Small project wood staining advice needed

[statsman]

I have a pair of Canton Ergo 92DC floorstanding speakers in a black ash finish that are somewhat narrow for their height. They are about 40.5" high, while just 9" wide and 12" deep. In our old house, we had them on spikes over carpeted suspended floors. Even with the spikes, our cats could tip them over if they tried.

Our new house has luxury vinyl plank flooring over concrete. I won't be spiking into the vinyl flooring, so what stability I had before with these speakers I now have lost. I came up with the idea of building my own wood outriggers to try and stabilize the speakers. I will be mounting the wood boards to the bottom of the speakers, then adding some isolation pads or similar to the boards themselves.

I settled on red oak for this project, given the speakers weight 52 lbs. Not exactly a heavy floorstanding speaker, but I figured a softer wood might crack or be easily marred under the weight of the speakers. The red oak boards are extremely solid

For this pair of speakers, I have four 1x4 boards cut to about 18" in length (a 6' board cut into four pieces, so ever so slightly less than 18", but precision wasn't needed here). I would like to stain these boards black to match up better with the speaker's black ash finish. It's doesn't need to match, but anything black enough would be less of a color mismatch.

Does anyone have some advice about staining red oak black? Again, I am not necessarily looking for a table or cabinet precise finish. But it would help with the WAF (wife approval factor) if the colors were similar and the red oak boards didn't stand out.

 

[zinger1457]

A gel stain would probably work best, it's much thicker than a normal stain. I've had good luck with the Varathane brand, many color options, should be available at your local big box store. It will come out dark but you'll still see some of the wood grain, test it on some scraps first.

 

[Ronstar]

General Finishes gel stain - Black. A couple of coats will turn red oak totally black. Then finish off with General Finishes gel top coat - satin.

The only problem will be that the oak grain will show. It will be black, but grain lines will be noticeable. Unless you use a grain filler first. Or use a different kind of wood - maple, poplar, etc.

 

[statsman]

A gel stain would probably work best, it's much thicker than a normal stain. I've had good luck with the Varathane brand, many color options, should be available at your local big box store. It will come out dark but you'll still see some of the wood grain, test it on some scraps first.

General Finishes gel stain - Black. A couple of coats will turn red oak totally black. Then finish off with General Finishes gel top coat - satin.

The only problem will be that the oak grain will show. It will be black, but grain lines will be noticeable. Unless you use a grain filler first. Or use a different kind of wood - maple, poplar, etc.

Seeing the wood grain would actually be quite fine, although at a distance of 10-12' from the listeners, they may not notice it much. The grain of the ash veneer on the speakers shows through its black stain, and the grain of the wood on the stand for the center speaker (sits below the TV) also shows through if viewed at close enough distances.

I will check out the gel stains, and I will look to see if I can get a scrap piece of red oak to try them out.

 

[ERD50]

...

I will check out the gel stains, and I will look to see if I can get a scrap piece of red oak to try them out.

Definitely test on a scrap for any approach. Ronstar does beautiful work that he has shown here, so I'm sure his advice is solid. That said, I've also had really good results with simply painting oak with brush on black latex paint, or a rattle can. The grain showing through can look very nice if that's what you are going for. That kinda goes against my nature of staining to let the wood show, but if it's black-black, paint can work well, and is simple.

-ERD50

 

[statsman]

I've also had really good results with simply painting oak with brush on black latex paint, or a rattle can. The grain showing through can look very nice if that's what you are going for. That kinda goes against my nature of staining to let the wood show, but if it's black-black, paint can work well, and is simple.

These will be solely support pieces of wood, with some of them obscured because portions of the boards will be underneath and attached to the speakers. The boards attached to the bottom-back of the speakers will be even less visible more than a few feet from the speakers.

Simple works for me. I am dealing with the equivalent of a single six-foot 1x4" board that needs to be black, with some extra sides because of the cuts into four 17-18" sections. That's not much surface area, and it appears with the smallest containers of stain and top coat being in quart sized containers, I would barely make a dent staining this wood.

Looking closer, the center speaker stand appears to have been painted, and it looks good. Looks like a semi-gloss as it has a bit of a shine but isn't too glossy. Actually, if I went with paint, the stand itself could use a bit of touch-up in spots. It's been in use for over 15 years, and interestingly enough, it was our first purchase ever on Amazon (3rd party seller).

 

[EastWest Gal]

If you decide to paint, check out Benjamin Moore brand. They have 7 levels of gloss to choose from. We had professional painters paint our dining room, living room and hallway, with a slight sheen called eggshell. They said it was the best paint ever.

 

[ERD50]

...

Looking closer, the center speaker stand appears to have been painted, and it looks good. Looks like a semi-gloss as it has a bit of a shine but isn't too glossy. Actually, if I went with paint, the stand itself could use a bit of touch-up in spots. It's been in use for over 15 years, and interestingly enough, it was our first purchase ever on Amazon (3rd party seller).

Rather than touch up spots, paint the entire thing. Touch up will probably show. And then the paint would match across all the pieces.

-ERD50

 

[Qs Laptop]

I have a pair of Canton Ergo 92DC floorstanding speakers in a black ash finish that are somewhat narrow for their height. They are about 40.5" high, while just 9" wide and 12" deep. In our old house, we had them on spikes over carpeted suspended floors. Even with the spikes, our cats could tip them over if they tried.

Our new house has luxury vinyl plank flooring over concrete. I won't be spiking into the vinyl flooring, so what stability I had before with these speakers I now have lost. I came up with the idea of building my own wood outriggers to try and stabilize the speakers. I will be mounting the wood boards to the bottom of the speakers, then adding some isolation pads or similar to the boards themselves.

Have you considered Blu-Tack? It's a pliable, removable epoxy. Frequently used by audiophiles to anchor bookshelf speakers to speaker stands, it might work for your application.