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Water damaged cabinet. (JBL 4301B)

bbug

bbug

New Member
Hello dear members,

Today I finally received the speakers. At first they looked great, but...definitely it has water damage. droh was right. One of speakers bottom shows huge gap. And both drivers show crappy refoam work too. I need to do it again.

It becomes a big headache. Jeez..

Any opinion?
Yes, I've already searched this forums and other for a possible solution, but it doesn't look.

IMG_20151025_143528.jpg

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OoOoooOoO, that doesn't look too bad at all. It'll be fairly simple repair, but it will take some patience. And it looks as though someone has fed in some type of adhesive in the crack already. Of course the drivers will have to come out. Zonker or others will probably know how the cabinet was constructed, I have no idea. But it'll need to be taken apart, just the affected areas. The surfaces where they were previously connected will need to be thoroughly cleaned out. Old, failing adhesive cannot be left in place.

Once you've opened it up, you'll find some failing particle board. Use your fingers or a tool very gently and remove the really bad stuff. Using a heat gun to warm the bad particle board, drizzle on an epoxy adhesive. Once it hits the toasty particle board, it'll liquify and restore the strength, the integrity of the old particle board. Now you have a solid foundation to build it back together.

Once that's cured, sand and make nice. Pre-fit the pieces back together, make sure it all the surfaces go back as they should. Then use an epoxy adhesive and large pipe clamps to pull and glue the cabinet back together. Once the epoxy has cured, then you can do the cosmetic work.

Of course, you will receive plenty of good responses here. Sort through them all and see what best fits your skill level, what you feel comfortable with. But most of all, have fun with it!

Biggles
 
Thank you for your reply.

Yes, you're right. It seems it needs to be taken apart fisrt and so on..

Or I can just buy a used cabinet from ebay. :D
$93.07 for one cabinet. Mmmm.

I think I need to talk with one of forum member first, droh. He said he has extra cabinet he doesn't use.

I thought it would be a good gift for my father, but it seems...:no:
 
bbug said:
Thank you for your reply.

Yes, you're right. It seems it needs to be taken apart fisrt and so on..

Or I can just buy a used cabinet from ebay. :D
$93.07 for one cabinet. Mmmm.

I think I need to talk with one of forum member first, droh. He said he has extra cabinet he doesn't use.

I thought it would be a good gift for my father, but it seems...:no:
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Yeah, sometimes it is easier and makes more sense to find another cabinet. Especially when you may actually have access to it immediately. However, I can say from personal experience that repairing what seems to be such a horrible tragedy feels so bloody good! Being able to stand back and gaze upon your hard work with such pride really brightens your day.

Biggles
 
Those would be a great gift! The deterring factors are skill level and time. Maybe grab the cabs in good shape and repair these as a good learning experience. As biggles said, very repairable, but a decent amount of surgery is required to get those gaps back to where they should be. Zonkers has posted pics of the correct blue paint mixture so that will really help cover any repairs.

Great little speakers that are fairly collectable and somewhat rare.
 
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Thanks for the good advice. And I've just found out they make vibrating sounds in certain high frequency. I think cabinet isn't biggest problem I have. Mmm. Headache. :(
 
Hey man, you got this! Just be patient and work your way through it. Attempt to isolate the issue, post images and findings here. We can walk you through it and make it right. Well, when I say "we", I mean someone. It's probably not that big of a deal.

Describe what exactly you're hearing, where you think it may be coming from.

Biggles
 
bbug said:
Thanks for the good advice. And I've just found out they make vibrating sounds in certain high frequency. I think cabinet isn't biggest problem I have. Mmm. Headache. :(
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Your 2nd pic may be your vibration source. Looks like there's a lot of panel separation going on. Pull the drivers and inspect the joints inside.

First thing to do is get the cab's integrity solid.
 
Both speakers make strange noise. It seems poorly refoamed driver or twitter issue. Those woofers condition is horrible. One speaker cabinet is in pristine condition, with faded blue face.
 
I would clean out the joints of all old glue (very important to do this) then use fresh glue and clamp it all together, no need to dismantle anything. The particle board looks OK its just the joint that's failed.
If you don't have clamps use small blocks of wood on each side of the joints then put a rope loop around the speaker, tighten the loop by twisting a large screw driver into the rope, as it tightens it will pull the joint together, the wood blocks will keep the rope off the corners and spread the pressure, but proper clamps are not expensive.
 
Thank you for the good advice and message! Thank you all!

Ah? What? I would need a clamp? Oh? I wouldn't need it? Haha! After reading all the posts, I checked some woodworking video from Youtube.
Now I can see what I need to do. Wow, it becomes a big project. For me, it's huge because I don't have any experience and tools.

First I'll refoam the drivers in this weekend. And next week, I'll get a help from a local professional store for testing, Orange County Speaker.
I really hope they don't have issues.

I really don't want to spend extra money for LE26 and 116H.
Well, I'll need them one day.
 
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bbug said:
Thank you for the good advice and message! Thank you all!

Ah? What? I would need a clamp? Oh? I wouldn't need it? Haha! After reading all the posts, I checked some woodworking video from Youtube.
Now I can see what I need to do. Wow, it becomes a big project. For me, it's huge because I don't have any experience and tools.

First I'll refoam the drivers in this weekend. And next week, I'll get a help from a local professional store for testing, Orange County Speaker.
I really hope they don't have issues.

I really don't want to spend extra money for LE26 and 116H.
Well, I'll need them one day.
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Welcome to AK! Sounds like you're in Orange County? Like many of us. Did you get these speakers from down near Scripps Ranch with some funky separated surrounds? If you have pics of the front baffles with the woofers, please show them. Thanks.
 
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Johnny_Law said:
You can get cheap clamps at Harbor Freight! http://www.harborfreight.com/24-in-ratcheting-bar-clampspreader-68977.html You can do it!
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Thanks, that's really good price. I think I'll need it soon.

mech986 said:
Welcome to AK! Sounds like you're in Orange County? Like many of us. Di you get these speakers from down near Scripps Ranch with some funky separated surrounds? If you have pics of the fornt baffles with the woofers, please show them. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Scripps Ranch? No, I bought them from Arizona. That's why I waited 3 weeks for delivery.
Yeah I'll post the pictures soon.
 
Just my two cents here, but I don't think this is a matter of a couple of joints opening up on that box. This looks like water damage to me. Two reasons I think that - first of all the gap is not consistent from front to back, the joint is close in the middle but opens up on the ends, that tells me that either the side is bowed - highly unlikely with particleboard, or the corners have absorbed some water and the particleboard has expanded. Second, if you look at the photos on the front you can see that the paper like veneer on the particleboard is peeling away, that looks like water has gotten under the glue of the paper to me as well. I have had similar cabinets with water damage - they looked just like this.

I don't think any amount of cleaning out that joint and any clamping is going to bring that joint back together, my bet is the particleboard has just expanded and opened things up, it would take a lot of sanding, epoxy and reveneering to fix that.
 
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