All Formica, all day! unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of applying it,
because I didn't want to succumb to contact cement fumes, Tuolene isn't very
good for you.
Oh, we also put the feet on the speakers too, but no pictures of that yet (I promise I'll
take more pictures on the next day.)
It's hard to judge when the contact cement has dried enough, basically if it's still tacky
but doesn't come off on your finger, it's ready.
We tried various means of cutting Formica, none of which worked really well. Scoring and
breaking is a recipe for distaster if you don't take your time and score so deeply that
the Formica will break itself with it's own weight. The Skilsaw threw it into such a
vibrationary mode that it tore chips out pretty badly. The Jigsaw worked pretty well
though. Cutting was pretty stressful.
Oh, and I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but ORDER ENOUGH FORMICA
THE FIRST TIME, learn from my experience... It takes a 4x8' sheet to cover the
sides, top and front (I didn't cover the backs). I was in a hurry when I figured out
how much formica I needed, and forgot to include enough to cover the tops, foolish me.
Fortunately the flooring shop was able to find me a small sheet somewhere.
Formica cuts very nicely with a router, but you should put masking tape on both the
surface you're routing, and on the surface that the guide runs on, because the guide can
bind up and mar the surface.
We tried to route out the speaker holes at the end of the day, but could only cut to the
inside lip because the follower and the nut holding it on are taller than the recess
for the driver, and I was too tired to come up with something to fix it.
The formica looks really good except for some minor quibbles and gotchas, I'm happy I
did it this way.
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A very dead sander sheet. Couldn't find a new one right away, so we just
kept using this one till it died.
The end of the day shot, formica on all surfaces, looks pretty good.
Notice the feet.
Here you can see that we couldn't cut all the way to the edge on the speaker
recesses, leave that for another day (I really thought this would be the last day,
oh well...) The line along the edge of the baffle is just glue, it comes off with
a little elbow greese.
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