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Would the inspector be pleased?


owlsplace

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That's a beautiful finish Roger. If I get ambitious I may give it a try some time. I have a feeling it would have been a good finish to use on the solid koa wood Cizek KA-1s http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=7521

Guess you know a good place to get beeswax ;)https://www.flickr.com/photos/owlsplace/tags/honeybees//?rb=1

-Kent

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On 7/23/2015 at 8:40 AM, JKent said:

That's a beautiful finish Roger. If I get ambitious I may give it a try some time. I have a feeling it would have been a good finish to use on the solid koa wood Cizek KA-1s http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=7521

Guess you know a good place to get beeswax ;)https://www.flickr.com/photos/owlsplace/tags/honeybees//?rb=1

-Kent

Looks like those Cizek's came out nice.

Now you know why everyone kept bees in the old days -- honey was nice, mead was better, and wax was good for candles so you could see what was going on after you drank all the mead ... :)

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Roger: I can't say that your AR-5 cabinets look better than new - it'd be too much of an understatement.

Absolutely beautiful work.

Kent: I'd forgotten about your Koa wood Cizek speakers - that's the type of finish that only shows up in boutique, ultra high-end speakers these days!

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Yeah, RoyC says it is original and it looks like the cloth on my original Euro 5's if memory serves me correctly.

How can we determine if cloth is original?

I have a set of AR3a's with that same sort of cloth.

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Aha, mine does not have that.

So what I have is non original.

Glad I ordered new cloth :)

Not having seen it if it looks like mine it's probably original -- mine doesn't have gold strands either and neither did my original Euro models if memory serves me.

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so, the gold strand thing. I am going from memory on that for now (at work) and will confirm this evening. Some of the comments make me wonder....I call myself stupidhead for a reason!

Either way I will snap some pics and post.

I could swear there are gold strands in there, in my mind's eye.

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I could swear there are gold strands in there, in my mind's eye.

My AR-2a's have gold thread. Maybe your 5s did too.

-Kent

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LOL Roger, I thought for sure the pun was intentional!

So, about the fabric, there's gold in them there threads. Also Kent was spot on. My recollection of the fabric was correct, but the set it was on is not a set of 5s but a set of 2ax. In fact a Fall of '74 set.

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This fabric has been thoroughly cleaned by Diane and I have had it tucked away for some time. To my eye it seems to be more like Roger's 5s in post #23 than the 2a fabric in Kent's post #36. The above pic is taken while a shop spot light was on, the next one is taken under more normal lighting conditions.

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and both of the above shots were taken with the cloth doubled over so as to not be distracted by the background.

This material seems to have been a synthetic material. Olefin? Not saran. Possibly a blend but did not shrink during the cleaning process.

Transparency seems good. Speaking of background, this last shot is not doubled over so as to be able to better see the airiness of the material.

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Bonus points if you can name the poster in the background.

tip-if i tip my laptop back about 20 degrees to view, the image is much more apparent!

Roger, did not intend to hijack and sorry for the diversion. I very much like the finish on your 5s and the cloth treatment gives me a view into what mine might look like.

Thanx,

Geoff

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Roger: I can't say that your AR-5 cabinets look better than new - it'd be too much of an understatement.

Absolutely beautiful work.....

Just an experiment. I wasn't sure about the glossy finish at first but it is catchy. Actually, you could get carried away and add some Carnuba wax and machine buff it to a really high gloss -- lots of work though.

The Watco Rejuvinating oil brings it back down to a more traditional satin finish.

LOL Roger, I thought for sure the pun was intentional!

So, about the fabric, there's gold in them there threads. Also Kent was spot on. My recollection of the fabric was correct, but the set it was on is not a set of 5s but a set of 2ax. In fact a Fall of '74 set. ....

Roger, did not intend to hijack and sorry for the diversion. I very much like the finish on your 5s and the cloth treatment gives me a view into what mine might look like.

I think I have both of those same fabrics on the two sets of Euro AR-6's and the darker one on Norwood AR-5's. It is hard to see in the photos so I took mine outside in the sunlight with an 8x loupe and then you can see the metallic reflections -- gold and coppery looking -- but not very pronounced.

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Well, the HK pots came in so I fired up the Elwyn AR-4x today with the $10 Kenwood and paired it with an orphan AR-4xa. It held its own quite well. It sounded so good in fact we decided to have a little tailgate party and barbeque to Celtic music. It rocks with bagpipes :)

Trying to decide if I like Irish linen or want to go with a darker fabric. Naked looks fairly good but needs some work. This woofer has been through hell and high water :)

I stuffed it with poly fiber I found at a local garage sale for $1 since this is a prototype and I will need to go back in to make it right. I may go to OCFG later, or not :)

Not shown is the 24MFD cap cluster glued to the woofer. I mounted the coil and 20MFD caps on the oak cross brace. What is left of the original label is pasted to the side wall. I used a cork gasket to bring the tweeter back up to flush. Need to do something with the ply showing around the woofer. The 16AWG 105C wiring is courtesy of my last washing machine which I salvaged ;)

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Beautiful! And I like the cork gasket! Looks great naked! Maybe paint the plies around the woofer black?

-Kent

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Very interesting cabinet mods in this project - - creative, skillful, well documented and photographed. Like JKent mentioned, paint will work well for that exposed plywood, and ultra-flat blackboard paint will work very well.

Remind me ..... what does Elwyn mean, and whatever did happen to that poor woofer?

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Have not used the Rejuvenating oil but it looks like something that could be useful with these oil-finish cabs http://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/watco/rejuvenating-oil

It makes a good wet sand oil. I tried it today on the orphan 4xa that had 40% sun fade on one side. It evened up after three applications using 320 paper and was no longer visible.

Beautiful! And I like the cork gasket! Looks great naked! Maybe paint the plies around the woofer black?

-Kent

Maybe or add some more cork :o

I may see if I can find some wire mesh screens that fit the drivers.

Very interesting cabinet mods in this project - - creative, skillful, well documented and photographed. Like JKent mentioned, paint will work well for that exposed plywood, and ultra-flat blackboard paint will work very well.

Remind me ..... what does Elwyn mean, and whatever did happen to that poor woofer?

Elwyn was my uncle that I decided to name this set after. Wish I spent more time with him when I had the opportunity. I think I was about 12 years old when I knocked on his shop door and told him I needed an oak table top. I had found a small oak table and decided I needed a desk but it didn't have a top, only a drawer. He said okay and took the dimensions. Shortly afterwards he gave me a call and said it was ready. So I went over to pick it up and asked him how much I owed him, nada, gratis ... He had made a perfect table top out of joined four inch oak boards. I don't remember what happened to that desk. We had to move the following year into a smaller house due to a downturn in my father's business and I had to share a room with my younger brother.

The woofer surround had a problem that Carl mentioned in an earlier post. The cloth surround had become too stiff. All attempts to revive it only resulted in damage to the cone which separated from the voice coil. The coil was reepoxied (is that a word?) to the cone and foam installed. The cone mass was increased considerably by treating both sides with watered down pva glue. It is very stable but wasn't sure how it would perform; however, it sounds great to me which is all that counts for the moment. The other woofer of the pair has a patched cone and foam surround. The old paper cones are pretty fragile. Will be interesting to see if it sounds any different without the pva coating though I suspect it won't and will end up looking the same as this one, pretty much waterproof.

Roger

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