My 4344 cabinets (& what oil to use??)

[jarrods]

Well finally the raw cabinets for my 4344s are done. Last Sunday was a trip to a friends house some 2 hours drive away to my birthplace of Colac, Victoria. He is a kitchen cabinet maker so this was a trivial build for him with the full workshop at hand. I have made them with a 16mm MDF shell, covered with a mitred american walnut 18mm MDF outer wrapper. The baffle and split section back are both plain 25mm MDF. The dogbox is 16mm MDF and braces 25X75mm MDF.

The next few weeks will see me doing the fit-out of drivers, painting the front and back (JBL BLACK) and oiling the vaneer. My question is what do I use for that?

Some pics follow.....

[jarrods]

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[jarrods]

The raw American Walnut (yes i got the yank stuff not our ozzie stuff)... so anyone recommend an oiling procedure????

[Ian Mackenzie]

Huh,

You got someone to do all the hard yakka for you.

Okay, when's the demo.


Ian

[boputnam]

Dood...

That's a hella nice job. Wow. At some point, if you're game, you should email your plans to Techbot and Don so they can be archived. The look worthy...

On the oiling, Audiobeer is one of the finest woodworkers I've known, so maybe he'll pitch-up here and offer some ideas.

[jarrods]

Hey Ian.... yeah i had always intended to chicken out on the actual build of the cabinets.. i know i can drive a soldering iron but my woodworking skills are average. to be with him in his full-on workshop; buzzing the boards through the table saw, then at 45 degree for the mitres, the router for the holes and the pheumatic nailer, drill and screwdrivers... wow!!! anyway he did a great job of the boxes and i am so happy with them. hmmmm the other deciding factor was i live in a second story unit with no garage etc so the build is happening in my formal dining room (come temp JBL factory). the painting will be ok. cutting, routering & assembling may have been a bit messy. i hope to do the fit-out over the next few weeks. the demo soon after.. man this has been a 9 month project now.

and Bo.... yeah thanks. i actually have most of the plans drawn up in visio. when i get it all finished i should tidy it all up and post it in. I mean most of it is just a slight variation to all the GREAT works i have seen presented here anyway but someone may find the PCB layout of the crossovers useful. i still have full scale graph-paper layouts of them...

http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/s...&threadid=2574


jarrod

[Mr. Widget]

Originally posted by jarrods
The raw American Walnut (yes i got the yank stuff not our ozzie stuff)... so anyone recommend an oiling procedure????

I won't speak for the beer, but I think he has been using lacquer and then rubbing it out with pumice or sanding it to kill the shine.

I prefer the oil finishes to the lacquer or polyurethanes for open grain woods like walnut. For closed grain woods like maple I prefer to spray lacquers or polyurethanes.

I like Watco Danish Oil which is an American product that is probably not exported. It is a blend of alkyd resins, tung oil, petroleum distillates such as naptha, and I am not sure what else. A serious woodworker friend used to make his own finish by blending, linseed oil, polyurethane resin, and a bit of naptha to thin it out.

Using an oil doesn't require any special equipment and can be easily done in any well ventilated area. Dust isn't even a problem. You can get a finish with more gloss by using a mixture with more polyurethane or alkyd resin or by using additional applications.

I sand out the wood to a 600 grit level and then apply the oil. I let it soak in keeping the wood saturated for about an hour. I then wipe it off. I have to come back and wipe it off about once an hour as it seeps back out from the wood's pores. If you do not do the follow up wipes with fresh rags or paper towels you will get unsightly shinny spots. After a few hours I come back about every six hours. After a day or so it is dry. After about a week or two the finish dries out further. I then repeat the process usually wet sanding with 600 grit paper and the oil. After this application and subsequent wipings the wood has an amazing glow. It isn't too shiny, but it has a deep rich look to it.

Widget

[Mr. Widget]

It looks like your buddy did a great job!


Keep us posted with your progress.

Widget

[jarrods]

hey Widget.

thanks for the info on the oil..

i hunted for Watco on the aus google and found a hit.

http://www.arbortech.com.au/articles/017.html

they have a distributer very close to me so i will check them out next week.

the Watco got an Excellent in this dudes review, some other got exceptional but may have been on different species of wood so act differently. i'll go with what you know works if i can get hold of it.

cheers, Jarrod

[still4given]

Thanks for posting this. I have been thinking of building a second B360 and have wondered about using MDF. JBL seems to use partical board rather than MDF. I prefer working with MDF but wonder why JBL doesn't use it. Does anyone know why?

Those cabinets look great! Looking forward to seeing and hearing about the finished product.

Blessings, Terry

[Robh3606]

Oooo! I like them!! Nice cabinets. Wait till you get them loaded up they are really worth the work!

Rob