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KLH Model 20 Twenty re-capped and re-wrapped

hrtattckcity

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from image.jpgIMG_5143.JPG Just cleaned up this pair of KLH Model Twenty speakers. A little water damage in one corner of the cabinet--made the face a little wavy. I packed all the hairline joints with Mohawk epoxy stick, sanded and Danish oiled them. Added some Solen binding posts in parallel with the existing rca terminals. Recapped with some axon true caps. Rewrapped the grilles in guilford of Maine fr701 medium gray. Hurricane nuts on all drivers, new gasket tape, re-doped the surrounds with sealant
 
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IMG_5105.JPG I made the classic bonehead move of putting my drill bit through one of the cloth surrounds. Patched it on both sides with a piece of cheesecloth-esque loose weave fabric and Aleene's Tacky Glue. And then doped over the patch with Vintage AR sealant. Seems to be holding and performing well so far.
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IMG_5112.JPG IMG_5116.JPG IMG_5118.JPG IMG_5117.JPG My initial desire was to recover these grilles with some leftover speakerworks medium/dark gray we used on a friend's infinity qe grilles. But the existing thick weave white fabric is stapled from behind the thin fiberboard--the staples don't stick through but they do make a series of raised bumps that telegraph through. I sanded these down.
 
IMG_5121.JPG IMG_5126.JPG IMG_5124.JPG IMG_5128.JPG I tried using super 77 spray adhesive on the front panel and aleene's tacky glue on the back--temporarily tacking it with t50 3/8" staples while the tacky glue tried. Unfortunately the staples passed through; even when they were pulled, the raised bumps still telegraphed through. Bought some 1/4" staples (the smallest t50 arrow makes (and before this I didn't know there were different length staples)) and though they did not pass through, the bumps still telegraphed through the thin speakerwprks fabric. But that color looks awesome and more modern than most of the course weave fabrics people use when they refurb these.
 
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Rewrapped them with some surplus guilford of Maine fr 701 in medium grey. A little more trad than the speakerworks but I like the grey more than the original white. The thick weave hides the staple protrusion bumps in the fiberboard and stapling allows you to pull a little tension when you wrap the grille. The thin speakerworks spray adhesive test had a problem with the fabric dropping a bit at the driver openings.

So far so good and they sound great.
 
Those are beautiful. I intend to do the same thing to my Small Advents - as soon as I finish my current speaker-build project, and fix my friends reel2reel, and veneer his Heresies, and repair my own reel, and . . . . :dunno:

GeeDeeEmm
 
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