Altec 414A surrounds

Drugolf

AK Subscriber
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I have splits in the seam of the accordion surrounds on a pair of 414A 12" woofers. Can those be repaired or new surrounds installed? Or is this a recone?
 
Check with Simply Speakers, and or GordonW.

SS still stocks a specific replacement for the 15 inch Altec cones, but they don't offer one specifically for the 12 inch Altecs but rather a generic 12 inch surround kit, and a couple for specific EV 12's. I bet one is also a correct fit for 414.
 
The Stonehenge I used a modified later version of a 414(black, square spokes, no cover).

414A(green curved spokes, tin pan mag cover), then 414Z(gold curved spokes, no cover) were the woofer for early Avalon, Carmel, Coronado, Malibu, and Seville.
 
When I was in the speaker repair business, to keep myself busy. at work, I always replaced the cones with torn surrounds and torn spiders. That said I only repaired maybe a half dozen Altec speakers with torn surrounds. Bozak B-199A one or two.

To the gentle man above the speakers remind me of my Carmels illustrated by others. They had two 414's an 811 and the horn was recessed so as to allow the speaker to breath around the horn, as tuned reflex cabinet. maxresdefault.jpg
 
So I got some great advice over at Lansing Heritage on this issue. The suggestion is to place small strips of thin linen over the split on the rear of the surround and then coat it with additinal surround sealant. Makes a lot of sense actually.
 
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Try giving Bill at GPA a call. He reconed a pair of 601c’s to 414’s for me. The cost was reasonable and the speakers look and sound great.
 
removed the woofer and the surrounds are too far gone. Coming away from the cone throughout.

I found these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/12-ALTEC-L...185812?hash=item2aa31c9514:g:MpkAAOSwhHlaqAfo
I like this seller, he seems to give full disclosure with no BS. After reading several of his descriptions, i would have no problem buying from him, or even having him do service work for me.

FWIW, the linen applied with more dope is a "get me thru the rest of the gig" repair at best. None of the at least 5 different kinds of dope that Altec used is an adhesive or meant to be used as an adhesive, it is in fact intended to remain "wet" until the end of time.

To do that repair properly all of the dope in the area of repair must be completely removed so that an actual adhesive can be used and genuine adhesion will take place. Then, the area of repair would need to be re-doped with sealant that has approximately the same compliance as the 60+ year old dope. Ideally, a good working driver has uniform compliance all the way around the surround and damper.

Replacing the surround is the way to go. PVC pipe solvent(MEK) will be your friend in dissolving the old glue. The surround dope can be thinned/removed/cleaned up with acetone. Usually the acetone will deal with the dope without touching the adhesive. There are always exceptions that pop up, and we don't know if anybody smeared anything additional on top of the original dope at some point.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

.............. and all that jazz. :)
 
I went with the Ebay replacement surrounds above. Came with a couple small bottle of what the seller says is the surround goop. I put some on one of the old surrounds and it seems to be good. Cant tell where I put it. Now I am procrastinating about removing the old ones as I am not looking forward to it.
 
Any chance of a snow storm in your near future, that's a great snowed in project.

I know, right? Actually that's exactly what will happen. I am not in a major hurry I guess because I am not working on the cabinet fixes yet. Gotta finish my KHorn build first and then figure out what I really want to do, either fix the F'd up baffle the 414A came from, or build something else.......

Plus I think I am going to try and salvage some of the old goop by heating it up and getting it runny and I am a bit worried about the smell. Don't know what to expect really. it is all puddled up at teh bottom edge of each from the impact of gravity all these years and not having been rotated.

Also been looking for MEK but it is only sold in gallon size expensive amounts so far that I see at HD, Lowes, ACE etc.
 
PVC pipe cleaner/solvent usually = MEK

I just did a quick search and it seems like not many companies offer it anymore.

One exception i found was Weld On brand C-65, it's an MEK/Acetone mixture.

Oatey has always been my go to, but i cannot find a components list or MSDS for it.
 
PVC pipe cleaner/solvent usually = MEK

I just did a quick search and it seems like not many companies offer it anymore.

One exception i found was Weld On brand C-65, it's an MEK/Acetone mixture.

Oatey has always been my go to, but i cannot find a components list or MSDS for it.

Got some at HD today in a quart size for $10. says MEK Substitute and to "use whenever MEK is recommended". so we shall see.
 
All going well with the surrounds install. The new surrounds fit perfectly. The most difficult thing has been removing the old gaskets. Never had any so tough to get off. Had to attack them with a chisel.
GPA has the replacement gaskets and I have a request in with Bill.
0209191517.jpg 0209191527.jpg
 
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Got some at HD today in a quart size for $10. says MEK Substitute and to "use whenever MEK is recommended". so we shall see.
I, too, read on AK that MEK is the preferred solvent for removing old surrounds glue from speaker cones. And I also found nothing but that same "MEK substitute" at HD. Did the "substitute" remove the old glue as well as you hoped? Thanks.
 
I, too, read on AK that MEK is the preferred solvent for removing old surrounds glue from speaker cones. And I also found nothing but that same "MEK substitute" at HD. Did the "substitute" remove the old glue as well as you hoped? Thanks.

Didn't seem to do much. The chisel is what I used to scrape it off and it was cumbersome. If I was planning on doing more, I would try and come up with a better way. In the end it was fine as I got better at it with each next one of course. I used the MEK sub stuff so maybe it helped loosen it all a bit.
 
Thanks, @Drugolf. Sounds like our choices are either the sub MEK (available) or the PVC solvent/cleaner mentioned by @bowtie427ss (hard/impossible to find). I've read about people using rubbing alcohol and other household chemicals and they report decent results. I'm also guessing that different speaker manufacturers probably used different types of glues to attach the surrounds so we're not really sure what might work.
 
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