Speaker Reconing Kit

[Diablo]

A few months back, Weber had so much business building speakers that they stopped reconing speakers of brands other than Weber. So, maybe Gibsonman should head down to Kokomo and apply for a job as an apprentice speaker reconer?....

[Gibsonman63]

If the pay was the same, I would be all over it! Unfortunately, I have to maintain the lifestyle that my little woman has become accustomed to.

[jrfrond]

BTW, how do you become a certified speaker reconer? It seems that there are a lot of closely guarded secrets when it comes to reconing speakers.

Secrets? I don't know about that. Experience is the real teacher, and while everyone has their "tricks", I don't know if there are any secrets per se. A far as becoming certified, you have to go for training to different speaker manufacturers. Then you need to get parts as well. The company I purchase parts from will NOT sell to end-users. Parts are the biggest problem, and if you screw it up, you will probably have to rip it all out and start all over again.

Speaker reconing hasn't changed in decades, except that now we use all CA adhesives and accelerator, so speakers are done as soon as the dust cap (last item) goes on, unless you need to dope the surround, which is diluted white glue. When THAT dries, you are ready. It used to be an overnight cure time with the old PVC adhesives.

[Enzo]

Last time I looked into it, Waldom was the largest general recone parts supplier, and they worked on a franchise basis. If ther already was a Waldom franchise in your town, you wouldn;t be able to get one. And they only sold parts to their franchisees.

We looked into reconing for EV, and their basic test was to send you a speaker to recone. If it came back looking like they had done it, they would talk to you.

Then we thought, "why are we even fucking with this stuff?" And that was that.

Gtr_Tech. If you want to know a good reconer, and not far from you, in Oxford, MI. Judy Fulkerson. She has always done top notch professional work for me. I initially found her via JBL factory recommendation. 248-628-5051 I can count on factory parts for JBL, Celestion, even Yamaha and other brands. And she is on the Michigan list at WeberVST

Fulkerson Speaker Rebuilders - jbljudy@charter.net

[gbono]

Not sure what domestic reconing folks use for adhesives but the asian speaker manufactuers use PVA since it is non-toxic and cheaper. Try and get a subscription to Voice Coil magazine it has interesting articles and adds.

[Gtr_tech]

Last time I looked into it, Waldom was the largest general recone parts supplier, and they worked on a franchise basis. If ther already was a Waldom franchise in your town, you wouldn;t be able to get one. And they only sold parts to their franchisees.

Waldom? Like GC/Waldom? Never heard about that. When I worked for Shand's in Flint they were a GC/Waldom dealer and I was ordering from them at least once a week and never saw anything about spealer parts. But...this was 10 years ago....

I plan to check out Fulkerson. I occasionally get recone requests and would like someone reputable to send them to.

[jrfrond]

Not sure what domestic reconing folks use for adhesives but the asian speaker manufactuers use PVA since it is non-toxic and cheaper. Try and get a subscription to Voice Coil magazine it has interesting articles and adds.

CA Adhesives are the weapon of choice nowadays, mostly the rubberized black stuff, which you will NOT find in any local stores. You will also NOT find the non-whitening accelerator to go with it. The adhesive we purchase in quarts, and the accelerator in 5gal. pails, used with either an airbrush and shop air, or Preval sprayers for more portability.

Since when do Asian mfrs. worry about toxicity???

BTW- Waldom is out of the speaker parts business.

[gbono]

I have a 40 page manual from Loctite (now Henkel Corp - like the bomber) just devoted to loudspeaker application. I can get most of this stuff - BlackMax, etc. But it is stupidly expensive. I assume you are getting CA adhesives from other suppliers??

The last "kit" I used for an EVX-155 came with PVA adhesive and seemed to do the job. I also worked for a very old speaker guy from the UK who swore by PVA over CA - though he had OCD when it came to saving money.

[jrfrond]

I have a 40 page manual from Loctite (now Henkel Corp - like the bomber) just devoted to loudspeaker application. I can get most of this stuff - BlackMax, etc. But it is stupidly expensive. I assume you are getting CA adhesives from other suppliers??

The last "kit" I used for an EVX-155 came with PVA adhesive and seemed to do the job. I also worked for a very old speaker guy from the UK who swore by PVA over CA - though he had OCD when it came to saving money.

Yes, there are MANY suppliers of CA Adhesives, so I do not purchase LocTite. You CAN buy LocTite if you want to, but you'll get fleeced unless you are purchasing wholesale in large quantities. Still and all, most adhesive distributors will supply the LocTite equivalent number for their adhesives. The adhesive most reconers use is the LocTite 410 equivalent.

The main advantage of CA over PVA is cure time, which is almost instantaneous with CA adhesive and accelerator.

[Enzo]

Did someone buy the Waldom operation, or did they just fade away? It has been a long while.

[jrfrond]

Just kinda faded away Enzo. There is a great aftermarket supplier I use in Arizona that sources all of the components and sells them as kits of individually. Kind of the equivalent of what Waldom did.

[Dwade]

I've done a few thousand recones over the course of 20 years, though I've been out of the biz for about a decade. Like Gibsonman63 said, the pay is just not there. I do miss it though. I was the go-to guy in my area.

We used a lot of Waldom kits back in the day but slowly transitioned to the guy in Arizona that jrfrond mentioned. He seemed to have a passion for what he did. He lived & breathed reconing. Waldom was just doing business & there's nothing wrong with that. I always tried to use factory kits when possible. It's certainly not always possible. It's not necessarily hard to do but it does take time to learn the art of reconing. There is no substitute for experience. Know the proper adhesives, how to make the parts fit when they don't want to.....shimming, VC depth....it all comes together with having done it.

I literally did an average of 5-10 speakers per week for 20 years. Never once did I ever have to de-magnetize & re-magnetize a unit. I've replaced the magnet assembly on a few......but never went through that process.

The reconing process has become a bit of a lost art.......which is a shame.

[trem]

Nice to hear from a guy that did it for a living.
Like just about all other skills in The World.....the cost of parts and labor often exceeds the value of the item.
What can you say.....

[Morganza]

I also reconed speakers as a service to my musician/DJ customers at my electronics repair shop in N.O. Louisiana about 10 years ago. I was displaced (business had to close) as a result of hurricane Katrina in 2005. I'm in Texas now and finally working on opening another shop here, as there are very few in my area and I'm getting to know more musicians, DJs, Pawn Shops, Music Stores, and other repair shops that won't look at musical electronics.

To trem, Dwade and jrfrond: Would the Arizona speaker parts supplier that you mention happen to be MWA Speaker Parts? I used them exclusively (unless someone wanted original JBL, Celeston, Jenson, etc parts) for all my speaker parts. I also used a company called SCI (www.scicominc.com/aa) which had every kind of speaker adhesive you could ever need. Unfortunately, both of those companies seemed to have disappeared. Have either of you tried to contact them (or at least MWA) recently?

If they are no longer in business (speaker reconing down the tubes?), can you guys suggest anyone else that has as big of an aftermarket inventory as MWA/SCI? I was told that MWA actually wound their own voice coils - to your spec if need be.

I'll check out anyone that you suggest. I've already know about SimplySpeakers, OrangeCounty, SpeakerParts, and Springfield. None really match MWA though. I guess I'm looking for a more industrial supplier. MWA could whoop up a spkr kit for any speaker I had to fix.

I didn't (and still don't ) feel good about telling someone that they should just go out and buy another new JBL 2241G @ $700.00 when it could be repaired.

Much Thanks to All!
mdg

[Jazz P Bass]

Looks to me as if MWA is still around.

Speaker Parts Voice Coils Speaker Repair Kits - MWA Speaker Parts, Inc.