring them home unfinished and figure out if I want to try and finish them on my dining room table. Cheryl loves it when I break out the chemicals at home.

Once I do get them home I have to decide on a mounting system and assemble that here. I was thinking about using these threaded inserts and black cap screws to facilitate this feat of aerospace engineering ... I'll have time for that later.

I just did a trial placement of the inner panels and played Brothers in Arms. I would invite Rick back out to give this set up a listen but I don't want him to throw his Sig8's out with the bath water.

... oh, and btw if I had not spent basically all of my teenage years doing finish carpentry with my father there is no way in hell that I would be able to get product looking like that from scrap ... not to mention having access to Eddie's shop.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I think that it is only fair that you send me a pair.