INFINITY QA's RE-VENEER AND?

OMI · Feb 26, 2006

Started the Infinity QA speaker project today. Took off all the old vinyl veneer. I have some Red Oak pre-glued veneer that I will use on them. I used a heat gun to help with the removal of the old vinyl veneer. Was expecting the stuff to be a bit thicker than it was ..

1. Heat gun used
#2 to #6 work in progress
7. first one done
8. second one done
9. pile of old vinyl that was removed from both speakers
10. Both orig speakers

Have a courner to rebuild on one of 'em.

Also have an issue with one of the tweets. Will remove the tweets and woofers to clean up the contacts later and hope that clears up the problem.

Will post pics as I stumble through this project

macaltec · Feb 26, 2006

Lookin good :thmbsp: . Can't wait to see them finished.

mac

merrylander · Feb 27, 2006

Good work Omi, was there a second series to the Qa's? The ones I did were veneered in oak and the poly woofer had a bullet shaped dust cap.

Rob

OMI · Feb 27, 2006

I was surprised at how good the cabs looked after I took off the vinyl veneer ( except the corner that I dinged up when I was taking 'em out of the car when the wife started to nag...). Cabs are 11 inches wide and I think the remaining red oak that I have is a little wider... Will pull that tonight and make sure...

omi

Don C · Feb 27, 2006

Most people like to take the drivers out of the cabinets before starting a job like this.

OMI · Feb 27, 2006

Yer right Don.. I have limited space so....... Now the first time I destroy a driver I will kick myself in my ass...

for not making space....

Strawman · Feb 27, 2006

I wasn't going to pee in his wheaties, but, since you mentioned it....

OMI · Feb 27, 2006

If I leave 'em in I know where they are and less chance of me steppin' on 'em

wank · Feb 28, 2006

Nice heat gun. Can I have it?
Can't wait to see them done. My RSe (1 model smaller, 1 model earlier) are originally in oak. But I want to do my vinyl AR-7s and maybe AR-4xas.

Charivari · Feb 28, 2006

Nice going so far, I'm surprised the vinyl peels off so easily. I'll have to keep the heat gun trick in mind should I run across a beat pair. I am wondering, though, if you've figured out how to fix that broken corner?

Oh, Wank, the RSe is actually newer than the Qa by two years. The Quantums were still using paper cones, but Infinity introduced poly cones (an industry first, I believe) with the first Reference Series.

- JP

MarkAnderson · Feb 28, 2006

OMI - is that really as easy as the pictures suggest? I have a pair of Advent/1's and some HPM-40's, oh, and Avids and Advent/2's and... that could use some help. - Mark

OMI · Feb 28, 2006

Yeppers... A GOOD heat gun... I have a bud at work that loaned me his... You could heat a house with it.... In fact when I fired it up I melted the vinyl in one corner and did not notice that... I was expecting the vinyl to be thicker and kept waiting for a thick chunk to loosen up... You can see it in one of the pics. Once I realized what I was doing I turned it down.... I heated up one edge so that the vinyl was just starting to curl and I started working it up from there. Garbed an edge and it just peeled up about 1/2 inch... Just enough to start it. You then have to use the gun to pre-heat 3 or 4 inches of covering and start to pull it off... When it won’t give you heat a few more inches... Got both speakers done in 20 or 30 minutes...

I used the heat gun on a small case that had the thick plastic base with veneer, and was expecting that here. This was rather thin high quality vinyl sheeting veneer.

The heat gun will also work with wood veneer that has been placed with heat activated, and rubber cement glue. Once you heat the veneer up and get it loose it is a quick job. I would only take off wood veneer if it was a total wreck. My Forte’s had been dinged real bad on the top of one and someone had added (glued) a new top and 2 inches on the sides, over the ding. I used the heat gun to loosen the glue and remove the patch. Then I used filler in the ding and sanded down the old wood veneer on both speakers and then used red oak w/ hot melt over the old wood veneer.

Got some Elmer’s epoxy wood repair that I will try out. Hope to start that this weekend…

wank · Feb 28, 2006

Charivari said:
Oh, Wank, the RSe is actually newer than the Qa by two years. The Quantums were still using paper cones, but Infinity introduced poly cones (an industry first, I believe) with the first Reference Series.

- JP

Yeah - I think I meant later rather than earlier, but I was clearly talking out of my ass while rushing off to supper.

OMI - is that thing street legal? (cousinvinnie)"that thing come with a turbocharger?"(/cousinvinnie). What does a heat gun like that set a person back?
Have you considered cutting a small corner off of another piece of wood or trashed cabinet and then using epoxy as an adhesive and partial filler?

OMI · Feb 28, 2006

3rd and 4th pic shows the top left corner that I melted the vinyl on

Have no idea how much my bud paid but most likely big $$$$$. May be OVERKILL for stuff like this and the standard 2 setting heat gun will do the trick..... But a heat gun from a bud is better then buying one from Lowe's

If others have used heat guns chime in now

The corner is not as bad as it first looked. I think the epoxy wood filler will work well....

merrylander · Mar 1, 2006

I use an old Black & Decker heat gun all the time to strip vinyl and shrink tubing. I would not buy any B&D stuff today since they sent all the jobs offshore.

Rob

OMI · Mar 12, 2006

O.K. Have started to work on the speakers.

1. Tonight I masked the front and sanded one of the speakers down with a 100 grit sanding sponge to get the left over junk off of the cabs.

2. Filled in some screw holes and the ID number that was etched on the back with wood filler and sanded down

3. Masked the back and painted

4. Painted the front

Looked at the red oak pre-glued veneer that I have left. Have enough to do both speakers. Cut it into sections for the sides and top and bottom for both speakers. There are a few blemishes that I will hide on the piece that will go on the bottom of each speaker.

I am ready to start to apply the veneer to the first speaker. May see if I can get to it tomorrow night after work...

I left the speakers in place due to limited shop space... My 6 feet on the garage wall is stuffed....

The second speaker has the corner that I will need to spend some time on before I can do anything too it. Will get this speaker done (getting the speaker painted and veneer applied) first and then work the other one. Will finish both speakers at the same time with Watco Danish oil and poly...

Tripqzon · Mar 12, 2006

Awesome thread OMI. How thick is the veneer you will be using?

Paul

OMI · Mar 12, 2006

Not sure of the exact thickness, but got from tapeease:

http://www.tapeease.com/hot_melt_sheets.htm

Seems fairly thick veneer. I did a set of Klipsh Forte's already with the same veneer. The stuff has a nice thick application of hot melt glue on the back so you dont have to mess with appling any glue to it. The sheets are 2 ft by 8 ft..... so a nice amount for large projects...

I will post picks as I do the veneer....

OMI · Mar 14, 2006

Started the veneer…
1. Painted front and back of the first speaker.
2. Hot glued (iron on method) the face strip of veneer (the strip that goes on the face facing you… )
3. Hot glued (iron on method) both side pieces in place
4. Used the edge trimmer to trim the sides. You have to make sure that you are cutting into the grain of the veneer or it will gouge out in a heart beat.
5. Used the 2 cherries veneer saw to trim the top and bottom overhang. The saw was cutting against the grain and did a great job of a flush cut to the top and bottom of the speaker.
6. Hot glued the top and bottom pieces of veneer to the speaker.
7. Used the 2 cherries veneer saw to trim the overhang. On the side where I had a face of new veneer I used tape to protect the veneer from getting scratched by the 2 cherries veneer saw. You place the blade dead against the surface and using a draw pull, cut and trim the veneer.
8. I used the 2 cherries veneer saw to trim all 4 sides of the top and bottom pieces. 2 were against the grain and 2 were with the grain. The saw cut “with” the grain like a hot knife in butter… Did a great job in both conditions.
9. Speaker now has new veneer. Spent some time today doing final trimming and making sure the veneer is glued down.
10. Pic of the second speaker corner with Elmer’s wood epoxy filler.
11. Also painted the front and back to get the speaker ready for veneer application after I sand the corner back into shape.
12. Liked the way the 2 cherries saw trimmed the top and bottom of the first speaker so well that I will use it to do ALL the trimming of the second speaker. A good test…

Note that the trimming with the 2 cherries veneer saw was done on a clean piece of plywood.

Added pic of both speakers put away for the night. The bottom speaker has been re-veneered and the top one is the one I am working on now. After both get veneered will do the Watco Danish oil and poly coating...

sydsfloyd67 · Mar 14, 2006

Excellent and timely post.

How did you do the front edge 'frame'? Was it precut exactly prior to application?

On the 'iron-on' method, what does the manufacturer mean about 'must be scraped while cooling'? Thanks. -sf

INFINITY QA's RE-VENEER AND?

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