Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Maybe I should start a v4.0 build thread somewhere

Love your build threads, Nick.

very interesting.

Update for today:

I hate Bondo. It smells bad, is messy, and hardens too quickly.

All that, and I still don't have all of the groves filled with the first round of Bondo. Going to let this stuff cure and then maybe one light sand tonight and then fill the last grove and call it an evening before doing a nice sand tomorrow and second coats on the grooves.

That's funny, only thing that smells better than bondo is spray paint LOL. Its lots of work but the when you take your time the payoff is huge.

Richard

So I ran out of Bondo. I originally (before I was going to do the groove method on the seams) had a 1 pint can. I scrapped that idea and went with a 1 quart can instead. Well, I should have gotten the gallon size. I went through the full quart and still have about 1/2 of the box to cover (some grooves and whole surface). The pint costs about $6, the quart was about $9, and the gallon was $19. Lesson learned there.

I was also fighting the high humidity outside contrasting the blaring sun. The sun was drying things so fast, at least to a point, and then the humidity slowed down the last bit of drying. After the fumes settle down I will bring it back into the house so that it isn't fighting the humidity.

I picked up some filler today, not sure what I was thinking , I bought a 397g , no where near what I needed. Your right that stuff stinks. Good thing its out in the shop. Funny thing about bondo, seems I sand off 2/3 of what I apply. I really don't think the average person that buys speakers really understands what goes into making them. Simply amazing how cheap we can prebuilt speakers for. Have thank the Chinese for their cheap ass labor.

So I bought 2 things today (sort of 2 things)...

The 1 gallon size Bondo...
And an orbital sander.

I had an "orbital palm sander" that you can use cut square pieces of sandpaper, but it isn't aggressive enough. The round orbital sander is MUCH better.

I sanded two big sides and the top smooth tonight, but the other two sides had Bondo that was not mixed with enough hardening agent. I was trying to do a full 30" x 17" side with one "batch" of mixed Bondo, and it kept getting hard before I had it applied, so I used less hardener. Found out that is a big no-no. It was never going to harden. I mean, it felt hard, but was tacky to the touch and easily dinged with a finger nail.

So I scraped those sides off and started over. I used 3 "batches" per side and it and made sure that it was nice and "salmon" colored.

There will still be another round of Bondo when these get sanded, but it will be for a few spots where there was a chunk on the Bondo putty "blade", etc. Those will be a lot easier. Then another sanding. Then I am going to go over it with Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty for the fine pin holes. Light sand that, and I am ready to prime.

We are doing "summer hours" at work, so that means I should be home around 1:45 pm Friday to give myself a good 3.5 hour jump start. My goal is to be pretty much ready to prime by Saturday, however I know better and it will be at least Sunday. :-)

You have ambitious plans for sure. Funny I picked myself up a round orbital sander the has hook and loop to hold the discs on.I looked at so many that when I bought it I did not realize it did not have speed control. But it works great. handly device for 25 bux. Throw some more pics up. I keep my smart ass phone in my pocket , that way I will have some pics as I go along. What bit did you use to cut the relief for your speaker ?

Yes, the hook and loop is going to be nice. That is what I got, but I sprung for a little more heavy duty than the $25 one that I almost bought first. Not sure how much better it is, but reviews were more solid. Crazy that some of them go for over $130. That is NOT what I bought. Your $25 one was probably a better one than the $25 one I saw though.

I have my phone with me too, but just didn't post pictures last night. I will take a "before sanded" and "after sanded" photo later today. I figured between our two threads, we should only post pictures in one of them each day to not spoil the other Axiomites with a lot of pictures all at once and then have them complain that they haven't seen anything in a while. J/K
I was just in a rush last night to get to a certian spot before going to a local concert in the park type event with my wife.

Nick, which random orbital sander did you get? I'm thinking of getting one for car waxing and because I haven't bought any tools this week.