Old speaker repair question

[mikepukmel]

Hi All,
I got a pair of old Epicure 120 speakers, salvaged. The speakers are in good shape, but the woofer foam is shot. The prev owner tried to repair one, but the job isn't so good. The other speaker, the foam is completely gone.
I found a place that sells new foam kit for these speakers but this particular kit doesn't have dust caps, so I have no way to shim the coils inside when the foam is glued on. Wondering if there's a place that sells dust caps by diameter? Haven't found one yet. Also, anyone know what chemical might kill the old glue holding the dust cap on? Was thinking maybe Acetone, in a small amount on a q tip.
Last question, the cardboard ring that sits over the foam is gone on both speakers. I could not find a kit for this speaker, wondering if someone knows a speaker rebuilt parts place that might sell cardboard rings by diameter. The speaker basket has the mounting holes slightly outside where the cardboard ring goes so I think a generic one by diameter would work.
THanks!
Mike

[bsco]

Simply Speakers out of Florida....You can also install the surrounds without using shims...there are videos on their site that you can watch....they are great to deal with as i have ordered from them a few times now....check them out....

[TomCarlos]

I too have used Simply Speakers. Look for their videos on YouTube (search words = "speaker foam"). Parts Express also sells foam. Here is their "how to" video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwcfP5pKeek

Years ago, I bought a foam kit for my JBL home speakers. The ring was a tad too big. I made a cut through the ring and overlapped the material. It has held up great over the years.

Good luck.

[The Dude]

Hi All,
I got a pair of old Epicure 120 speakers, salvaged. The speakers are in good shape, but the woofer foam is shot. The prev owner tried to repair one, but the job isn't so good. The other speaker, the foam is completely gone.
I found a place that sells new foam kit for these speakers but this particular kit doesn't have dust caps, so I have no way to shim the coils inside when the foam is glued on. Wondering if there's a place that sells dust caps by diameter? Haven't found one yet. Also, anyone know what chemical might kill the old glue holding the dust cap on? Was thinking maybe Acetone, in a small amount on a q tip.
Last question, the cardboard ring that sits over the foam is gone on both speakers. I could not find a kit for this speaker, wondering if someone knows a speaker rebuilt parts place that might sell cardboard rings by diameter. The speaker basket has the mounting holes slightly outside where the cardboard ring goes so I think a generic one by diameter would work.
THanks!
Mike

You can usually reuse the old gaskets. Use a utility knife and get it between the speaker frame and the gasket and cut it loose. If the gaskets are missing, that's another story. Do you need gaskets? If the speakers are front mounted, they aren't necessary and may have never been there.

I wouldn't use any chemicals to remove the glue ring around the dust cap. It may weaken the speaker cone. Just cut off the old cap with an exacto knife as close to the glue as you can and replace the dust cap with a slightly larger one to cover up the old leftover glue. Got any old/blown speakers laying around with larger dust caps? If so, cut them off and reuse them. I reuse dust caps all the time. Just set them on a flat surface and use a scissors to straighten/level the outer edge before use.

You can get replacement foam surrounds all over ebay. It requires some measuring on your part to make sure inside and outside diameter are correct. There are also flat and angled foams for different speaker cones. Be sure to get the correct one.

Instead of using shims, you can also run a low level low frequency sine wave to the speaker instead of cutting off the dust cap while you glue the foam to the frame. That will keep the coil centered. IMO, using shims is much more reliable and easier, but using a test tone is another option.

[mikepukmel]

Thanks everyone! It turned out that after removing the foam, its actually a cardboard run under the foam, didn't expect that. Got the old foam off, and new foam on. Not very pretty job, but its the first repair, so I can't beat myself up too badly (although I usually do anyway). One speaker sounded awesome, the other .... dang a TINY spot of glue rolled down under teh dust cap, and between the small gap in the paper ring that the voice coil sits on, and glued the inside of that one voice coil to the magnet. Had to cut off one dust cap, but managed to clean that spot and get both working.

Thanks for the tip on chemicals.

Also, very wierd, 3 places have foam surrounds that are for this exact model speaker, but the dimensions are wrong, they're like 1" too small ID and OD. I searched trial and error and found a set with the right dimensions for a different brand speaker. Im pretty sure there are original woofers, as they have the date code on back.

But, .... they make sound!

Im leading up to picking up a nicer pair used with shot foam, and fixing them. Eeek, this glue is very hard to work with. It glues well, but is very "runny", like model airplane glue.

[mikepukmel]

Dude thanks for the note on test tone vs shims. I found a youtube vid wihere the guy used a test tone. I could not imagine being able to get all that done, and hold the thing in the right spot while the glued hardened with a tone making the cone hop like that! I ended up making shims. Took forever to find the right thickness paper. Found some almost like card stock printer paper that worked.

[The Dude]

Yep. Gaps are different sizes so shims must also be, but I find that business cards cut in strips often work well.

[mikepukmel]

well after all this botchy work, and admittedly not a very good first attempt, (learned a lot!) they do play ok. Both woofers anyway. Over the past few days, the magnet fell off one tweeter. Really. The speaker was sitting on its back, and it didn't sound "right", luckily was at low volume. I took the screws out and the tweeter was unbelievably light (weight). I reached down through the insulation and there was the magnet. Big heavy sucker. I got some 2 part epoxy that seems would do the trick. Im not at all sure how to align the voice coil though. There are no alignment pins. it looks like, the plastic front plate was first glued to the magnet assembly at the factory, then they dropped the voice coil/cone in and did some kind of alignment procedure as it was being glued in. Probably no way to find a voice coil kit for that, so its all backwards, the voice coil/cone is glued to the plastic face plate, and the magnet is off. I set the voice coild down into the magnet and it plays OK if I gently move the face plate to about the middle. Really wish that had not happened!

[Enzo]

The magnet assembly is welded or staked or even bolted to the basket frame. THEN the voice coil is centered in the gap. They don't try to center a magnet over the voice coil.

[Mick Bailey]

The only time I recall putting the magnet onto the voice coil is with the Peavey speakers where you could change the basket assembly and keep the old magnet. Usually three through-bolts to hold everything in place. A nice idea, but here in the UK the replacement basket ended up costing more than a brand-new speaker.

[mikepukmel]

its so old, not sure what to do with it. The magnets have 1978 date codes. No alignment pins or anything like that. As you all said, they build the plate/magnet assembly, then use some procedure to align the voice coil. Dang. Im sure I could epoxy the plate/coil but no way would the voice coil be aligned. Double dang. The guy who built these speakers back in the day, does still have a shop up in New hampshire. I was thinking, when this covid thing goes away (If I live that long) to drive up and ask him what it would cost to fix this thing. i imagine he'd sell me a new unit. Which blows my $30.00 budget limit. Heh.

[mikepukmel]

So I got a little experience what kind of skills are needed to do a refoam job.

[Leo_Gnardo]

So I got a little experience what kind of skills are needed to do a refoam job.

Companies that sell the kits, some of them anyway, provide a guide on what to do. These days I wouldn't be surprised if they also had a video, or you could find one - or more - on YouseTube. Start with razor, scraper, apply solvent to old goo, scrape some more, etc etc. Steady hands and pay attention to what you're doing, I'm sure it will come out right.

[mikepukmel]

Companies that sell the kits, some of them anyway, provide a guide on what to do. These days I wouldn't be surprised if they also had a video, or you could find one - or more - on YouseTube. Start with razor, scraper, apply solvent to old goo, scrape some more, etc etc. Steady hands and pay attention to what you're doing, I'm sure it will come out right.

Thanks Leo! Steady hands!! Well, my hands are not as steady as they used to be, the re-cone job didn't come out as neat as id like but they do work. I lost the tweeter magnet for like a year, was about to toss the speakers in the dumpster, and the magnet turned up. I have some epoxy just trying to figure out what to do next. The voice coil/cone is glued tightly to the plastic front section of the tweeter. The magnet was originally glued to the plastic part, fell off, and somehow did not wreck the voice coil. If I carefully set the voice coil in the magnet, the tweeter produces sound. after head scratching, I think i need some kind of solvent, to loosen the voice coil, glue the plastic shell to the magnet, then glue the voice coil back onto the magnet. I have an old scope, trying to figure out some way to tell if the coil is centered when I glue it back on.

[tubemonster]

Kind of late in the game here, but another place here in florida is https://reconingspeakers.com/