Painting bases

P

Paul Folbrecht

New member
I did a search here on paint and, amazingly, found 11 pages of hits regarding painting the top plate & bells, etc., little (maybe none) on painting the wood base of Bottlehead products.  Sure, painting wood is simple and a general skill, but experienced BH builders still might have some good advice.

I want a black base to go with other gear.  I plan to use a rattle-can satin spray, sanding with 220 before the first coat and between light coats - three total.

Sound good?
 
Sounds fine but I'd add a couple of dark primer coats prior to the satin, 220 (or finer, I prefer 400) sanding in between.
 
If you don't want the grain to show through you will need to use a sanding sealer and then a high-build base coat which you can then sand back to a smooth finish, then spray paint.  A spray paint especially black will show up every little imperfection, meticulous prep is key to getting a good spray paint finish.
 
If you want to paint a base black, I would recommend using a good quality flat latex paint. Use just a paint brush. Unless you have equipment to spray paint, it is difficult to make a nice finish when using gloss black paint, - either in latex or oil. You will find attached my first Bottlehead kit: a Crack.  It is finished with flat latex. If it gets scratched [or bruised], it just takes a minute or two to re-apply a quick drying latex. 

When I did my Paramounts and Bee-Pre, I finished the bases in Pimento Wood Burl veneer.  That is a lot more work, but the results are great, - if I humbly may say so.  If anyone is interested, I shall be happy to advise on how to do that process.

Photos are attached.
 

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Or you could apply a black wood dye and get a nice ebony look that lets the natural grain peek through a bit.

crack_1.jpg
 
Guy nice work I remember seeing them in the gallery just looked back again and all the pics have been corrupted during website change, any chance you could upload the original pics again.
 
btrancho said:
Or you could apply a black wood dye and get a nice ebony look that lets the natural grain peek through a bit.

crack_1.jpg
Click to expand...

That looks great.  I think I'll do that.  If you have a specific brand of dye recommendation and/or other tips please share.
 
Guy Boisvert said:
When I did my Paramounts and Bee-Pre, I finished the bases in Pimento Wood Burl veneer.  That is a lot more work, but the results are great, - if I humbly may say so.  If anyone is interested, I shall be happy to advise on how to do that process.
Click to expand...

Yes please, I would definitely be interested in more detail of the veneering process.
 
Paul Folbrecht said:
btrancho said:
Or you could apply a black wood dye and get a nice ebony look that lets the natural grain peek through a bit.

crack_1.jpg
Click to expand...

That looks great.  I think I'll do that.  If you have a specific brand of dye recommendation and/or other tips please share.
Click to expand...

I bought the water based dye from Tools for Working Wood.  Here's a link to the dye page of their web shop.
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/dept/CLWW

Read up a bit on using dyes (they have some info on the TFWW site above).  The dye raises the grain so you need to do some prep before hand and then some judicious sanding after.  You can then apply a clear finish of your choice when it's all dry.  I used satin wipe-on polyurethane - several coats with light 400 grit sanding in between.

The dyes come in many different colors, as well as the more normal wood colors, as you can see.  Best of luck with your base!
 
Caucasian Blackplate said:
If you have a plastics fabricator near by, you could have a thick black acrylic base made relatively easily.
Click to expand...

I did ponder over casting a enclosure with some water clear casting resin (the stuff they use for paper weights etc) I don't think it would be to hard to do for a small enclosure like the Cracks.
 
btrancho said:
JamieMcC said:
I did wonder about ponder over casting a enclosure with some water clear casting resin (the stuff they use for paper weights etc) I don't think it would be to hard to do for a small enclosure like the Cracks.
Click to expand...

Okay, off topic a bit but your post reminds me of this Cmoy project from a few years ago.

F4NPDZHH21CGJK0.MEDIUM.jpg


Full project description here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Crystal-cMoy-Free-Form-Headphone-Amplifier/
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting I think that's really neat, and very tempting to try.
 
Yeah, casting would be a little overkill for the project, though if you made a rubber mold of the wood base, it would be pretty easy.  My concern would be that the rubber would pick up the detail of the wood grain.

I was thinking more about cutting pieces of 1/2" black acrylic, gluing, routing, and polishing. 
 
Caucasian Blackplate said:
I was thinking more about cutting pieces of 1/2" black acrylic, gluing, routing, and polishing.
Click to expand...

I like this idea, PB.  Should be a beautiful, high gloss base.

Cheers,
Geary
 
Doc B. said:
Yeow! Don't call me when you need those electrolytics replaced.
Click to expand...

Yeah, he mentions in the text that it's a one shot deal but, then again, it's a Cmoy with $10 worth of parts.  I bet it mostly sits on a shelf as a display piece.

I think Woo Audio's Fireflies may have borrowed the idea:
woo_audio_wa7_fireflies.jpg
 
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