Pine Cab Finishing

[kuch]

Hi all,
Hope you are all having a good day.

Edit: I guess I should make it clear that I won't be adding any covering, ie tolex, etc...

I got a solid pine cab that I'm transferring my PRRI into. This is my 1st project like this and want some suggestions and opinions. Here's what I'm looking for:

a) stain or natural. I'm leaning to natural, but open to maybe a cherry stain or....
b) Finishes: tung oil or poly. leaning to tung oil but I recently refinished a teak tabletop with poly and it came out really nice. I might even be open to a non-hardening oil if anyone has any suggestions.
c) finishing inside the cab and baffle: black or just add a light coat of poly/tung. does it affect the resonance of the cab?
d) colors: any combinations of finish color/grill? pics would be great
e) sourcing for grill cloth
f) do you glue the grill cloth to the baffle? what kind of glue?

I appreciate any input or tips anyone might have.
thanks

 

[W.L.Weller]

This video is a pretty good overview of the process:





Amplified Parts has a bunch of grille cloth options: https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/grill_cloth_tolex_piping

 

[schmee]

Hi all,
Hope you are all having a good day.

I got a solid pine cab that I'm transferring my PRRI into. This is my 1st project like this and want some suggestions and opinions. Here's what I'm looking for:

a) stain or natural. I'm leaning to natural, but open to maybe a cherry stain or....
b) Finishes: tung oil or poly. leaning to tung oil but I recently refinished a teak tabletop with poly and it came out really nice. I might even be open to a non-hardening oil if anyone has any suggestions.
c) finishing inside the cab and baffle: black or just add a light coat of poly/tung. does it affect the resonance of the cab?
d) colors: any combinations of finish color/grill? pics would be great
e) sourcing for grill cloth
f) do you glue the grill cloth to the baffle? what kind of glue?

I appreciate any input or tips anyone might have.
thanks

b) any oil will make covering it later a problem as glue wont stick. Uncovered soft pine will gouge, scratch etc very easy. Finished, the scratches will be bad also. But if it's sitting in your house all the time no problem. I would plan on potential covering later.
c) Most are painted black. White wood can show through grill cloth. Older fender cabs were not painted black inside, like pre 63 or so. I usually finish those thinly with poly or shellac or etc.
f) You need to add a "stand off" strip all around your baffle in front. This keeps the grill cloth from rattling on the board. Yardsticks from the hardware store work well, painted black. No glue on baffle. Wrap the grill cloth around the edge and edge staple with a T50 stapler or similar. 5/16" staples work best for me.

 

[Powdog]

I just finished a pine cab. Ended up going with nitro. Pine can be tricky to stain. It’s sappy and can get blotchy. A conditioner first helps. Don’t glue down the grillecloth. You can make a simple stretcher that works like a charm. Spray the front of the baffle black or you’ll really see the speaker.

 

[kuch]

View attachment 998321
I just finished a pine cab. Ended up going with nitro. Pine can be tricky to stain. It’s sappy and can get blotchy. A conditioner first helps. Don’t glue down the grillecloth. You can make a simple stretcher that works like a charm. Spray the front of the baffle black or you’ll really see the speaker.

NICE!!

thanks

 

[screefer]

Beauty cab there!

If you're into old-timey and simple, three coats of boiled linseed oil will make her shine.
Might have to sand in between coats as the grain might rise around those fingers.

 

[radtz]

This video is a pretty good overview of the process:





Amplified Parts has a bunch of grille cloth options: https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/grill_cloth_tolex_piping

Was it childish of me to chuckle every time he said side piece and back door?

 

[wrathfuldeity]

Tung oil...will take months to dry/cure but it is easy wipe on and get good results; just not protective like poly and poly is a bit more finicky to lay on. Tung over time will slightly darken. But on the upside, it's easy to deal with scratches, dings and bumps by just wiping more on...but will be reliced. This has iirc 16 very thin wiped on coats over qtr sawn old growth fir. Obviously, I like the look of tung and this cab does not get moved much...hasn't been moved in at least 10 years. @schmee makes some very good points.

 

[kuch]

Tung oil...will take months to dry/cure but it is easy wipe on and get good results; just not protective like poly and poly is a bit more finicky to lay on. Tung over time will slightly darken. But on the upside, it's easy to deal with scratches, dings and bumps by just wiping more on...but will be reliced. This has iirc 16 very thin wiped on coats over qtr sawn old growth fir. Obviously, I like the look of tung and this cab does not get moved much...hasn't been moved in at least 10 years. @schmee makes some very good points.

View attachment 998335
View attachment 998341

Did you finish the inside of the cab too?

 

[telel6s]

I've done two pine cabs using Reranch nitro spray with rub-on poly clear coat. The Super Reverb is butterscotch and the 15" 5E3 cab is Gibson acoustic sunburst.

Both speaker grills are wicker colored with the same Reranch then spray poly.

Both have held up really well.

 

[wrathfuldeity]

Did you finish the inside of the cab too?

2-3 coats inside. Also hand rubbed a carubeau wax outside

 

[Powdog]

I built a zombie harp amp for Bob Corritorre using the ReRanch orange. The spray tips on those rattle cans make it tricky to get even coverage. Ohio Valley Nitro makes a similar product.

 

[Powdog]

Zombie control panel.

 

[Axis29]

I haven't used them on pine yet, but I have become a big fan of some of the simpler finishes recently. I've used a couple of hard wax oil finishes, Rubio Monocoat and Odie's Oil. I have found Rubio is a little tougher than Odie's. Both are stupid simple, easy and safe to apply.

I've also recently discovered Emmet's Good Stuff. This is the best wipe-on polyurethane finishes I've ever used. It's super easy and looks beautiful (on the woods I've tried it on so far). Being poly, it's a lot tougher than the oil/wax finishes.

Most oil finishes these days cure hard. If you scuff sanded it, and then just used an appropriate adhesive, you can get stuff to stick. But, obviously, any water Bourne stuff won't be particularly excited.... Shellac is your friend at that point.

If you wanted to spray, there's all kinds of stuff. I love the General Finishes stuff. Their waterborne poly sprays beautifully straight out of the can. But, for spraying, I've had good results wiht Minwax's Poly + Stain, or whatever they call it...

I had fun wiht an Excelsior cabinet for my old hair player... it was poplar, but I shot the POly+Stain and used coffee bag as speaker grill cloth...

The biggest issue with pine and colors is the splotchiness it tends towards when staining... Plus, the stain soaks into the soft wood and will NOT color the hard growth rings. So, you end up with orange stripes within whatever nice color you've chosen. Also, because we use such quick grown pine these days, it's always twisted and the grain goes every which way... Causing the color to be really tough to get even. That is why I like a colored topcoat for pine.

 

[drumtime]

Sanding is the most important step if you're going to go natural. Down to at least 400 grit, probably 600 to avoid the blotches, especially if you're staining. I've also started with a light coat of danish oil before stain to even it out.

 

[jman72]

I left these pine cabs "natural", with a few coats of Danish Oil followed by a few coats of clear polyurethane. Love them both. Tweed Oxblood grill cloth stapled to the baffle on both. Painted the front of the baffles black, but left the interior of each cab natural (a couple coats of poly just to protect). Both are VERY resonant in a good way.

 

[sluglas]

The best stain I have found for pine.
I did pine cabs for a Peavey Bandit and a Roland Cube 80xl
I also made a 212 cab for my vox MV50ac using Duratex which looks great and is extremely easy.
Burlap makes a great grill cloth.

 

[teletimetx]

All good info above. Particularly if you want your pine box to look like finely crafted woodwork. I love the details, the finger joints or dovetails and the exquisite hand rubbed finish, etc.

If, however, you might be the kind who got middling marks in shop class, or bent nails as a framing carpenter for as long as your fingers could take it, you can step back and see that staining pine isn’t rocket science. You can pick out a few good boards - even at Home Despot or Lowes, and it’ll come out ok.

Stain or finish the inside? Nope you don’t need to. Ever look inside a 300 year old dresser? Unfinished on the inside and somehow, it’s still standing. Warp a little? Maybe. How long you gonna live?

Here’s two pine boxes I built and stained, finished with easy to use wipe on poly. One for an old PA amp and one 2x10 speaker cab. Will they ever appear in a woodworking magazine? Nope. Do they do the job as intended? Yep.

Not trying to discourage any fine wood work - just pointing out you can do it if I can.

 

[Lowerleftcoast]

This one is oiled. A small amount of stain was mixed with boiled linseed oil. I wanted to be able to easily sand out any damage and just oil it again. It is best to apply another coat when it starts to dry out, so maybe yearly or every other year.

I have African drums that receive a yearly oiling or when the head is replaced. If it is good enough for them, it is good enough for this cabinet.

 

[Peegoo]

Using a stain or tinted clear on pine can make the end grain really dark because more of the stain is absorbed into the open end grain than it is on the face grain.

You can control this problem by pre-treating the end grain with a solvent that's compatible with the stain you're using, and then apply the stain while the solvent is still wet on the wood.