Trying to salvage the water damages JBL cabinets...

[janikphoto]

I'm finally getting around to attempting a reasonable repair/mod for these L220's. They play great, but the bottom of the cabs soaked up enough water to swell them and bust off veneer an inch or two up from the base.

I've thought about doing a more involved repair, but this is at the very bottom. I de used I could modify them to have a bevel or rounded base in black. It'll go an inch up. I am first scraping away damaged veneer and board, shaping the rounded corners, and stabilizing the softened sections with wood glue. Then, I'll use a structural epoxy to fill and smooth the area, and then paint it flat black. Here's a pic of the shaping and stabilizing step.

 

[Zonker92]

Ouch! Good luck!

 

[hnash53]

Your plan sounds good. Firming up the exposed particle board is great... using wood glue and epoxy. I've done something similar. If you lay on the epoxy thick enough, after it dries, you can shape it and paint it/stain it.

Good luck with your project... worthwhile.

 

[GD70]

With that much damaged particle board, after you remove the loosest stuff, you want to saturate it with a thin viscosity epoxy, which will have time to be absorbed and soak into the board. Warming the area with a hair drier will also help the board absorb the epoxy. I wouldn't use wood glue first, or at all in this application.
I use ZPoxy, which is very thin and works great for this kind of repair, and sands easily.

 

[mars_volta]

Great thread. I just picked up some Ohm Model H from an alley that have serious water damage on the bottoms. Beautiful speakers and all the drivers work. I have to fix them somehow but I'm not sure if its possible.

 

[Cosmos]

As a suggestion, if run into trouble, you could cut the bottom couple inches, replace it with wood or MDF. You can drill through the new wood and dowel or just screw it together, cut a new base and then re-veneer the sides. In some respects, it is more work, but the end result will be solid.

 

[Cosmos]

Great thread. I just picked up some Ohm Model H from an alley that have serious water damage on the bottoms. Beautiful speakers and all the drivers work. I have to fix them somehow!

Ohm H are great speakers and one of the best bookshelves I heard in its day.. I would love to find a pair... Good luck. Those look pretty rough from the one picture.

 

[bowtie427ss]

With that much damaged particle board, after you remove the loosest stuff, you want to saturate it with a thin viscosity epoxy, which will have time to be absorbed and soak into the board. Warming the area with a hair drier will also help the board absorb the epoxy. I wouldn't use wood glue first, or at all in this application.
I use ZPoxy, which is very thin and works great for this kind of repair, and sands easily.

Quoted for emphasis.

Don't forget about cyanoacrylate(super glue) for smaller areas and stabilizing particle or any other kind of wood. It penetrates deep, and sets up as strong as anything you can use. I learned about this at a wood carver's expo, it's a common practice to strengthen areas on carvings that get very thin.

 

[Mitkraft]

The guys on the arcade forums use wood hardener where you are talking about using wood glue. I've used it as well on the bottom of water swelled particle board arcade cabinets.

 

[toddalin]

I think that the easy way, that would prove plenty strong, would be to smooth down any raised areas due to swelling, saturate the particle board with Titebond, and just clamp a piece of baseboard moulding in place, with the curved side up, to cover this area, and paint it black. I would use the shortest piece of mounding that would cover the offending areas.

It would just look like the cabinet is sitting on a raised, fitted base.

 

[Tom Brennan]

It's possible the water damaged speakers one finds in an alley or alongside the curb were sitting in sewage, a euphemism for water with shit in it. Around here it's probable.

 

[butch4695]

Great thread. I just picked up some Ohm Model H from an alley that have serious water damage on the bottoms. Beautiful speakers and all the drivers work. I have to fix them somehow but I'm not sure if its possible.

Great looking speakers, love that tweeter , have had a couple pairs that I used in other projects but you should start a thread on those

 

[butch4695]

It's possible the water damaged speakers one finds in an alley or alongside the curb were sitting in sewage, a euphemism for water with shit in it. Around here it's probable.

Its probable but is it potable ??

 

[GD70]

I think that the easy way, that would prove plenty strong, would be to smooth down any raised areas due to swelling, saturate the particle board with Titebond, and just clamp a piece of baseboard moulding in place, with the curved side up, to cover this area, and paint it black. I would use the shortest piece of mounding that would cover the offending areas.

It would just look like the cabinet is sitting on a raised, fitted base.

Titebond is water soluble and no where near as hard or strong as cured epoxy. Just my 2c.

 

[GD70]

Great thread. I just picked up some Ohm Model H from an alley that have serious water damage on the bottoms. Beautiful speakers and all the drivers work. I have to fix them somehow but I'm not sure if its possible.

Those may require some surgery, removing the bottoms and completely replacing them. The integrity of the cabs will be far better, than attempting to fix what's there now. Also, you'll remove a lot of moldy material to boot!

 

[toddalin]

Titebond is water soluble and no where near as hard or strong as cured epoxy. Just my 2c.

No,

Titebond II and III are waterproof.

 

[GD70]

No,

Titebond II and III are waterproof.

I stand corrected, thanks!

 

[janikphoto]

I did some more work on these. I used some small nails to work kind of like rebar. This should help support the Bondo brand wood filler I'm using to build up the low spots.

 

[janikphoto]

Bondo is cured and shaped, and I've added a coat of black paint.

 

[janikphoto]

This is how the modification looks with the speaker on the floor.