Repairing cabinet chips

[Guest]

Can anyone offer the best possible way to repair chips or gouges in classic walnut AR and Advent cabinets? I've repaired minimal scratches in the past by sanding, staining and finishing with great results, but I've noticed that one pair of speakers seems to have larger than minimal chips on the bottom surfaces and am not totally sure which would be the best way to correct these markings so they are not as obvious.

[Guest Nigel]

If you have a high quality cabinet maker or furniture repairer locally, go talk to them.

If not; there are still a lot of options. most drastic is to remove and replace the veneer. Less drastic is to fill it with some sort of putty.

I would look really hard for the top, before doing anything.

Nigel

[Guest]

In a similar vein, does anyone have some suggestions on general finishing of ar oiled walnut cabinets to bring them up in appearance? My pair's got some watermarks and such on the tops. Is a sand/stain approach best? What sort of 'oil' might be used for finishing?

Any help greatly appreciated --

--Daniel

[Guest Nigel]

Hi Daniel;

Oil; a place that sells Scandanavian furniture will have appropriate oil.

I would try just oiling several times, sometimes the oil will float the water mark out. Use a clean soft cotton rag - (underwear works well).

Before attacking the marks, I recommend getting the wood into well oiled condition.

A super fine steel wool will probably take out the water marks that are left, if they are not too deep.

Nigel

[Guest]

My plan was to clean off and then gently sand down the walnut with extra super fine grit sand paper or steel wool and then proceed to fill in any gouges or chips with walnut colored wood filler, and gently and exactly sanding down the filler before going ahead and refinishing (oiling) the overall cabinets after bringing up and removing any water stains as best I can. For old ARs with squared off cabinets it's easy - for the Advents with the slightly rounded baffled edging in front it's more difficult.

Also, where can someone purchase wood laminates if they were needed?

I've thought about it but never knew where to find that thin sheet laminate wood.

Anthony

[Steve F]

>My plan was to clean off and then gently sand down the

>walnut with extra super fine grit sand paper or steel wool

>and then proceed to fill in any gouges or chips with walnut

>colored wood filler, and gently and exactly sanding down the

>filler before going ahead and refinishing (oiling) the

>overall cabinets after bringing up and removing any water

>stains as best I can. For old ARs with squared off cabinets

>it's easy - for the Advents with the slightly rounded

>baffled edging in front it's more difficult.

>

>Anthony

Anthony,

I’ve had some success repairing cabinets over the years. I had a pair of AR-1’s (actually, it was a 1 and 1W) whose cabinets I completely refurbished. That task was fairly straightforward since the walnut veneer on those cabinets (circa mid-1950’s) was a full 1/4” thick. It was just a matter of sanding down the cabinets until the scratch was removed, but there was sufficient thickness to the veneer to be able to do that. I used a light sandpaper (about 180-220 grit) to remove the scratches, then I went to a very fine grit (320) to prep the cabinet for oiling.

Use a rag for the linseed oil. Pour the oil on the rag (not directly on the cabinet), wipe it on the cabinet in the direction of the grain, and use a clean rag to wipe up the excess oil. Work in a small area of the cabinet at a time Do one coat and let it sit overnight. If you find the next day the grain has “risen,” use steel wool or 320 grit to smooth it out, then apply a second coat of oil. Repeat the procedure until the cabinet is as dark as you want it. For the AR-1’s, I did three coats and they looked absolutely great.

For more modern AR cabinets, it can be a little trickier, since the veneer is not particularly thick; rather, it’s a veneer “flashing,” about 1/32” thick over a substrate of plywood or particleboard. You can’t sand these cabinets too aggressively, or else you’ll go right through the veneer to the substrate below and ruin the finish.

In 1980, I bought a used pair of LST-2’s in virtually mint condition, except for the dreaded water-ring stain on one of the speakers. I used very fine sandpaper on the entire top panel to lighten the ring as much as I could, then I re-oiled the top panel as described above. The stain was 95% gone, and was only visible if you knew where to look for it. Except for me, no one else ever noticed it at all.

(BTW, were those great speakers or what? They had the same beautiful tonal balance as the 5, with the added benefit of those room-filling, side-firing midranges and tweeters. I used them as my primary speakers in one of my systems for ten years, and loved them. I eventually gave them to my older cousin—another jazz-loving AR aficionado like myself—and he used them for another eight years until his wife finally banished them from their living room. They’re covered up under a sheet and retired to his basement, waiting for me to pick them up, one of these days.)

When I inherited my 3a’s from my OTHER jazz-loving, AR aficionado older cousin (it runs in our family), they needed some work. They were 29 years old when I got them (DOB 1972), and showed the expected signs of three decades of continuous family use. For scratches about 1.5 or 2mm wide, I’ve had good luck using a wax touch-up crayon. These are readily available from Home Depot or Lowes. Work the crayon into the scratch and wipe off the excess. For thinner hairline scratches, the felt-tipped liquid stain markers work really well. Again, these are available at most home centers and hardware stores.

When it comes to actual chips and gouges, that’s a different matter. If it’s a gouge on the edge of the 3a’s front picture frame molding, you’ll probably be best off getting some Plastic Wood of the appropriate color and using the modeling clay skills you had when you were 7 years old, work it into the void and shape it to fit. I have found if I hold a straightedge against the cabinet, I can get a good approximate starting shape. Let the fill dry completely, then use a sanding block with about 180 grit to bring it down to the level of the cabinet surface. Be very careful not to damage the cabinet finish around the filled area. Then hand-sand it to fit. When it’s shaped, you can oil the entire area, and it will blend in pretty darned well.

For large chips on flat areas that go all the way down to the particleboard, like a corner chip, here’s what I’ve done: Go to a home center or lumber yard and buy a roll of walnut veneer. These are available in strips about 1” wide, and they’re about the same thickness as the veneer on the cabinet. It looks like a roll of masking tape, except it’s a roll of wood veneer. Examine your speaker cabinet and see how the walnut grain looks at the area around the chip. Is it a “busy” grain or relatively plain? Unroll some of your veneer and look for a section with a similar grain pattern to the area on your speaker cabinet. Use an x-acto knife and cut a section of veneer very slightly smaller (about 1/2 mm all around) and the same shape as the chip in your cabinet, making sure to orient the grain on your veneer patch in the same direction as the grain on your cabinet.

Be sure the area on the cabinet is clean, dry, and smooth. Place your patch on the damaged area of the cabinet dry, just to double check for fit, size, grain orientation, etc. Use a thin coat of carpenter’s glue, like Elmer’s carpenter glue. Put the glue on the cabinet. Place the patch on the glue. It takes this glue a while to set, so you can move the patch around a little to get the best fit and alignment. Press the patch down to make sure the glue adheres evenly, and wipe away any excess “squeeze out” right away.

Let it dry thoroughly! The next day, come back and check for smoothness and height. Use very fine sandpaper and sand the area smooth and level. Sanding will also remove any skim coat of glue that was on the cabinet, which "opens" the wood pores so it accepts the oil in a uniform manner.

You can use your filler crayon to fill in the borders of the patch area if necessary. Then very lightly sand the entire panel and re-oil with linseed oil as I described above, repeating coats as needed. Your cabinets will look great!

Remember, during all of these various procedures, mask off the grille to prevent sanding dust from clogging up the grille cloth and be VERY careful not to let the linseed oil or stain markers mar the grille cloth.

Good luck.

Steve F.

[Guest Nigel]

>Also, where can someone purchase wood laminates if they were

>needed?

>I've thought about it but never knew where to find that thin

>sheet laminate wood.

>

Specialty woodstores, either local or internet. In OKC we have one near the old stock yards. On the internet just put "wood" and "veneer" into your favorite search engine. Here the first one that popped up for me:

http://www.constantines.com/index.htm

Nigel