Update
Stage 9 - Now the fun begins with encasing the jukebox with exotic timbers.
First of all the front panel is made with solid 1" thick - Tassie Huon Pine (outer sections), African Purple Heart ( two centre darker strips - is actually from Africa, and purple and bloody expensive with a 50mm x 50mm by 1.2m costing about $90) and lastly the Silver Ash (Aussie Hardwood centre strip). I wanted the front to look like a 60's malibu so laminated all these boards together with biscuit joiners and clamped up. Then once all dry dropped on the cnc bed and machined the backside flat along with dowel holes so it could be glued and locked in to the mdf skeleton later on. I then flipped it over and machined the front side flat, dowel holes for edge trimming and recesses for cd player, hidden drawer, sub and lighting.
Then unlike what alot of other timber joiners / artists would do is sand this right up to 1200 wet and dry as I was not going to put a surface finish on that creates the smoothness (thick varnish) but then proceeded to put on 3 coats of danish oil (which sets quite hard). I want people to touch this and feel what you can achieve with fine sand paper and oil.
Tech Notes - there are many different techniques for applying danish oil and mine being this: using a velcro round disc random orbital sander and starting at 200 grit right going up to 1200 grit to the point that if you get down low you can already see a reflection in the timber. In addition when you put a first coat of sealer / varnish on timber it normally furs up - not after this fine sanding. Then I brush coated 1 coat of oil on, waited 10 minutes and then 1200 grit wet and dry sanded by hand and then wiped off the excess oil to achieve a sealed but matt finish. Then waited 24 hours minimum to recoat as doing it too early softens up the previous coat making it a little sticky affecting the overall finish. With coats 2 and 3 I just brushed them on waited 10 minutes and wiped off the excess with 24 hours between coats. The beauty with this style of surface finish is that you don't have any risk of crap in the finish, it is quick and relatively easy and it makes the timber feel incredible. It also allows for easy touch ups in the future.
I waited a week before gluing to the front of the skeleton as timber pieces and clamps were required to clamp on being pressed against the finished surface. This process was fairly successful but had a few little gaps around the edges as should have left some pockets for glue to press into between the 2 panels.
Then I proceeded with danish oiling the rosewood roll top panels 3 coats in the same style. You will notice a join line near the speaker - this will be covered up later.
And yes I like blue and looking back I think why the hell did I paint that speaker section blue.
For a little more background into the design I designed it all in 2D CAD and had to use the brain energy to visualise how this was going to fit together prior to building. I designed the skeleton, back door, front panel, sub grill, speaker grills, drawer, cd player front panel, lighting covers all before cutting so had to make sure I was spot on and watching the cnc like a hawk as a few times I had the cutter on the wrong side of a line but no major issues there but did happen.
