Most original/unique finish/material you've seen on a speaker/sub? (1 Viewer)

[Brett DiMichele]

Richard,

I spent most of the night looking around at US Composites.
It's going to cost about $180.00 for enough material (8oz)
to do both enclosures.

Here was my idea..

Make sure the enclosures are properly sanded smooth and
devoid of bumps, dips etc.. Lay the resin down on the MDF
and lay the CF on the resin. Work out the CF with hands
(wearing gloves) let the resin set. Send the enclosures
to a body shop and have them spray 10 coats of 2 stage
chemical hardening clear coat over the entire enclosure
and then sand and buff out..

That should yeild a super smooth, super glossy CF without
the need for a vacuum bag or reverse mold.. Yes no?

Or would it just be easier to do everything above and just
vacuum bag the enclosures and let the resin be the gloss
coat.

???

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Ohh I forgot to address the seams info..

There will only be seams at the tops and bottoms. My logic
was to spray some gloss black paint around the top edges
so that when I pull the CF together at the seam it won't
have to be 100% "perfect" because the black edges will hide
any minute gaps that I can't work out.

There will be no seam heigh wise or width wise since I can
wrap the CF in one piece around the back and sides and the
front baffle "insets" into the enclosure which will hide
the seams in the front where the CF will end. The only
seams will be along the very top side and back edges and
on the bottom side and back edges since I will cut seperate
pieces for the tops and bottoms.

I am open to comments you may have...

 

[Joe Hsu]

Damn, sounds rather complicated. Make sure you take plenty of pictures and document this well for those of us (ME) that don't have any experience in the subject

 

[PaulT]

How about Corian or other countertop material? They have granite simulations.

http://www.corian.com/a/en/h/Product...ideSheets.html

 

[Joe Hsu]

Hmmmm, thanks! There are a bunch of Corian retailers near me as well, so I'll def check that out after Thanksgiving. Still worried about the corners though, so hopefully they'll have some good advice.

Which of these materials do you guys think would work best with wood? i.e., taking some nice wood and covering the edges and corners, and then finish the faces with inlaid material.

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

IF you can find a Corian (or other brand of the same stuff) dealer who will sell you small pieces, please post the source. At one time, resale of Corian was limited by the manufacturer to fabricators - meaning only large pieces and quantity purchase requirements. At least that's what I've read in more than one place.

 

[Gerry S]

Home Depot has a surface that looks and feels like Corian, but it's cheaper.

 

[Joe Hsu]

Gerry, do you happen to know the name of the product or manufacturer?

They built a Lowes one mile down the street from me...I can't wait until January, when it's supposed to open.

 

[Gerry S]

Joe:

I am 99% sure this is the stuff:

http://www.silestoneusa.com/

-Gerry

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

I sent them an e-mail asking about small pieces. I don't think they'll be interested. They want to sell you very large pieces, cut, routed and delivered to your house as new countertops. We'll see...

 

[Brett DiMichele]

I was messing around in 3D to see roughly what the Carbon
Fiber,Granite and Brushed Aluminum would look like...

Any comments???

 

[dave alan]

Actually, both Lowes and Home Depot sub contract all their solid surface work.

You might do better to check the Yellow Pages for fabricators of solid surface counter tops (Corian, Nuvell, Surell, Fountainhead, etc., it's all the same stuff) and ask if you can buy some sink or cooktop cutout remnants.

There is also an Italian Company called Interlam that makes the most stunning plastic and real metal laminates I've ever used. You might try to find a distributor or dealer of their products near you and see if they'll sell cut pieces, etc.

 

[Jeff Stiger]

Corian is pretty amazing stuff... my friend's dad does installation training and he makes all kinds of stuff out of Corian. It can also be inlayed in (or bonded to) wood for a unique look. Darker colors show scratches easy, but it also can be polished to a mirror like finish.
They (dupont) also make a synthetic stone called zodiac. Looks, feels and is installed like granite and other stone, but it in not porous like granite. Cool stuff.

-Jeff

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Ok I changed my mind.. I don't like the way the enclosures
would look done all in Carbon Fiber...

Now I am thinking maybe just do the baffles in CF and do the
sides,tops,bottoms and backs of the enclosures with a darker
colored wood.. Perhaps something like this...


Ebony Macassar

 

[ChrisArmour]

How stiff is this "zodiac"? Is it just as heavy as the stone it was designed to replace? I guess what I am getting at is, How good of a cab material is this stuff? If it were as solid as granite, but lighter and easier to work with and looked just as good, it seems like it would make a great cab material. Do you have any links?

 

[Bob Kavanaugh]

No disrespect, but that Ebony Macassar looks like poorly stained plainsawn pine.

I wonder what carbon fiber and wood look like together. Have you modeled that yet? It would be interesting to see.

 

[ChrisArmour]

Here are some links I found for "Zodiaq" after a quick search. It seems that this stuff is still a stone(I assumed it was more plastic like in nature), it's just an engineered stone, so it would'nt be too practicle for the average DIY'er. Still, the fact that it comes in 3/4 or 1 1/8 inch thicknesses and has so many color options makes it a pretty attactive choice for a cab material.
http://www.zodiaq.com/
http://www.corian-countertop.com/HTM...aq-colors.html
http://www.allenkit.com/rem_fp_zodiaq_details.asp

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Bob,

I am not saying I was going to use Macassar it was just an
example of a darker wood. I have to model the wood/carbon
combo to see what it looks like.. I am thinking it will look
a lot better than solid Carbon on the cabinet.

I may model these in Burled Oak with Carbon Baffles and see
what that looks like.

 

[Adam Demuth]

Hank,
As absolutely tacky as your leopard fur speakers are (no offense) I like... I want... Is that leopard cloth you can get at the fabric store? I'm making a tiki/lounge room and couldn't think of any cool themes for the speakers except for a Tiki theme. It's my idea for alternitive looking speakers... Dark (very dark) stained veneer for the body of the cabinet... bamboo cane with 1/4 notched out so they can fit on the corners (so it looks like there is a bamboo frame holding the speaker together) and bamboo reed or a burlap coffee bag for speaker grilles. You could do that for your sub, only use BIG bamboo, and place a glass top on it and put various tiki crap under the top like a mask... you get the idea... Man, I've got to stop watching Gilligans Island...

 

[Andy Goldstein]

i'm spraying my 4 foot tall home-made double advents with granite textured paint. right now they are painted flat black, just to hide the mdf and screws. just painting them flat black made a huge difference. the tops will have a marble slab. i already sprayed the advent center channel speaker. it was black vinyl covered before. even with the white and grey flecks in the texture paint, the speaker looks "blacker" than it did before. until you get up close, and see the flecks.

ag.