Preserving 250ti veneer skirts

Almost every pair of L250/250ti's have ugly places on the skirt where veneer is gone...It's not the owners fault, these were designed badly...the speaker is too heavy ( 135 lbs.) to pickup and so must be slid. The veneer goes all the way to the bottom edge and gets picked away when sliding...

The factory glides are a joke ...little brown plastic buttons with a tack through them ...abt half of mine were broken off, with now just a tack head for support.

pic #3 shows my solution ... see next post.

They are steel, adjustable for height , just drill a 1/2 in hole, insert nylon sleeve and screw in the glide .... abt 45 minutes to do all 8 , and now they just move around with much less damage. The speakers now sit a little less than an inch higher, but instead of sinking into the carpet, they seem to hover on the surface..

I put a level to them when done and they were right on the bubble...I used the old tack holes.

$6 investment. :applaud:

There are a number of Teflon furniture feet available that just stick on and will support 200# easily. They typically are very large discs that will allow the speaker to slide easily on any surface. Personally I think they should be on spikes.

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Originally Posted by rdgrimes

There are a number of Teflon furniture feet available that just stick on and will support 200# easily. They typically are very large discs that will allow the speaker to slide easily on any surface. Personally I think they should be on spikes.

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RD

either I was unclear or you read past the point of the feet ..... they are to raise the speakers so not to destroy anymore veneer when moving....ease of movement is secondary to that goal.

stick on teflon disks doubtfully will raise the speakers enough, may make it worse.

spikes ?? the 250ti has its bus bars (attenuators) on the back side ...spikes would make it near impossible to adjust them.

here is a bad case pair from eBay

Yes it's an unfortunate design/manufacturing flaw. Why put that much engineering and cabinetry work into it, then put such pathetically cheap feet on them? My L250s suffered the same fate.

I put new feet on them to lift them up, but that can't undo the damage that was done before I got them.

Over the months I thought about various schemes to redeem the look. Some guys painted the bottoms black, and IMO it looks like hell. Others put much darker stain on the bottom to try to obscure the light colored board under the chips. It looks tacky.

Taking a router and making a second relief line right at the bottom like the black one several inches above it might work. Then there'd be two black lines.

Again, taking a router and doing a 45 degree bevel all the way around the bottom and painting it black or dark brown or stain matching it might work.

A third possibility is cutting out a 1/4" or 1/2" chunk around the bottom and putting solid wood in there. Beveled or rounded, it might match the solid wood inserts on the corners and at the top and give it a finished look. Or it might look stupid.

I just really hate having such great looking speakers messed up because of the cheap feet that were OEM.

Yes, that really is a shame. I suppose some of the wood repair filler materials could do a passable job if the damage wasn't too extreme. In the example shown, I'm afraid that would still look pretty obvious. It's really too bad...I think the L250 (and the 250ti) are among the most beautiful speaker cabinet designs ever made.

Pete

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Originally Posted by SEAWOLF97

here is a bad case pair from eBay

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On the speaker on the right it doesn't even appear that the veneer on the bottom section matches that above it. On the left one, they appear to be of the same piece. How hard would it be to replace just that piece up to the routered groove?

Of course in every photo in the catalogs the veneer is a dead-on match and apparently continuous between the sections. L7s don't seem to have this problem. ;) :slink:

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Originally Posted by Titanium Dome

Yes it's an unfortunate design/manufacturing flaw. Why put that much engineering and cabinetry work into it, then put such pathetically cheap feet on them? My L250s suffered the same fate.

I put new feet on them to lift them up, but that can't undo the damage that was done before I got them.

Over the months I thought about various schemes to redeem the look. Some guys painted the bottoms black, and IMO it looks like hell. Others put much darker stain on the bottom to try to obscure the light colored board under the chips. It looks tacky.

Taking a router and making a second relief line right at the bottom like the black one several inches above it might work. Then there'd be two black lines.

Again, taking a router and doing a 45 degree bevel all the way around the bottom and painting it black or dark brown or stain matching it might work.

A third possibility is cutting out a 1/4" or 1/2" chunk around the bottom and putting solid wood in there. Beveled or rounded, it might match the solid wood inserts on the corners and at the top and give it a finished look. Or it might look stupid.

I just really hate having such great looking speakers messed up because of the cheap feet that were OEM.

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TD

I've had the same thots..maybe a 1/2inch strip ...quarter round on the top edge..flush round the bottom edge ? Next time I pass the exotic woods place, I'll stop in and see what kinda of stock they have in teak trim pieces.

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Originally Posted by BMWCCA

On the speaker on the right it doesn't even appear that the veneer on the bottom section matches that above it. On the left one, they appear to be of the same piece. How hard would it be to replace just that piece up to the routered groove?

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Phil

I noticed that mismatch too..I have a friend who is veneering any worthy cabinet, even over vinyl, and its coming out beautiful..Mr. Plywood has veneer 4x8 sheets/rolls at half price - $32- and maybe its time to learn how....BUT, even with new veneer that will happen again UNLESS they get raised to prevent recurrent damage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Titanium Dome

Taking a router and making a second relief line right at the bottom like the black one several inches above it might work. Then there'd be two black lines.

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That would have been the best way from the factory, but instead of just routing a relief in and painting it, I'd route the relief to hold standard L-shaped aluminum strips like you can buy at Home Depot, etc., anywhere from 1/2"x1/2" to 1"x1", then paint or ideally anodize them black and put them in place, (good construction glue would work), or they could be screwed in from the bottom. You could still add some kind of sliders, but L shaped aluminum would certainly provide an extra level of protection all the way around.

Edit: I just realized the rounded edges on the front would be problematic for L-shaped strips, but you could still use something like the plain flat aluminum strips, (1/16" thick x 1/2" or 3/4" or so?), to fit into a routed relief - it would still be better than just routing and painting the wood black...

John

another thought... add a plinth, inset on sides and front a bit (not too much
as instability could be an issue) and perhaps 1" in height. Then one could
add sliders/feet/spikes/etc... and keep the veneer off of the carpet... without
changing the look very much (or not at all if on carpet).