I am glad this thread has appeared!

I am awaiting delivery of a pair of Aluminium CX50's that I won on eBay and this thread looks like it will answer all my questions!

Simon

indeed...everyone has bought a pair of crunchy cx 50s in their past BEO years, but i must say, they are pretty easy to fix and the results are very satisfying....

btw: i just happend to have the right size mugs to hand...:)

cooldude wrote:

Just like most in this thread I am doing a pair of cx100's right now and cut some wooden disks that I cut to the exact size and weigh down. ( This would be my 12th pair that I'm refoaming...).
However, the pair I'm doing now is in that clear (brushed?) aluminium. Anyone got any ideas on how best to polishing them up ? 

I have resprayed many myself, but I would like to keep these in their (more-or-less) original state.  Their condition is not that good but they're for my own office.

Thanks in advance

O. 

A lot of problems with the cosmetic condition of the brushed aluminium CX's is down to deteriation of the lacquer coating. Very easy to rectify though - it can be stripped off using

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the tip. However we don't have the exact product (fairy power spray) here in the great white north (Canada) but I did find something similar and indeed it seems like it takes off the yellowed lacquer layer. 

However the condition seems really too scratched to just clean and refinish with a coat of lacquer (though they're perfectly clean now!!), so I thought about putting in a bit more work and polishing them up a bit more glossy to get rid of some of the scratches (also would fit my beomaster 7000 a bit more) now that they are in their raw state.  Have you ever tried something like that ?

Regards,

O.

I haven't tried repolishing them as they will have an anodised surface to the brushed aluminium. Past experience with other B&O aluminium products has taught me (and others) that trying anything like this makes matters much worse and the more you do the worse it gets! If you decide to bite the bullet and give it a go I wish you the best of luck and you will be a hero on here if you manage it🙂

Having said that, you can always paint them over if the results are as disasterous as I think they may be. The CX's accept almost any colour scheme. If you want them to match your 7000 you could always have them chrome plated - that'd look cool😐

Chris.

Medogsfat wrote:

I haven't tried repolishing them as they will have an anodised surface to the brushed aluminium. Past experience with other B&O aluminium products has taught me (and others) that trying anything like this makes matters much worse and the more you do the worse it gets! If you decide to bite the bullet and give it a go I wish you the best of luck and you will be a hero on here if you manage it🙂

Having said that, you can always paint them over if the results are as disasterous as I think they may be. The CX's accept almost any colour scheme. If you want them to match your 7000 you could always have them chrome plated - that'd look cool😐

Chris.

Hey Chris .. thanks for the reply 🙂.

Do not forget that they are solid alu and not a thin veneer strips glued on ....  and I don't think mine are anodised but just brushed and clear coated.
My point of view is that I have not much to loose. I could keep them as-is, but I know it will just bug me after a while .....
I just love the cx's as they're a small-sized, well-built,  unpretentious looking speaker that is capable of a better sound than most people expect. 

These speakers value is also not that high. (I paid under 100$ for them) Though I recaped the x-overs and tested and refoamed the drivers.
As you state, they can alway be painted after, if it doesn't work out. An option I do keep in mind. 

By the way I did have several pair chrome-plated and buffed to a mirror finish for a clients' interior I was working on, a while back. Nice but fairly expensive to do.  These speakers are for my own personal use and will end up in my home office, so I don't really mind experimenting a bit..... 

Thanks,

O.

Well I did bite the bullit and decided to repolish them. Though I did get some more info from a friend who knows a lot more about this kind thing as he runs a car body shop and restores old chevvy's as a hobby.

Anyways he told me that my cx100 are not anodized, just lacquered with a protective coating.  He polished one up for me (took him 10 min.!!) only to conclude they ended up a bit too shiny to match my 7000 which is not quite chrome finish either, so we had to rough it up a bit after. 

I am really pleased with the result

I think the picture illustrates best the before/after...

cooldude wrote:

Well I did bite the bullit and decided to repolish them. Though I did get some more info from a friend who knows a lot more about this kind thing as he runs a car body shop and restores old chevvy's as a hobby.

Anyways he told me that my cx100 are not anodized, just lacquered with a protective coating.  He polished one up for me (took him 10 min.!!) only to conclude they ended up a bit too shiny to match my 7000 which is not quite chrome finish either, so we had to rough it up a bit after. 

I am really pleased with the result

I think the picture illustrates best the before/after...

That looks to be a big improvement. What did your friend use to polish them?

Simon

wirralsimon wrote:

cooldude wrote:

Well I did bite the bullit and decided to repolish them. Though I did get some more info from a friend who knows a lot more about this kind thing as he runs a car body shop and restores old chevvy's as a hobby.

Anyways he told me that my cx100 are not anodized, just lacquered with a protective coating.  He polished one up for me (took him 10 min.!!) only to conclude they ended up a bit too shiny to match my 7000 which is not quite chrome finish either, so we had to rough it up a bit after. 

I am really pleased with the result

I think the picture illustrates best the before/after...

 

 

 

That looks to be a big improvement. What did your friend use to polish them?

 

Simon

As you can see they were pretty banged up. (the polished one on the picture was even worse with real deep scratches and nicks to it).

Well, we first  tried to polish them up the normal way (with metal polish compound and buffers) but soon realized that most of the defects are too deep to come out with a regular polish.

So we went for the industrial beltsander instead  with passes in 400 then 800 and finishing with 1200 gritt.  the sander is  an industrial machine to give an even and flat sanding, very hard to replicate by hand I am afraid. But sure got rid of a lot of defects. I guess you could use a regular sander if you polish them up after .

After that we used regular metal polish compounds and buffers to polish them. They turned like chrome/mirror finish. I wanted them to match my beomaster7000 which is not quite mirror finish, so we used some steelwool on it and a quick polish till we got a good match.

After that we cleaned them and did a clearcoat on it to protect the finish which is baked under UVds  ( the lines on the sides were put back on later and are handapplied with a matt lacquer)

I am very pleased with the result and they look amazing .... glad you liked it

cooldude wrote:

After that we cleaned them and did a clearcoat on it to protect the finish which is baked under UVds  ( the lines on the sides were put back on later and are handapplied with a matt lacquer)

I am very pleased with the result and they look amazing .... glad you liked it

Very good indeed. I've polished various aluminum items, mostly wheels, to mirror finish and your project looks like something I'd like to replicate. I assume the case material is fairly soft and easy to polish? So far my worst experiences of polishing have been with a kitchen sink, that steel was damn hard and it took me 6+ hours with pro equipment to refinish it.

Too bad all my C- and CX-series speakers are in way too good shape. Maybe I'll have to find myself a pair of scratched ones on eBay just for a project like this... you're speakers look absolutely gorgeous. 😳