Finish stripping and refinishing advice

[cheezburger]

I've started my first project which is to restore a set of vintage Lowther Acousta speakers. They are made of Baltic birch ply and finished with foil backed rosewood veneer. The veneer is rippling and the varnish is flaking so I've started stripping the varnish with a view to flattening the veneer and refinishing but underneath the varnish is some sort of sealer, it appears to be PVA. I've just used a heat gun to attempt to strip it but all it does it lift the veneer, also tried picking it off but it takes the veneer with it. What's the best way forward? Random orbital sander, belt sander, patching the layer trying my best to flatten the veneer and re-varnishing?

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

I think if you try to sand the lacquer off, even by hand, you will be in great danger of going through the veneer. What stripper are you using? You might have more luck if you use a peel away stripper like this one http://www.restexpress.co.uk/acatalog/Peel_Away_7.html or if you can get it, Paramose. http://www.restexpress.co.uk/acatalog/P ... mover.html

 

[cheezburger]

In the end I just removed the veneer. The birch underneath is really nice! So I'm finishing them naturally. Need to remove lots of yellow glue though, would it be too aggressive to use a belt sander with a highish grit sandpaper?

 

[John51]

Lucky man owning a pair of Lowthers. I'm jealous

When a young teen, I was given a book of speaker designs. One of the plans was a LARGE folded horn built into the 2 alcoves either side of the fireplace typical of many terraced houses back then. Powered by a 2 watt amp, the windows started rattling at 1 watt. lol

 

[Harbo]

Well if you do knacker them up, I have a pair unfinished (no veneer etc) residing in my workshop with a pair of brand new drive units.

Wife won't have them in the house!

Rod

 

[RogerS]

Well if you do knacker them up, I have a pair unfinished (no veneer etc) residing in my workshop with a pair of brand new drive units.

Wife won't have them in the house!

Rod

That's a shame. You might want to periodically rotate the units so that don't sag assymetrically.