Nest Music Theater Part Thirty One Point Five ~ Finishing The MiniOnkens & Metronomes And The Nest Deck Railing 24Jun24-25Jun24

With "fun time with friends" over in Summit for a bit, and the weather nice enough, I took to scraping and staining the deck railing and finishing the NestMT surrounds. Finishing the speakers is a big task as profiled for prior models.

I'll cut back describing the steps for these speakers. I first removed the Fostex FE108EΣ drivers from all four speakers and then sanded them with 80 and then 220 grit paper in an orbital sander. I wiped them clean with a tack cloth and then primed each on all surfaces with pre-stain prep; this helps make the staining more consistent... important IMO when putting plywood edges next to finished surface plys. I then used a foam brush to "paint" all surfaces with True Black oil stain (as I've used on all NestMT speakers), and then wipe the stain off everywhere after ~15 minutes. Wear surgical gloves as all these steps are messy, especially with black. They're ready to dry for a day.

The next day I set up the compressor and air sprayer as I intend to spray on the first coats of polyurethane on most surfaces. I used 25% lacquer thinner in the sprayer to thin the poly mix a bit and set my sprayer to 25psi. It did take me 30 min to get the sprayer going. I did the first coat once the daytime temp got to 60° and then let them all dry for several hours.

I used 400 or 600 grit paper and a hand block or the orbital to sand the poly between coats... this is important to get an etch on the surface to hold the next coat of polyurethane, as well as knock down imperfections. I simply wipe off the poly dust with a wet dust-free cloth after sanding, and let the speakers dry out before hitting them again with the spray gun, and then sanding again. I did a final poly coat with a foam brush. They came out nice. I reinstalled the drivers once fully dried at the end of the day and then moved the MiniOnkens to their height/presence spots and the Metronomes to their surround spots. Of course they sound the same as prior but look keen and consistent with the rest of the Nest Music Theater now.

I found the stain for the deck railing after a conversation with Ramig, my prior paint contractor, and then scraped blistering spots and re-stained the deck railing at the Nest. I shot the stiles with flat black epoxy in needed spots to tidy them up a bit too. The railing takes a beating over winter with all the snow removal I need to do back there (to get to the hot tub).

Dual home ownership is not for the faint of heart ~ but I'm happy to be in 78° weather rather that 95° on the Front Range or 105° in Omaha.