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First: Multi-post due to insane (3500 word) length of this guide. I will post it over a few days as the editorial process continues. : )
I'm very verbose, this is a very long guide and most of it is more a treatise on spraypaints and timber finishes – but consider it as an education from someone who has spent way too much time around modern timber-alternatives, spraypaint and workshops in general.
There are no photos because I don't have a camera - I'll track one down ASAP to give a picture of the end result.
Table of Contents: Equipment, On Sealants, On Spraypaint, On Spraypaint Brands, The Actual Guide.
Preamble (Ramble)
This will teach you all (and more) than you ever needed to know about spraypaint, paint-based timber finishes, and getting a fantastic spraypaint-centric result out of LSK's products for mere $50 per pair of speakers. This guide will give you a very shiny finish in any colour of your choice, though by substituting the spraypaint an excellent matt finish is easily possible.
This is my guide to constructing and finishing fibreboard-based speakers (obviously LSKs, though I've used it on homebrews too). This technique should work for MDF or any other chipboard. It should also work on pine, but the kind of wood you would even consider painting like this is usually too lightweight to make a really nice speaker (i.e. don't use it on a nice hardwood or kittens will die).
This guide does not use any power tools, and for two speakers should cost about $20 in consumable hardware, and $30 in sealer and paint. I found a pair of clamps on special for $17 too. I am a student living in a flat, so power tools, orbital sanders, routers, sprayguns, that kind of thing is out of my reach both financially and space-wise. For the music-lover on a budget, look no further than LSK and this guide.
This guide is for those who do not want to go the the expense (or the garage space) of using a spray-gun, whether electronic or compressor-based. I've used compressor spray guns in the past and man are some of the high quality ones so neat-o for getting a perfect finish, but the cheap ones are no better than spraycans, and are a hell of a lot more expense and bother. They also tend to be a lot less forgiving, due to the thinner nature of the paint required. If you have access or the means to get a quality spray-gun, by all means, these are fantastic tools, but for a much, much cheaper and often comparable finish, spray cans are the way to go.
Disclaimer
Contained within this guide is an extensive sub-guide to the acquisition of high-quality spraycan-based paints. It is worth noting that the vast majority of these are targeted squarely both through advertising and brand image at “aerosol artists”. If you are particularly uncomfortable with the concept of buying paint from the same shop as the guys putting up graffiti artwork, then please skip that section and buy White Knight from your friendly local hardware store. However, to get top quality spraypaint for the same price as the mediocre one Bunnings will sell you, it's often not a bad idea to take the hints from guys who go through fifty to a hundred cans of spraypaint per week.
Also, standard disclaimer: Read your manual. It's a higher authority than I am.
Quick Review of My Speakers
This technique has been applied to a pair of Loudspeaker Kit M5 mark 2 speakers. I was pretty impressed with the kit, the drivers are of very impressive quality, the design is excellent and the electronics are well assembled. My only complaint with the kit was that the amount of force required to assemble the timber, and the number of resultant gaps (even with clamps) was a little disappointing. I would believe that the excessive damp around when the kit was shipped (which was a whole month after the credit card was charged, by the way...) and I was assembling the kit would have had something to do it, though I think that Loudspeaker kit in general could tighten their machining tolerances on timber cutting a little, and maybe seal the box in some sort of plastic to keep the damp out during shipping – mine crossed the country during massive rain and I think it suffered from it.
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Required Equipment
A loudspeaker kit
Gap filler with spatula – smallest tub available (I used Spakfilla)
MDF sealant/undercoat – smallest tin available (see On Sealants)
Paint brush (medium size)
Empty glass jar for cleaning brush
Sandpaper:
120 grit (two sheets)
320 grit (four sheets)
400 grit (two sheets)
1200 grit (two sheets)
Sanding block (cork)
30cm clamps (optional, a bunch of heavy stuff works too)
Quality wood glue
"Spray booth" (bench covered in plastic bags - a real one works too)
One tin Dulux Spraypak Matt White Undercoat for every one and a half M5 speakers or equivalent
One tin Montana spray paint for every M5 speaker or equivalent
Two blue-dot softball caps per tin of Montana (or chisel-tips if available)
Four silicon stick-on door protector dots per speaker
One tin Wattyl spray-can estapol (matt/satin/gloss by preference) [optional!]
On Sealants
I used Accent Prep-Right Multi Prep. It is important to match the kind of sealer to the kind of timber. MDF needs a water-based sealant but chipboard usually requires oil-based sealant. All LSK kits are MDF, so go with the Accent if you're using one. It's probably the same stuff as in the Dulux tin (the two brands are actually the same company – odds are it comes out of the same vat) but is a few dollars cheaper. A spray sealant would also work but quality ones are much harder to find than a quality paint sealant.
This stuff always needs to be thinned slightly. One part thinner (water for an acrylic) to ten parts paint is enough, but still helps smooth it out. Make sure to clean your brush with the appropriate thinner too, it always sucks if you forget you're using an oil-based paint and leave your brush in a tub of water to find it rock-hard the day afterward.
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On Spraypaint
More than you ever needed to know
Here you will partake of my impressive knowledge of finding and buying top-quality spraypaint, and how to use it. Also, the anatomy of a can, the valve systems and caps.
First, “nozzle” and “cap” are more or less synonymous. It's the bit you push on.
General rule of thumb for picking a spraypaint: Pop off the dust cap (the bit that totally covers the top of the can) and pull off the nozzle – if the nozzle has a stalk and the can has a hole (this is a female valve can with a male cap), it is likely to be much higher quality than one that has the stalk on the can and the hole in the cap (this is a male valve can with a female cap).
There are some acceptable quality male cans (White Knight and some Wattyl spray cans come to mind) but generally, it its got a stalk on the can, it's not good quality paint. This is due to the female can being used mostly in Europe, the USA and Australia, and the male can being predominantly used in cheap factories in South-East Asia.
Of course there are exceptions either way – most notably Aeroskills and Pro-Line, both female valve European-made paints attempting to cash in on the graffiti market created by German Montana. They're European, but they peel, crack, have a shockingly bad finish and are actually exceeded in finish quality by the two dollar tins from Crazy Clarks, though maybe not in durability. Conversely, White Knight is actually not a bad paint at all, and probably the best pick of the standard 'hardware store' brands.
Caps
Next, caps. As aforementioned, it's the little plastic bit on the top that you press down to make the paint come out. A 'hooded' cap is a cap that is about 2cm across and the entire dished area of the can where the valve sits is covered by the cap. Any other cap is just a cap. A 'fan' cap is one that has the little rotating thing on the front and paints in an oval, 'chisel' or 'fan' – these. A 'dot' cap is a cap that paints a circle. The tiny little nozzle (often a different colour) that changes the pattern of the paint and atomizes it is called the 'insert'.
It is worth noting that not all caps of the same type work on all of the same kind of can. It's obvious that you can't really use male caps with male cans, but sometimes a male cap will not work with a particular female paint. This is generally characterised by a bloody mess and the valve clogging, or the cap not coming up again once you press it down. This is also true of the special varieties of cap outlined below, and the only way to tell what's going to work is to try them. Make sure to try out over your lawn or a sink when testing a new kind of cap with a paint.
The caps you need to do a good job on wood is a fan cap (found on Dulux or Wattyl cans), a similar kind called a chisel or calligraphy cap (available as a specialty cap) or a so-called “softball” cap (again, a specialty cap). Softballs are aerosol art caps available from underground stores, and are identified by a white hooded design with a blue insert. They are called a “blue-dot” (creatively) or just “softball”. They work on Montana cans and the spray is round, low flow and extremely small, but has a very fine mist. They clog easily even on paint they're supposed to work with, so you may have to buy a few. You usually cannot buy fan caps, you have to buy a tin with one on it to get one, but these are definitely the best for getting even coverage on wood. A standard fan cap (from Dulux) will not work with many of the quality European brands of paint, and a softball takes a lot of movement to get any sort of real coverage. If you can find them, hooded calligraphy (chisel) caps are a much easier way to cover the surface. They are unusual even in underground stores, but ask for them, and try online.
Where to Buy Good Spraypaint
Where to find quality spraypaint is the tricky part. Underground record stores and inner-city dingy hardware stores are the best place to find it, to be honest. Butter Beats in Brisbane for example, carries a wide range of quality brands, and oddly, the Mitre 10 on Elizabeth St has more or less the same selection, but for a few cents cheaper – and is consequently my favourite inner-city dingy hardware store. Both have a wide variety of caps also. The other place to find good paint and caps is online – there are a number of mail-order places selling artist-grade spraypaint and caps, and this can be the best way to get them, especially chisel caps. Colour-matching can be problematic, but with spraypaints (and paints in general) you need to get it out of the tin and try it before you make a decision - if you have the money, buy a few and try them before buying the number you need to do your finish. If you don't, hope.
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On Spraypaint Brands
I strongly recommend Dulux matt white Spraypak undercoat for all your undercoating needs. This is by far the strongest basic undercoat I have encountered. It's tough, goes on easy, doesn't drip easily, and doesn't break the bank. The undercoat is an exception rather than a rule – their 'designer' series that I've seen once or twice are pretty good, but the rest of their paints are decidedly mediocre. Avoid the yellows, reds and oranges like the bubonic plague – it's like painting with a pot of American mustard mixed into a half-litre of water.
My favourite top-coat is Montana Hardcore (Spanish Montana). It is extremely glossy, has fantastic colour vibrancy, has a very strong resistance to drips, is tough and has the best cap-colour-to-can-colour reproduction of any paint in my experience. There are a vast number of colours available also. It is difficult to locate, but shop around and you might find some – try online, there are a few mail-order retailers in both Australia and New Zealand that have some. To distinguish between this and the German Montana, this one “hardcore” on the label in red, has a black tin with a white grid.
Second paint of preference is Belton Molotow – which has mostly bright, designer-type colours – fewer dark tones - and is also about twice the price, hence my first recommendation of Spanish Montana. Belton is as good or better in terms of vibrancy and durability.
Montana Black (German Montana – it's a long story) which has improved in leaps and bounds in recent years to make it a very respectable paint, and the one I used on my speakers (“Onyx” colour for those that want to know) – though this was due to an inability to find the Spanish Montana I wanted. This is the most widely available at most underground record stores and is the most easily-found top-quality European paint (except perhaps Molotow). It is identified by its gloss black tin with a stylised white “b” on the front. Look in your nearest underground record store to find this paint.
Montana Gold (German) is the same as Black, but it's matt instead of gloss, and is more expensive. The paint of choice if you want a matt finish. Same tin design except in a matt gold.
Also of note are Monstercolors (a more expensive paint from the German Montana chaps), Rustoleum (the first spraypaint – American, and quite solid), and Krylon (also American, a tad better than Dulux but still pretty watery).
It almost goes without saying don't use those two-dollar touchup cans you'll find at Crazy Clarks (“Export” paint for example). I wouldn't even use these on a car, let alone speakers. Trust me, the savings really aren't even savings.
Brands to look for (in rough order of quality)
Montana Hardcore (Spanish)
Belton Molotow
Monstercolors
Montana Black (German)
Rustoleum
Krylon
[from here down are more mediocre paints]
Ironlak (not very glossy but tough and with a shiny urethane coat will serve well)
White Knight
Dulux
Paints to avoid (these are just plain unfortunate)
Pro-Line Aerosol Art Colors
Aeroskills
Taubmans
Any kind of car touch up paint
Any other brand of paint you find at Mitre 10 or Bunnings
Anything from a kitsch shop or a clearance dealer (e.g. Dollars and Sense)
Anything under $6 for a 350-400mL/g can
Now, onto the guide!
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The Actual Guide
Gasp, say all
Read your instructions. You have been warned.
Assembly and sanding:
Follow the instructions with your speaker kit in assembly, and follow them carefully. Do a dry assembly of the timber, then do it again with the wood glue, and clamp it. I sat an LP case with about fifty LPs in it on my speakers also to try and narrow the gaps.
My speakers had relatively large gaps along some edges, and overhangs on some sides. Using the 120 grit sandpaper on the sanding block to ensure a flat surface, I wore down the overhangs and made sure all sides were flat.
Next step was to fill in the gaps with Spakfilla, forcing it into the gaps as well as possible. Several layers is not a bad idea, as is making sure it mounds up somewhat, especially where a timber piece edge is short of the flat face of the speaker. Wait for this to dry, then sand back the filler and surrounding wood gently, making absolutely sure to keep the sanding block flat with the face of the speaker. Use 320 grit. Keep filling, waiting for it to dry, and then sanding - doing this as long as you need to, the tinier the gaps are the better. Once the speaker surfaces are as flat as can be expected, do a final light sanding coat over all surfaces with 320 grit.
Next step is to bevel or round the edges of the speakers. I rounded mine by hand to about a 3mm radius with 120 grit sand paper, a sanding block and some repetitive strain injury. If you use a hand router, make absolutely sure to test it on scrap timber first and be extremely careful – hand routers can turn a tiny slip into major damage (to your speaker or your body) in very short order. Also possible is to use jigs or some basic ruler-work to mark a line 3-5mm in from each edge, then planing or sanding until the removed wood just touches the line. This gives a flat bevel, which can look a little more modern (or 70s retro if you want to be cynical). Finish all bevelled edges with 400 grit sand paper for smoothness.
Painting and finishing (undercoat):
Before starting to paint, mask out each driver hole, the hole for the connector plate, and (especially) the holes for the tuning ports. For the flush-mounted drivers (the tweeter on the M5) you want the masking to go to about a tenth of a millimetre from the edge of the recess' wall, so the colour gets 'around' the tweeter, but the tweeter won't jam trying to get into the hole. You could also mask the drilled screw holes, but that's not really necessary.
Next step is to paint everything with the primer. Thin coats are better, and some water needs to be mixed into the paint for it to work best. It is fine to just dip the brush into a jar of water, shake it over the sink a bit, and then mix it into the paint while it is on the speaker. After each coat, wait half an hour (or as directed on the tin), sand the speaker back with 320 grit until most of the timber shows, and then repaint, leaving more primer showing with each subsequent coat. Continue to do this until you have an even, flat coating of primer over the entire surface of the speaker. A good technique is to stand the speaker on its bottom on top of spray paint dust caps and do a layer on every face but the bottom, running your finger along the bottom of each edge to catch the drips, wait for this to touch-dry, flip the speaker and coat the bottom, then wait for the primer to cure, do your sanding, and then repeat.
Once the primer is more or less done, sand it evenly with 400 grit. This uses a lot of sandpaper, be warned. You are aiming for an almost plastic-like consistency, super-smooth. The sandpaper will develop its own coat of paint. I found using wet and dry sandpaper with a smidgeon of water flicked onto the (completely cured) primer to be very effective way of achieving this finish. Remember, you want the speaker to almost feel like plastic once you're done here.
Note that from here on in the speaker will pick up dirt, dust, and just about anything like the blazes. Be very careful to set it down on clean cardboard or clean spray-can dust caps or similar so that it does not get the finish cut into by grit, or pick up any dust in a still-tacky coat of paint.
The next coat is the spray undercoat. I strongly recommend Dulux matt white Spraypak undercoat. Using the fan nozzle that came (or should have come) on the tin, shake well and spray in even coats along each face of the speaker as the can directs, 25-30cm away. These coats need to be really, really thin – if you think its thin it's not quite thin enough. I can't stress this enough, you want two or three quick even passes at most. It is trivial to ruin an excellent finish by being heavyhanded (or even midweight-handed) with a spray can. The same dust cap technique as with the primer can be used to cover all sides. After each light coat, sand them back gently and by hand (no sanding block). Use 400 grit after the first coat and 800 or 1200 grit after subsequent coats (I did three coats).
Now, once you're done with this, you have fully assembled, matt white speakers that are almost glass-smooth.
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Painting and finishing (topcoat):
The next trick is to get the colour on while maintaining the smoothness. Pull the stock nozzle off your Montana (or other high-quality paint!) and replace it with the fan nozzle from the Dulux, or a softball cap if you have no fan nozzles that work. Careful you don't squirt yourself while doing this. Also, make sure to use fresh sandpaper. Paint will come off paper you used for the undercoat, making for a very swirly result.
For the topcoat, it's very important that you can get an even coat everywhere at the same time. Otherwise you get a 'gritty' look to the paint from overspray while doing other sides. The best way to do this is to firstly paint the bottoms of the speakers.
Paint the bottom face, and only the bottom face with very light coats of colour, sanding with 1200 grit between coats, until the colour is solid and even. Now, sand again with the 1200 grit, mask off the rest of the speaker well, and then do the final coat by making sure there is just enough paint to get it to flow together into a flat surface. This should be a relatively thick coat (I said relatively!). This is something you learn best with practice, but the technique I use is to start at the bottom, paint across at a speed that gets the right amount of paint on in a line, then paint the next 'line' above this one with a slight overlap, and keep doing it until the whole surface is covered. If you get the weight of the paint coat right, the paint will flow together into a smooth surface, but won't run. You can tell when you get it right because looking at the surface from an angle will be super-glossy (like still lake water) to the point where you can read the text on your spray-can if you set it down next to it. It's pretty easy to mess this one up (I've done it...) and get a run in the paint, and also be warned that dust and particles stick like the blazes. Also, make sure to clean your nozzle with a damp rag before doing it, because larger globs of paint can sometimes be thrown off and ruin the coat. Should you mess it, the best recovery is either accept the flaw, or wait until the resin paint has properly set (24 hours usually), then sand back until just above the undercoat and start again.
So, once you've painted the bottoms, wait for the paint to set properly (again, the 24 hours, less if you are feeling really, really lucky), then cut squares the size of the bottom out of cartridge paper (don't use newspaper, the ink stains) and use painter's masking tape (or normal masking tape if you're feeling quite lucky) to tape it into place. Make sure that the square doesn't cover the bevel or rounding at the edge, and make sure that the tape forms a perfect square.
Next, flip the speaker so the bottom is, well, down. Now, use exactly the same technique to paint the other five faces, but this time, when you get to the final topcoat, you're going to have to do five faces all at once (for the colour-forming coats it's not so critical). I found the best order is to do the back, then the sides, then the top, then the front. It's worth noting that it's also quite effective to run the can once so that the spray is in line with the edge between two faces. This gets the flow of the paint to wrap between faces, and ensures that that shiny gleam from the ceiling light travels seamlessly along the finish.
Now, again with the waiting. At least twenty-four hours for the paint to set and harden properly. At this stage, you can just say 'stuff it, they look hot!' and proceed directly to installation, or you can continue on and do a urethane coat.
Now, a gloss resin paint coat is really nice, but can scratch easily. The easy (and cheap!) solution is to use a polyurethane spraycan coat such as Wattyl's Estapol range. In side-by-side tests it doesn't matter a whole lot whether you do use the gloss polyurethane, because what seems to matters most is the glossiness of the paint underneath. It's worth noting that this will make the speakers look different, and is a pain to get right.
First (assuming your masking for the bottom is still there) do one or two very light coats across all five revealed faces, to get a layer of urethane onto the speaker. Then, do the medium flow coat in the same fashion as with the colour top-coat. Make sure to clean the nozzle before this coat. Otherwise, the urethane spray spits out these blobs of semi-hardened plastic sometimes, and that can really ruin your day. Wait for this to set (less than twenty-four hours this time, I find five or six worked well - use your judgement,).
Now, set out a clean, soft cloth with something spongy under it, turn the speakers on their tops onto the cloth. Now, mask out the rest of the speaker, lining the edge as close as possible to the mask already on the bottom. Make sure that there is absolutely no physically possible way for a single particle of urethane to get through that mask, even a tiny, tiny bit can ruin the gloss. Once the mask for everything else is in place, peel off the bottom one and follow the same procedure to your shiny finish!
Wait for it to dry, and you're done with painting (which is the hard bit).
Final assembly:
You might want to check out the tweaks section of the LSK website at this point, as this is where most of the tweaks are applied.
First, tick on your choice of foot. Spikes are probably overkill for the bookshelf speakers, so I used those silicon-rubber dots that are commonly used to stop cupboard door handles from banging holes in things. Ones about 3-4mm high make neat feet and stick well (also, they're cheap). Don't expect any feet to come off without taking the finish with it if you do use them though. They're basically invisible unless you flip the cabinet over, so there's no real reason why you can't just eyeball the placement.
Now the hardware; stick the crossovers into the cabinets. For the M5s, the best spot seems to be either on the 'ceiling' of the speaker, or on one of the side walls up near the tweeter (if you put it on the 'floor', the woofer doesn't fit). Using the little rubber spacers that sit in the screw-holes on the bass drivers as mounts with some araldyte is quite a neat trick, though duct tape is also a pretty neat trick. Make sure the crossover is secure, and in the same spot in each speaker. Wire up your speakers and contact panel to the crossover while they sit outside the cabinets. Solder them if you like, but make sure to get the polarities right if you do... I didn't, and I melted a tag out of my connector plate trying to get the cables out again, and had to wait a week to finish my second speaker. Insert the sound damping material, making sure it sits evenly along the back of the speaker, and is in the same position in each. Tape or glue it in place if you really want to.
Finally, screw the speakers into the holes pre-drilled in your cabinets. It is a very, very, very good idea to be insanely, overly careful with your screwdriver (and don't even think about an electric screwdriver) because one slip can trash your entire finish. Closing your fist around the screw and the screwdriver is a pretty good way to make sure slips don't cut paint. The LSK kits have a flush enough finish with the drivers that a glue or non-sticking gap-filler is usually not required.
Conclusion
I hope this is of use to somebody in constructing an LSK kit and giving it a pro finish on a budget (though it was more an exercise in keeping my mind busy for me).
Feel free to sanitise, republish, modify or redistribute this guide under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia License.
Also feel free to ask any questions. : )
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Yorick, what a great post. Thanks for that. It will def prove useful to lots of people.
The Loudspeaker Kitspeaker kits so easy your mum could build them!
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Appendix, Or: Things I Screwed Up So You Don't Have To
A list of very handy things I learned while assembling $500 worth of speaker kit, paint and assorted hardware:
- Check every part very thoroughly before you start. I only discovered after everything was screwed into place that one of my ports had a crack in it, and I need it replaced. If I'd checked before I'd started, I wouldn't have to wait a couple weeks for a replacement.
- A no. 1 Phillips screwdriver works perfectly with the screws LSK provides. Placing a closed fist around the screw and driver while driving it is a good way to prevent slipping.
- Wire up both speakers before screwing the stuff in, and check that their connections are identical. Then check it again, then solder them. Then check them again. Then, and only then, screw everything in. Out of phase speakers make no one happy.
- Don't mount the crossover on the bottom of the speaker cabinet, the woofer won't fit in.
- Don't mount the crossover on the side of the speaker cabinet near the bottom, the woofer won't fit in.
- If you can manage it, the ceiling of the cabinet strikes me as a sensible spot for the crossover.
- Make sure your baffles and crossovers are in similar positions, this does affect the timbre somewhat. Different timbres in each speaker make no one happy.
- Don't screw in the input boards upside down. They have text on them, read it.
- Mask all of the holes (speaker holes, tuning port holes, input plate hole, screw holes) very thoroughly before starting to paint. Scraping away paint with a Swiss army knife so the tweeter will squeeze in is a fantastic way to scar the paint and creates these white nicks around the edge of the tweeter you have to black.
- When doing an estapol coat, start with a glass-like colour coat, and do an even, medium thickness coat (everything goes glossy when you look at it from an angle). Make sure to cover all of the surfaces except the bottom at the same time. Overspray from covering other sides when they didn't come out perfect will ruin a perfect coat on any other face. Use painter's tape (even at $20 a roll) and cartridge paper to mask any surfaces that come out just perfect after a given coat if you need to re-do any of them. One coat can do it just fine, but for the best finish start with a few very light coats, sanding with 1200 grit between, and then do the medium-thickness coat on all surfaces at the same time.
- M5s are plenty loud enough to give someone hearing damage. That is, your upstairs neighbour in a block of flats with concrete floors.
- Even out-of-phase M5s with one tuning port missing will make you cry and wonder why you could ever, ever, ever possibly listen to your music on fifty dollar computer speakers.
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Yorick wrote:Things I Screwed Up So You Don't Have To.....
.... - Even out-of-phase M5s with one tuning port missing will make you cry and wonder why you could ever, ever, ever possibly listen to your music on fifty dollar computer speakers. HEH! Nice work Yorick. If they are out of phase because the crossover was wired incorrectly, can't you just hook up the speaker wire from the amp in reverse as well?
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Nice Post!! I am halfway though using this guide as a bible on a pair of M4's - have hit a stumbling block though!! The Fiancee doesn't like the green that I used so bought some gloss white today. Will post pics in the brag section when done. Thank you!!! 
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Gitane wrote:I am halfway though using this guide as a bible on a pair of M4's - have hit a stumbling block though!! The Fiancee doesn't like the green that I used so bought some gloss white today. Will post pics in the brag section when done. Thank you!!! My pleasure. :) I'm glad someone finds it useful! I'm going to revise my painting technique section I think, I learned a few more things about using spray tins for gloss while doing this. Careful with white, it tends to be pretty thin and run easily. I'll be very interested to see how they turn up! Edit: Revised the body of the guide to assimilate some of the 'wisdom' learned.
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In Sydney, you can find some of those brands, including Montana Hardcore, Gold, and Belton Molotow at Isenbergs hardware, 351 Oxford St, Paddington. They didn't have a great colour range in hardcore (like six), but I imagine they could order it in for you.
Currently doing a test run on some MDF I bought today to see if it's too much effort, while I think about what speakers I want :-)
-David
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So just curious, given that the primer you used (same one I got) is a flat white, what purpose does the spray matte white undercoat serve?
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Joined: 1/5/2008
Posts: 35
Points: 105
Location: Brisbane
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blaedd wrote:So just curious, given that the primer you used (same one I got) is a flat white, what purpose does the spray matte white undercoat serve? More of a chance to mess around with rattling tins? Er... Wait. Actually I find it puts the final level of smoothness on the finish before the topcoat. Primer does not tend to be quite as fine as undercoat, nor as 'white'. I'm still having a bit of an issue with my right-hand M5 - flat and weird midrange. I'm beginning to think it's either the corner they're facing (weird desk spot), my homebrew amp, or lower back pressure - leaky cabinets or weird reflections inside them. It's kind of a downer that at the moment I'm amazingly busy, so I don't have time to fiddle, but when I get some time off (some time mid year, hah) I'm going to pull them apart again, reseal the interior with a liquid epoxy, and reassemble it trying to get better joins throughout. The difference in timbre is ever so slight, but enough to be distracting when you aren't in the optimum position. Slight crackle on the right speaker at high volume, though I'd be quicker to attribute that to the $2 RCA cables. Being used in banana sockets. *coff* Actually having swapped the speakers (physically, and electrically) and running my stereo in mono with JACK, I think I can come up with LSK's new slogan: "They're so good you'll realise how bad your ears are", and the amp is more suspect than the speakers at this point. Sigh, much as I love my 15kg MDF brick, high school electronics and non-toroidal transformers only take you so far. :) Good thing my Alesis RA150 will be in country in a week. Also, further tip for people who buy records instead of food with their last fifty dollars: the boxes the woofers come in make great isolators. Tempting as it may be to eat them when the Ramen runs out, they *are* good value for stopping rumble. Don't look bad either. Time to annoy my upstairs neighbour with a nice rendition of Mohammed by the Warhols...
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Rank: Kit Apprentice
Groups: Member
Joined: 1/5/2008
Posts: 11
Points: 33
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Heya Yorick, another quick question or two from me.
I sprayed the bases of my TL6's yesterday, and am moderately happy with the result, I basically followed your guide but cheated a little, not doing as many coats etc, as the place where it is , having a perfect finish is just not necessary.
I used 2 coats of primer, sanded down to a plasticky feel with 1200g wet sandpaper, then layed on 2 coats of White Knight satin black enamel paint, leaving about 4 hrs in between each coat there. sanded down to 1200g again after each coat of that, and then sprayed a single coat of WK metallic charcoal enamel over the top. I am probably 95% happy with the result, ie. I would have preferred it perfect, but for my first time using spraypaints, and considering the location of the piece, I can live with the result that I achieved.
so onto the questions.
1) should I give it a clear coat of something over the top? the paint is in a fairly hard wearing location, and though I guess I can just re-spray it if I need to in the future, is there an easier solution in simply clear coating it? will I lose any visual impact of the enamel?
2) you mention painters masking tape, I understand this is just a low stick tape that tends to not peel paint off with itself. I need to mask my paint for a further bit of my project, am I right to use gentle placing of something like electrical tape? I figure this isn't sticky enough to really pull paint off...
if you could give me a hand I would be in your debt mate.
Cheers,
Daniel
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Rank: Kit Master
Groups: Member
Joined: 1/5/2008
Posts: 35
Points: 105
Location: Brisbane
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insane wrote:1) should I give it a clear coat of something over the top? the paint is in a fairly hard wearing location, and though I guess I can just re-spray it if I need to in the future, is there an easier solution in simply clear coating it? will I lose any visual impact of the enamel?
2) you mention painters masking tape, I understand this is just a low stick tape that tends to not peel paint off with itself. I need to mask my paint for a further bit of my project, am I right to use gentle placing of something like electrical tape? I figure this isn't sticky enough to really pull paint off...
if you could give me a hand I would be in your debt mate. 1) Clearcoat will change the visual appearance, though usually it makes it look a little more professional. I actually quite like finishes without a clearcoat, but if it's going to be in any position to take some punishment, you'll be glad if you do coat it, especially with a paint like White Knight - Good colours, but not designed to withstand damage. I'd recommend a spraypack of estapol, and I'd also recommend coating the whole base instead of just the edge for evenness. I don't think there's an easier solution, and spraying a couple more coats isn't that bad. I guess you could just be really careful around it... They are speakers, so I hope that's a given. ;) 2) First, dear god man don't use electrical tape. That stuff peels horribly and can leave a nasty residue. You ever used it for repairs? It kind of melts into itself after a while, and the sticky goes into this horrid super-sticky goop. Probably not a problem if its on for twenty minutes, but I'm still wincing. If you don't want to splurge on the good stuff, I recommend *gently* placing a reasonable quality paper masking tape (i.e. not the dollar-for-three rolls from Woolies) and just pushing it enough such that it's evenly stuck, but don't push it enough that it seals and gets all the air out. That's the best way you can assure that you won't get any lasting damage. Hope this helps. Sorry for the delay, I read your post, but I couldn't log in, forum kept having a terminal error on me...
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