DIY speaker repair/recone

[imJonWain]

Anyone have any experience re-coning speakers? I have a 50/60's 6.5" speaker where the cone itself is fine but the surround is cracked/broken almost all the way around in a single line. Its the type where the cone and surround are the same piece of paper too. I've done some repairs on newer speakers where the surround is more a rubber or cloth material to some success but never quite this large. I have a replacement speaker I'm already using but I figured I'd give repairing this guy a shot if I can manage. I haven't bothered talking to a speaker re-coning shop yet because my guess is it'd be cost prohibitive and it's not a known brand, it's random japanese speaker from an old Teisco amp.

[frodog]

I do not, but I did just get some speaker glue... iiin the hope of repairing the slightly damaged rubber surround of my left hi-fi speaker, and maybe a Randall 12" speaker (from my RG60 that now has an Eminence) which has a bit more damage. But I found it had fractured more insidiously than I thought before, right along the inner edge of the basket, almost a fifth of the way around. And with the cone being so stiff and brittle I think it's a lost cause gluing it. Maybe if I just slathered it it all over like bird shit on a paper fountain.

I have seen different size re-cone kits on ebay for not much money, so that might be worth a shot if you don't have a pro shop/car stereo dude nearby.

[crochambeau]

Yeah, this is unexplored territory for me, though I am interested to see how it pans out because I have some similar pleated paper edge issues.

[ibarakishi]

enlighten us with what you end up trying and figure out. this is really interesting

[waltdogg]

pics please. i’ve had plenty of luck repairing speaker cones and dust covers provided i’m using the proper adhesives. use the glues orange county speaker sells.

[imJonWain]

taa daa!

So I've done smaller surround and cone repairs in the past using TP and black nail polish successfully (haha) but this one goes all the way around and the paper at the edges is really brittle.

I thought about buying a generic 6.5" replacement rubber surround, cutting the paper cone at the edge and gluing them together with speaker glue but before I go to that I have been looking for a glue or similar that dries very flexible so I could possibly build some up on both sides of the cone over the crack and use it as it. I think the crack is small enough this is possible provided the paper doesn't just break at another point near the rim.

[imJonWain]

So i picked up a tube of SureFlex Flexible Adhesive I saw at a local store to give that a shot. The repair looks like hell but seems to be sturdy, I can push on the cone and the surround seems to still have full movement ( it didn't have much in the first place). I used toilet paper reinforced with surflex to patch over/fill any gaps and reinforce/cover some of the cracks/tears that I didn't think the sureflex alone would be able to hold closed. I plan to test the speaker tomorrow night and I'll report back!




Parts Express link to same stuff I bought.
https://www.parts-express.com/surehold- ... e--340-584

[crochambeau]

It'll look good behind a grill cloth!

Curious to hear if it sounds the same/similar to before.

[drolo]

really cool, plus the toilet paper is surely going to add somo tone mojo
I may actually have to try that with some old b&o's that are in bad shape

[imJonWain]

holy shit it worked great! I don't totally know how it sounded before as I got the amp with the speaker torn like that but it sounds great to me. I dunno how it will do in the long term but it survived 20 minutes at max volume for what that's worth out of ~3w amp haha. It definitely sounds more "vintage" vs the eminence replacement speaker I picked up aka "less full". It definitely does the Link Wray or You Really got me thing.

So It's definitely worth trying for anyone else wondering or in a similar situation.