1$ solution for Fixing tears on speaker cones (with videos)

[Guest]

Syl - In the video you rubbed the brush on your hand - was there something on your hand or was just to soften the bristles?

[Syl]

tpaairman Wrote:Syl - In the video you rubbed the brush on your hand - was there something on your hand or was just to soften the bristles?

b)...AND to remove any lose bristles which may get stuck on the speaker cone while applying the glue.

Syl

[philcobenz]

Syl, I recently tired your speaker repair trick with an old 1937 Detrola speaker. The glue worked just fine! The speaker now has a slight shine to it, and it is obvious that it was coated with something, but it is still very flexible, works like a charm, and is still the original speaker cone ~ "preserved" if you will. Thanks for this tip!

[Arran]

Syl Wrote:Great. Thanks for the update.

Now run to the Alternative Forum, there is a guy with a speaker having multiple tears and he's got the usual advice of using patches to fix the cone...

Ya don't need no patches...;o)

Syl

I try to avoid patches where possible, unless the speaker has a hole with part of the cone missing a smear of glue on either side of the cone usually does the trick. The one piece of bad advice that I keep seeing relayed from place to place is the suggestion to use silicone, one just about every speaker that I have run across where this was used the silicone was applied in thick gobs, was beaded up, peeling, and rattling, so I had to scrape it off. I myself have used general purpose contact cement for repairing speakers, it seems to work well if it's applied in a thin layer, not that I don't believe that something else will not work but I always seem to have a can available.
Happy Christmas
Happy New Year

[g8wayg8r]

I'm still on the lookout for something like the glue pin and remember that I'm looking for it when I see it. Age and other life distractions do take their toll on my time and brain. Until then, I repaired some large tears on a 4" speaker from a GE50 radio alarm clock using a coffee filter and white glue. Seems to work fine but the paper is very brittle. Good thing the radio doesn't funnel a lot of watts into the speaker.

I suspect the glue will refresh the paper.

[Uffda]

Thanks Syl for the simple fix. I am going to have to try it on a buzzing Zenith speaker - can't hurt, might help.

Your videos cry out for a soundtrack. Perhaps a chorus of "Dominique" would add some dramatic tension.

Cheers,
Phil

[Guest]

This sounds like a great way to strengthen the cone portion of a speaker, and if thin enough, probably doesn't affect the tone very much.

Where flexability is needed, I have used the thinned silicone method just on the speaker surround and have had good results on jukebox speakers and some radios. Thinned out and carefully applied with a brush to the surround, it looks a lot like the "doping" that is applied to many guitar speaker surrounds (for a different reason). On a radio, it seems to help extend the life of a fragile old speaker and keeps the surround as flexable as possible for good tone.

Scottie

[Arran]

On an AC/DC radio project recently I found that the speaker cone, while intact, was very fragile. Well I didn't have any contact cement left so I thought that I should start looking at alternatives like the glue pen. So I went to all the usual spots, including Walmart, to see if they had any fabric glue, then did but then I though that I should check the dollar store first to see if they had anything. I didn't find any small tubes of contact cement or fabric glue there but I found glue pens, just like the one Syl used, in packs of three, so thought I would try them out. The pack cost me $1.35 with tax.
Now what I did was to test the glue pen glue and craft glue on strips of paper to see if they stiffened it or how thick it went on, the craft glue was flexable but it did stiffen the paper unless you thinned it out. I messed up the first test for the glue pen, I slobbed too much on so it took forever to dry and crinkled the paper, so I tried it again but spread it on a little thinner and it soaked right into the paper and did not stiffen it.
So next I tried it on the speaker, but because it was water based I took the extra precaution of shimming between the voice coil and pole piece. I applied it the same way as I did on the paper, including on the hinge/surround that had a few tears, and let it dry till the next day. It did not dry quite as glossy as in Syl's pictures, so I took the shims out and checked it out, it was indeed more flexible, however I did manage to put another small tear in it while poking around at the hinge. So back in went the shims and another coat of glue went on last night, today it looks normal other then being a bit more glossy. I would say that the glue pen trick really does work if the paper is brittle, but I think that I would still use the contact cement if I had to reglue or repair a cloth spider or glue the voice coil to the cone.
Regards
Arran