n00b question: deconstruction

[JerryLove]

So let's imagine I want to try my hand at modding a speaker that's held together by glue. What is the best way to disassemble it without damaging the box?

Similarly: what's a good way to remove old laminate?

 

[Serj22]

So let's imagine I want to try my hand at modding a speaker that's held together by glue. What is the best way to disassemble it without damaging the box?

Similarly: what's a good way to remove old laminate?

For both of these, you can easily do it with a nice heat gun. Just move it around a lot and the laminate should curl up. Whenever I have to use a veneer on a boat part or cabinetry, I use West System epoxy, then vacuum bag it down to the wood, and if I need to remove it, I just heat it up. Granted this is attached to maple or Mahogany usually. If the fake wood, or veneer is attached to MDF, it may require a little prying because of the exterior pourous texture, unless it had been filled with a body filler of some sort previously. I can imagine if the speaker is glued down, it's not with an epoxy, so it may come up even easier with heat. But like I said, move the gun around a lot to keep from curling the laminate if you want to put it back on.

EXP: Carpentry, Chris Craft restoration, Cabinets.

 

[highfigh]

So let's imagine I want to try my hand at modding a speaker that's held together by glue. What is the best way to disassemble it without damaging the box?

Similarly: what's a good way to remove old laminate?

Depends on the glue, in both cases. Some speaker boxes are held together with industrial hot glue, some with aliphatic resin and some with urea-based glue. Breaking the joints will usually damage the MDF or particle board, unfortunately.

What are the dimensions of the box?

What kind of laminate- melamine, like on a countertop? Heat. A heat gun or heat lamp and putty knife will take it off if you're careful but if you want to use veneer, it may be hard to make the surface smooth enough.

 

[JerryLove]

What are the dimensions of the box?

One pair is "small bookshelf" (2-way Sony). The other is a rather contoured unit (McIntosh XR-5)

What kind of laminate- melamine, like on a countertop? Heat. A heat gun or heat lamp and putty knife will take it off if you're careful but if you want to use veneer, it may be hard to make the surface smooth enough.

I don't know. On the sony, the outside is perfect. On the Mc, it's half-peeled off on its own.

The Sony's are a project to get my feet wet in DIY. The McIntosh, bluntly, need the help.

I welcome suggestions.

 

[Serj22]

With that style of coating, I gurantee my suggestion will work, as the other poster seemed to suggest the same thing, I gurantee it will work.

 

[highfigh]

One pair is "small bookshelf" (2-way Sony). The other is a rather contoured unit (McIntosh XR-5)

I don't know. On the sony, the outside is perfect. On the Mc, it's half-peeled off on its own.

The Sony's are a project to get my feet wet in DIY. The McIntosh, bluntly, need the help.

I welcome suggestions.

The Mac are probably covered with walnut veneer and have a stain/varnish finish if they're anything like the tuner and amplifier cases I refinished for a customer.

Are they like the ones in this link?
http://www.roger-russell.com/lsd2.htm

As far as the Sony bookshelf speakers- if the exterior is perfect, I wouldn't do much with them.

If unfinished boxes were available, would you be interested in buying some if the price was right? Parts Express sells speaker boxes with piano black or wood veneer and when I asked, they said they could bring unfinished ones in if someone ordered a full container. I have seen the veneered boxes and they look great. They also have separate baffles available, which would be great for trying different speaker combinations. If you and others are interested, I'll contact them about this again, to see if they'll mix & match or if the container has to be all one model.

 

[JerryLove]

The Mac are probably covered with walnut veneer and have a stain/varnish finish if they're anything like the tuner and amplifier cases I refinished for a customer.

Are they like the ones in this link?
http://www.roger-russell.com/lsd2.htm

http://www.roger-russell.com/speakers2.htm#xr5

Vinyl and thanks to a previous owner, it's peeling (the tweeters were dead, everything was sans foam, one of the woofers appears to have been kicked, the screens were damaged).

I've refoamed all but the kicked-in woofer, and replaced the tweeters with some 2.5" Pioneers from parts-express, and re-clothed the grill, and cleaned everything, and fixed the crossovers. I still need to replace or recone one 12", and I've looked inside and think it might be a good "more bracing" project, and(assuming I like the sound) want to re-finish it.

Still, I only have $170 invested at present, so it's a fun project.

As far as the Sony bookshelf speakers- if the exterior is perfect, I wouldn't do much with them.

But I *want* to. They were incredible for their price, but their prive was $26 each. I've owned them since new, so like all my sutuff they look new: but they have no resale value and so I want to see what I can do to them. I want to re-brace them, bypass the crossover, and put a wood veneer to make "something neat".

If I can accomplish good things and learn good skills with these; I might risk my PSB 400i (which I love) in a project to make them "better".

It's a learning process

If unfinished boxes were available, would you be interested in buying some if the price was right? Parts Express sells speaker boxes with piano black or wood veneer and when I asked, they said they could bring unfinished ones in if someone ordered a full container. I have seen the veneered boxes and they look great. They also have separate baffles available, which would be great for trying different speaker combinations. If you and others are interested, I'll contact them about this again, to see if they'll mix & match or if the container has to be all one model.

If the cost is low enough, I think yes. Right now I'm looking for disposable things to learn on. My first "build from scratch" will likely be either a Subwoofer based on the sound-splinter or JL woofer (which will later have a mid/upper added off my "aluminum sphere" project and turned into an artsy full-range), or granite bookshelves.

 

[highfigh]

http://www.roger-russell.com/speakers2.htm#xr5

Vinyl and thanks to a previous owner, it's peeling (the tweeters were dead, everything was sans foam, one of the woofers appears to have been kicked, the screens were damaged).

I've refoamed all but the kicked-in woofer, and replaced the tweeters with some 2.5" Pioneers from parts-express, and re-clothed the grill, and cleaned everything, and fixed the crossovers. I still need to replace or recone one 12", and I've looked inside and think it might be a good "more bracing" project, and(assuming I like the sound) want to re-finish it.

Still, I only have $170 invested at present, so it's a fun project.

But I *want* to. They were incredible for their price, but their prive was $26 each. I've owned them since new, so like all my sutuff they look new: but they have no resale value and so I want to see what I can do to them. I want to re-brace them, bypass the crossover, and put a wood veneer to make "something neat".

If I can accomplish good things and learn good skills with these; I might risk my PSB 400i (which I love) in a project to make them "better".

It's a learning process

If the cost is low enough, I think yes. Right now I'm looking for disposable things to learn on. My first "build from scratch" will likely be either a Subwoofer based on the sound-splinter or JL woofer (which will later have a mid/upper added off my "aluminum sphere" project and turned into an artsy full-range), or granite bookshelves.

Ever though of using Corian, Gibralter or something like that?

 

[JerryLove]

Ever though of using Corian, Gibralter or something like that?

I'll consider other materials when the time comes: but I'm pretty sure I can talk some counter guy to selling me quasi-matching scrap for near nothing and cutting it for me at a reasonable cost.