Original Owner Of Monitor 5JR Plus

melchionda

joebass3 wrote: »

Excited to see these when they are done! Since you put veneer on the sides first before gluing the other solid pieces on, will the end grain be visible at the top and bottom?

I did that because I plan to route all of the corners of the cabinet into 1/2" diameter round overs. But, If I was keeping it square then I would have just put veneer on ever side.

melchionda

melchionda

So now that I’m past the issue of trimming the veneer around the driver cutouts I’m onto a new issue. I’m having trouble getting an even cut and not burning the wood with my flush cut router bit. It’s inconsistent too. On one pass the wood appears to be burned pretty bad and is sticky but the cut is flush. On another side there is no burning but there is a slight difference between the cut surface and the finished (uncut) surface. I tried to buy a big heavy high quality one in the hopes that buying a quality bit might help. Any suggestions? I tried wrapping the guide wheel bearing in a layer of electrical tape but it came off after a pass or two.

Gardenstater

The bearing is burning and not the cutters? I think you could try spraying some teflon bearing dry lube into the bearing, even though they are probably sealed (so called).

wispolkboy

Are you going in the same direction?

melchionda

So I built these to have rounded edges but I'm really liking the look of these as simple square boxes. So to get the full effect I filled in the corners the get all of the corners even. I'll probably still round all of the edges but I thought I would take it in for a while with square edges.

xschop

Coming along nicely. I like the square look.

melchionda

It doesn't look like much has changed but I've actually spent a ton of time dealing with fussy little details to get them to this step.

I had to find and open up the speaker grill clip mounting holes in the front baffle. I also drilled out the mounting holes for the drivers to accept hurricane nuts. One of the holes required a bondo patch because the particle board just kinda fell apart while I was drilling the hole out in that area. I had to patch that one twice because the hole ended up in the wrong spot. I've also been doing a ton of sanding and filling of various errors in my routing and the fitment of the back and top and bottom panels. It's now looking ready for the polyurethane.



Then I moved on to the speaker grill. I bought some grey speaker grill fabric. It's the same stuff that I'm using to hide my subwoofers below the walnut shelves. You can see it in the background of my photos. I painted the speaker grill frame grey so that it will not show up quite so much through the grill fabric. Also I routed the inside corner of the grill frame so that there would not be a sharp edge on the outer face of the speaker grill frame.



I'm reconsidering my round-over plan. I just ordered a 45 degree bevel bit for my router. I'm now thinking that I will try to reproduce the beveled front of the original speaker design. The only thing that I'm worried about is that I think a round over will be much more forgiving than a bevel w/r/t how some of these seams come together.

Gardenstater

Can you do a full 3/4" roundover on the top, Right side, and Left side of the baffle? A bevel helps with diffraction but nothing is as good as a round. I guess a lot will depend upon whether you will be listening with grilles on or off. I'm strictly grilles off but I have a 1-3/4" roundover frame mod on my 7Bs.

Looking good!

xschop

Have you tried tung oil on walnut?

melchionda

Gardenstater wrote: »

Can you do a full 3/4" roundover on the top, Right side, and Left side of the baffle? A bevel helps with diffraction but nothing is as good as a round. I guess a lot will depend upon whether you will be listening with grilles on or off. I'm strictly grilles off but I have a 1-3/4" roundover frame mod on my 7Bs.

Looking good!

The biggest I can go is 1/2” for either the bevel or round over because that is the thickness of the material I added to the top, right, left and bottom of the baffle.

Is 3/4” the best size to deal with diffraction? I was thinking the 1/2” I’m doing might be too small.

Regarding grills on or off. I’ll probably do both but I can imagine they would sound better with the grills off. The grill frames really encroach on the speaker drivers. The other issue I was thinking about was if there might be a better way to attach the grills than the cheap plastic peg/clips that Polk used. It would have been nice to put som magnets under the veneer. But it’s too late for that now.

melchionda

xschop wrote: »

Have you tried tung oil on walnut?

No I do not. This is my first wood project. I usually don’t do this sort of thing. What is the scoop on Tung oil? I had some water based matte finish polyurethane which I used for the living room shelves and I liked how that came out so was going to use that. It was water based and so really easy to work with. I am nervous though that it might cause problems with the paper backing of the veneer. The information that I got from veneersupplies.com with my veneer starter kit said that using water based coatings on paper backed veneer was not recommended but could be done if the veneer has good adherence to the substrate.

xschop

Cue F1... 3....2...1

xschop

I used it on ash, oak, and mahogany with good results.
I will try to find pics, but I also used 3 coats of tung oil on a newly installed 3/4" solid oak floor in a rental that I sold years back.

melchionda

xschop wrote: »

I used it on ash, oak, and mahogany with good results.
I will try to find pics, but I also used 3 coats of tung oil on a newly installed 3/4" solid oak floor in a rental that I sold years back.

Have you ever used it on a paper backed veneer?

xschop

No I have not. You can try a small spot on the back-side. Truly, my only concern would be what the suspension/thinner used in the tung oil had on any exposed edges.

melchionda

Last night I put fabric onto the grill frames. I didnt do such a good job of pulling it evenly. I may fix that. Either way I need to neaten it up a little bit at the corners. But from this pic you get an idea of what it will look like.



This project is a lot of work!

MrGeology

Recently stripped and walnut veneered an M7 Series 2. Used Band-it paper backed veneer and Titebond. Cut the speaker holes with a Dewalt retractable utility knife (your way sounds easier).
For the Poly, I used oil-based satin wipe-on poly, 3 coats, no stain. Before and after poly pics.



Also flush-cut the front baffle and rear for easy veneer work.
You really went the extra mile on those 5Jr+, nice work!

joebass3

Another vote for wipe-on poly. I used it on my Monitor 7s and it's almost fool proof. Try it on a scrap piece first to see how you like it. Depending on the look you're going for you can stain the wood first or leave it natural.

Gardenstater

Beautiful craftsmanship all three of youz!

xschop

What color were you planning on anodizing the tweeters plates?

I can shoot these flat-black to match the phase plugs.

melchionda

xschop wrote: »

What color were you planning on anodizing the tweeters plates?

I can shoot these flat-black to match the phase plugs.

Thanks for brining this up. I was going to ask about that. I was hoping to have the tweeter plates and phase plugs in black.

On a related note. Any suggestions on the best way to ship the drivers. They are the awkward combination of heavy but also fragile. I have a box for which I created an insert. Its kinda big though. I'm looking around for a smaller box to keep the shipping cost reasonable.

melchionda

I went ahead and re-created the bevel on the front of these speakers. My original plan was round-overs all around, but I reconsidered because I do want to keep some of the original look of these speakers. I dont have any experience with cabinetry work so I was pleasantly surprised when I guesstimated correctly from memory that the original bevel was a 30 degree bevel.




The only unfortunate thing is that I could have hidden the end grain on some of the panels had I known I was going to go this route.

I also added some stain but then sanded about 50% of it off because I thought it was too dark.

xschop

A set fits in a Large USPS Priority Box, side-by-side, alternated one up and one pointed down.

I'll also send a couple squares of sound foam for the rear walls. You have the cab walls dampened solid.
I also like that you can move the location of the xover terminals.

MrGeology

melchionda wrote: »

I dont have any experience with cabinetry work so I was pleasantly surprised when I guesstimated correctly from memory that the original bevel was a 30 degree bevel.

The only unfortunate thing is that I could have hidden the end grain on some of the panels had I known I was going to go this route.

Can't expect your first endeavor in such things to be perfect.

The M7 Series 2 pics I posted were my first cabinet work also. Chose to do them because they were thrashed beyond usability when I got them (paid $5 for the pair) and wanted the experience.

Glad I waited on doing the second one, learned a lot in the process of doing the first one.

Also, thanks @melchionda for the router bit link, that will make doing the next cabinet a lot easier.

xschop

Very nice job on the magnet gluing, butyl matting, and foam framing too.

xschop

Even clipped the vestigial tabs without asking... Props...

melchionda

xschop wrote: »

Even clipped the vestigial tabs without asking... Props...

Thanks! Even with my Dremel and a new cutoff wheel that wasn't easy to do! :-)

melchionda

These Monitor 5Jr+ speakers have always lived on top of a set of speaker stands which I bought when I bought the speakers back in the 80's. The speakers stands were pretty nice back in the day and definitely a requirement if you don't plan on putting these speakers onto a bookcase as you have to get them up off of the floor. However there were some problems with them... 1.) The stands had carpet spikes and as I do not have any carpet the spikes where making little holes in my floors. 2.) The stands resonated too much. 3.) If bumped the speakers could fall off of the stands, and moving the speaker and the stand was difficult as the combination of the two separate but heavy items was awkward. So here is what I did....

1.) Added rubber isolating feet to the bottom of the stands. This has already had a huge benefit. When I move the speaker stands around they make much less noise.

2.) Added dynamat to the insides of the stand frame members.


I cant believe how good this stuff works. Before the Dynamat installation when I knocked on the speaker stands they would ring like bells. Now when I knock on them its like knocking on a piece of solid wood.

3.) I recessed some 1/4" Hurricane nuts into the interior bottom of the speaker cabinets and drilled the top of the stands for 1/4" furniture screws. I then covered the recessed hurricane nuts in the floor of the cabinet with Bondo. (This connection between the speaker and the stand is why I added an inch of plywood and walnut onto the bottom of the speaker cabinets) This will hopefully create a strong integrated speaker stand unit (similar to what Warfedale did with the Linton speaker)



One thing that did cross my mind was thinking about how I could make these stands a few inches taller... but this project is taking way longer than I thought it would so I'm leaving them as is.

Gardenstater

Nice work. I think the world would be a better place if everything were Dynamatted. I even dynamatted my toilet (kidding. maybe)