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FINISHING THE BOX
There are lots of ways to apply a beautiful, durable finish to a solid wood box. Following is how we
finish our cabinets here at the Lab. You may finish your cab any way you like. Please send us photos
of your completed project for our gallery!
Your cabinet is made of top-grade solid poplar. This is a dense, very finely grained softwood. It is
harder, more stable and more durable than pine. It is the wood of choice for all fine millwork that is
destined to be painted, but properly prepared it stains nicely too.
We illustrate some of the following procedures on a 1x8 speaker cabinet. The process is identical on
the Combo cabinet.
1. Do not sand the interior of the cabinet at all. Sand the whole exterior twice, using 120 and 220
grit sandpapers.
a. If you routed a detail, carefully sand out any burn marks, and be careful you do not
obliterate your detail with the orbital sander.
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b. “Ease” the square edges; that is, strike off the sharp square edge the mill applied to the
wood. Your finish ingredients cannot accumulate on a sharp edge. Don’t use the orbital for
this, at least not for the inside edges; sand the square edges by hand only. The orbital is
likely to chew up the inside corners.
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