[rrova]

Looking for a replacement spider for my Philco Model 90 speaker. Any suggestions? I might have to try to fabricate one out of thin stiff cardboard...It looks like this:

[Image: http://rovaconsulting.com/philco-spider.jpeg]

[Arran]

 If the spider in the model 90 speaker looks like that then it has already been replaced, and it is an improvement over the original ones which were a solid cardboard disk. In answer to your question I don't know where you could buy a new spider like that, but you could make one easily enough with some stiff cardboard of the right thickness.
Regards
Arran

[rrova]

This one is an example photo since the one I have is broken. However, I do know that the 1931 Philco the speaker came from was original, and had this type of spider.

What I've done so far is put a small ruler next to the spider, taken a photo and imported that into Adobe Illustrator as a reference. I then traced the edges of the spider and used the programs rulers to resize the image until the photo inch marks lined up with the programs ruler inch marks. Then I printed that out, pasted it to a business card, carefully cut out the spider outline and glued the resulting cardboard support to the original broken spider. I'll see if that is strong enough to hold up under use.

[Radioroslyn]

As Arran mentioned the original are very stiff and the sound quality suffers. Same holds true for the models 20,21,70, and all the versions of the 70 and 90's.

Am thinking that maybe adding some diluted fabric glue may give you a bit more strength and not lose the important flexibility. Would make the screw hole slightly larger so it can aid the centering the vc after assembly. No play in the originals. The tricky part is getting the spider and vc glued together so that they are not on a slight angle same with the spider to cone junction too.

GL

[klondike98]

I did a repair on a spider once. You can read about it in this thread http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=10712

It worked but I don't know about how well it will hold up if it was a daily player. Perhaps the photos will be helpful.

[rrova]

Thanks Bob, that's great. It's more or less what I did, too. The speaker is working OK, a few "burps" when the bass is maxed out, but I can live with that.

[klondike98]

Yes...I would not claim high fidelity with my spider fix, but good enough for me...