Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Summer Project

That looks great!

Ditto! THAT deserves an emoticon, but I'm experiencing so many different feelings right now.

Seriously, Richard, you are an awesome crazy man. You go!

People with "special needs" should order in MDF, then send 'em to you! Unless, of course, you really like using a heat gun.

Did you trim the edges with a knife, router or both?

Pissah result, duderoonie!

Matt the wood came from oakwood veneer in the USA. 2 sheets of premium cherry with their special backer for contact cement was 350.00 landed in the Yukon.

Peeling off the vinyl is not a fun job. If you watch the Axioms video on how their speakers are built you will see that the vinyl is applied and then the wood is cut and the speaker is folded together. The vinyl holds the speaker together until the glue drives. Once the vinyl is lifted the corners are an irregular shape and need to be squared up with a table saw and then some filling is required and I add more glue from the back side. I was going to get unfinished cabinets from Axiom a few years back but it is quite expensive since all pieces have to be cut and individually then glued ,which is much more labor intensive for them. I am still debating whether to carry on with the M80's since that would mean I would want to do the QS4's and M2's. Its not a one day job and then they are out of the system while I am working on them.

As for the trimming ,that is the hardest part. The weird shape of the speaker doesn't allow the use of the router so I try to get the edges as close as possible so there is very little trimming but this has its caveats because its hard to position the veneer when the contact cement is trying to grab it and once it sticks that's where it stays. I have found the good sharp round bastard file and my DA palm sander work best for the 45 deg edges. I did the VP 100 first since its not very visible in my room so I could get a sense of all the mistakes I would make, like putting the grain the wrong way and most importantly which piece to put first to limit exposed edges.

I have no idea what this means, but...

+1!

Bob likez soft wood??

Once you get your assembly line perfected, perhaps I should send you my VP160 for a 'make over' in HG Rosewood to match my M22s & EP800s, ha!!

TAM

Tam I am sure I could do that for you but I think the shipping would be a killer. Here is the wood portion of the VP100 done, I am just waiting on magnets to arrive so I can finish the fronts.

Yup, return shipping between BC & Yukon probably would be a lot.

Furthermore, the acres of Rosewood veneer (read - expensive!!) that the VP160 would require would be significant as well.

Your VP100 looks fabulous so far...

TAM

You haven't met Bob yet...

How much work have you done with veneers to get you to this point? Looks like a cool project that I could actually do in an apartment. Well, once I get to all those other cool projects piling up.

Fred, I do all the layout and cutting of the veneer on my kitchen table. I am single so I can do what I want LOL , honestly it needs to be redone anyway. My first try was home built center channel similar to a VP180 and I used self adhering veneer which works great the sad part was they sent me quarter sawn instead of flat cut and I didn't notice until I was all done. The second experience was my home built 3Ways on the first page and that went much better. The hard part is cutting out the circles for the speakers. The VP100 is my third try and is a prep to doing my M80's so I can get thing straight in my head and try and perfect my technique. I did not look close enough at the veneer and missed a couple of dings that stand out but its ok since veneer is imperfect since it is wood after all. For some reason I make my mistakes on the top or the front but the back and sides always turn out perfect, go figure. One other thing, after I stain the wood which has to be done outdoors I seal the speaker with varathane and then I spray multiple coats of automotive clear coat. The clear is tough as nails and gives that piano finish with little effort and can be buffed up with a wool pad and light sanding with 4000 grit paper. I am not sure if I will ever achieve the perfection I think I should be capable of so for now I practice acceptance.