Speaker repair.

[Wozzaaah]

Got given a pair of Goodmans RB18 speakers by @Hitch a while back.
Got them home, took the covers off and realised the foam surrounds were totally shot.
I was going to skip them but decided to have a go at refoaming them.

As they were when I got them:


Old foam removed and cleaned up:


New 8” surround, bought 3 from China for £2.82 posted.


Fitted:
I applied a small voltage to the speaker to extend the cone and make it more rigid to work with.


Back in the cabinet:


It wasn’t centred properly at first, the voice coil was scratching as it moved but a little fettling while the glue was still tacky soon sorted it.
Will do the 2nd one tomorrow then hook them up to see how they sound.

 

[stuvy]

Did it distort before?

 

[Wozzaaah]

I hadn’t tried them.

 

[Hitch]

I hadn’t tried them.

I hadn't looked at them either!

How did you get on with the reel to reel?

 

[steveo3002]

good ole ebay...imagine trying to find bits like that years ago

 

[Wozzaaah]

I hadn't looked at them either!

How did you get on with the reel to reel?

I passed that on to someone else along with a cassette deck I was given.
It would probably have only sat here gathering dust.

 

[Ruffian]

My dad still has a working reel to reel which he uses from.time to time.

Sound quality is still impressive.

 

[atomant48]

Great job that. Didn’t even know you could get new rubbers. I’ve got a high end pair of alpines from years ago that a “resident”’in my lock up decided to eat through the wires glued to the cone. You might have convinced me to have a go at repairing them.

 

[Seadog]

I've a pair to do too. They do sound rather rough with no support foam

 

[Farside]

good ole ebay...imagine trying to find bits like that years ago

Exactly. I have a pair of old Leaks which I enquired about re-foaming 25 years ago. Wharfdale were happy to do it, but at a cost of around £50 x 4, plus postage both ways.
Wasn't worth it at the time. I side-stepped it by simply re-drivering them a few years back and they sound fine, but I still have a notion to re-foam the originals and refit them.
I have a pair of Jamos which need doing first, though. There was a seller from the Netherlands was offering foams on ebay a few years back, probably still is. However, it will be much cheaper to use the Chinese ones if they turn out to be good enough.

 

[Seadog]

If you can find a Chinese version. I couldn't

 

[Parm]

I did the same to pair of Bose 301’s a couple of years ago. I took the dust cap off (spares came with the kit) and used bits of folded paper to keep the voice coil centralised

They sound great

 

[Wozzaaah]

That’s the correct way of doing it but it seems to have worked ok.
About to start the 2nd one, fingers crossed it goes as well.

 

[Seadog]

The expensive kits come with shims and new dust caps.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Grrrrr....
The paper "tube" has separated from the voice coil in a couple of places so unfortunately I can't stop the 2nd one from "scratching".
Oh well, it was a bit of a learning experience and cost me 3 parts of next to nothing.

 

[Hitch]

Grrrrr....
The paper "tube" has separated from the voice coil in a couple of places so unfortunately I can't stop the 2nd one from "scratching".
Oh well, it was a bit of a learning experience and cost me 3 parts of next to nothing.

Oh well, at least you had an excuse to take the civic for a burn up!

I would have skipped them if I knew they were dead!

 

[Wozzaaah]

Far from dead mate, it was well worth having a go at fixing them and I may not give up on them yet.

 

[Parm]

A few dabs of superglue should help if you can get to it