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Nightmare refoam

ozmoid

ozmoid

Lunatic Member
I have never refoamed a speaker. I hope one day to refoam a speaker. I hope to one day refoam THIS speaker. I would never in a million years do this: SEE PICS:sigh:. Is there any hope of recovery? (and while you're giving me encouragement and advice, go ahead and shower me with pity too. :tears: I can take it.)

I have no idea what the glue is, and have not had a chance to contact the seller to see if he can shed any light on the subject. I only hope it's water soluble.
 

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Good God! Did they use packing foam to do that?

Try a little water at the basket first, see if that loosens the glue. If not, then move to the heavy, carcinogenic stuff.

BTW: What kind of speakers "were" those?
 
Ozmoid, it looks like it might be either diluted latex caulking, or white glue, like Elmer's/Weldbond.

If you want my 2¢, I would slice the surround into two annuli, and work on each edge separately, outer edge first, then inner. Cut from the back side, close to the edge of the cone. You can test the surround-to-basket bond for effective solvents. After you remove the outer portion, you can attack the inner annulus, more single-mindedly. If the surround is foam, and not butyl rubber, I would use a small xacto knife to split the thickness and remove the glue, and then concentrate on the remainder. Alternatively, you can attempt to remove the inner portion in one go. Then proceed as normal.

As bad as it looks, I think it is only slightly more work than a regular surround, which has deteriorated and fallen away. I hope so, anyway. BTW, what driver is that?
 
That'd be a 10" AR-2ax woofer... Prolly shoulda let Oz tell you.. But I was on the phone with him when they rolled in.
 
FWIW, I use Jasco Old Adhesive Remover to remove residual glues from cones and baskets; it's a lot like a paint stripper. I get it at Home Depot.
I'd carefully scrape off as much of that surround with a sharp X-Atco knife and then brush on some of the stripper. Maybe several times.
Don't worry about he metal basket side, you can be brutal there if necessary :yes:
 
yep, the basket side is bomb-proof, but it does make a good spot to test the solvents you may want to use on the cone side. You're not going to damage the cone, hunting for most efficacious substance to use.

BTW, I must check out that stripper. Thanks for the tip.
 
Oh...my...God!!! :sigh:

At second glance, it looks like whoever did the "refoam" actually did a fairly reasonable job, considering the materials at hand - I'd give him "A" for effort anyway...

I'm curious, did the woofer actually work like that??
 
Andyman said:
FWIW, I use Jasco Old Adhesive Remover to remove residual glues from cones and baskets; it's a lot like a paint stripper. I get it at Home Depot.
Click to expand...

Yes, thanks for the tip.

I agree it appears to a homemade surround glued (with silicone?) over the old one. Should be fun! Bear in mind, the woofer cone is made of "compressed lint" (or so I've been told...jokingly, I'm sure). I do know from experience that the cone is more fragile than the typical paper cone and should be handled carefully. I'd be leary of soaking it in any type solvent, although, I did that very thing when doing that "other" pair with no ill effects. Good luck, buddy. If I can help.....

Kelly - I would never have done something like that. I'd have used duct tape! That'll be enough out of you. :D

Mark
 
I think it will be a basic refoam job, just will take a long time to clean it all up. I agree that it will probably take something fairly strong to get it off the cone. On the basket, just some time and a lot of scraping.

Ed
 
Nothing looks wrong to me. The AR2AX always looked to me like they were built by one guy in his garage with whatever materials he could find at the moment. They used electrical tape to hold down the tweeter leads and gooey black gunk around the mids. Maybe you just have an earlier pair.
 
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Does the thing work? That's what really matters. Its amazing how simple surroungs actually are -- if you look at doped cambric surrounds its clear that there is nothing purposely woven about the cloth or anything, its just shaped to fit. A nice jig and so on will result in a better look, but remember that guy who posts every now and then with what ever speaker he has resurrounded in tweed or pendelton, or polyester doubleknit leisure suit..
 
Nat said:
Does the thing work? That's what really matters. Its amazing how simple surroungs actually are -- if you look at doped cambric surrounds its clear that there is nothing purposely woven about the cloth or anything, its just shaped to fit. A nice jig and so on will result in a better look, but remember that guy who posts every now and then with what ever speaker he has resurrounded in tweed or pendelton, or polyester doubleknit leisure suit..
Click to expand...

Let's not forget the infamous Bose 901's that were refoamed using 42 pounds of caulking, expandable foam, and shaving cream.
 
MarkAnderson said:
Kelly - I would never have done something like that. I'd have used duct tape! That'll be enough out of you. :D
Click to expand...
Hey now, we all know that you don't use duct tape, Kelly does. He even posted pics of a couple of his duct tape speakers back before the database crashed. Of course, he claims it was only to hold the speakers into the boxes for testing ... yeah right. ;)

I will be following this thread with interest. I picked up a pair of Infinity RSbs a few weeks back where the previous owner had put clear latex over the rotting foam to sure it up. Sure looks and feels weird, but seems to work for the moment. Still, I want to do it right with real foam, though it should be easier for me with the poly cones than what'll be faced with paper cones.

- JP
 
Don't wanna racoon THEM woogers...

Thanks all for the posts - I'll take it under advisement as the project develops. I think Luvvinvinyl has a good approach: Split the repair and work on one side at a time. That's where I'll start.

The Driver is an AR-2ax wooger. The cone feels like felt, and very thin. MarkAnderson, "pressed lint" is about right.

Yes, skibjr, the driver works! Son-of-a-gun even got it centered, nothing rubs (not audibly, anyway.) The mate to this one still has the original, rotted surround. That makes me very happy, I would not want to do two of these. I really bought them to get the tweeters to match up with the pair MarkAnderson and Fotno gifted me this Christmas (tweets were RS - don't blame them, they came that way), but now that they're here I think want to restore this pair in whole, and not just part them out. :thmbsp:

Andyman, thanks for the solvent tip. If this stuff turns out NOT to be water soluble, I'll prolly need a 5 gallon bucket.

And for the record, the "surround" is made of a trimmed sheet of packing foam. Let's just hope Mark doesn't get any ideas...
 
We should start adding pics of some of these abotions to the "How to" sticky thread as examples of how not to... :D
 
I just fixed a pair of large Advents that were "repaired" using the exact same material. Fortunately, who ever did it used hot melt glue and didn't clean the cone well, so it peeled off easily.
 
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