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Do You Recone Your Own Speakers?

R

Rotorbar

Jan 6, 2009
6
0
#1
Loudspeaker reconing is not black magic. I suppose it's not for everyone. It seems to be in that gray area that requires technical knowledge and manual dexterity skills at the same time. On the other hand, it's not like you had to make the paper cone and wind the voice coil yourself. The kits that are available make it a pretty much cut-and-dried affair. I'm always looking for sources and ideas, and this seems like a good place to ask. Where do you buy recone kits? Where do you buy glue? All I know is if it says "Stupendously Strong Voice Coil Glue" I probably paid too much for it. That exotic high viscosity cyanoacrylate glue was probably just Bostik #7435. (Invalid Link Removed). Takes a little of the voodoo out of it, huh?

One tip: If you recone, you're probably looking for shim material to locate the voice coil. I use plastic shim stock from either MSC Industrial Supply (Invalid Link Removed) or Grainger. Grainger wants you to have a business account, but MSC just likes money, and will sell to anyone. For example, the 0.010" stock that I used the other day on some E130's is MSC part number 32021255. I think it was $8 for a 10" x 20" sheet. E140's seem to like the 0.012" stock better. If you store the shims carefully, they are reusable. Don't buy brass or steel shims. They'll scratch up the voice coil form, and on speakers like 18sound where they wind the voice coil outside and inside of the former, you'll scratch the insulation on the inside of the voice coil.

If I can figure out how to post pictures, I'll write about how I make 'stepped' shims that locate the voice coil axially, and help keep it from getting cocked.

Regards,
Rotorbar
 
#2
Rotorbar,

Since I had three 18's that were blown and was looking at close to $400 in repairs, I decided to give it a try, so I re-coned 2 cerwin vega 18's last year. And I have an EV 18 waiting. All went well and they sound better than I ever remember. I used index cards for shims on the vega's. I found the lines on the cards helpful in setting coil depth. I got everything I needed on-line from Legacy Sound Service. The total cost for materials to do just one speaker wont save you much, but I saved about half of what you might spend to do three.

Brad
 
#6
Hi, Rotorbar.

I have only reconed 2 speakers back in 80's and the lack of the affordable reconing kits over here have been the deciding factor for me not to do it more.

For the price of a EVM 15" reconing kit, I can purchase an eqvivalent Eminence driver. I have two sitting there ATM, waiting for the "right price" kits to be found ;).

For shims (I made a tube out of it) I used OH projector transparency film, worked like a charm.

Regards
Sam
 
#9
When I needed to get some JBL 2205s redone, I did a search on Ebay. Proper JBL kits (2225) were available fairly cheaply. I have a gentleman who I have used since the early seventies. He charges $35 labour for a re-cone. At that price it's simply not worth my trying, and possibly failing, to do it myself.

However, for trying and succeeding you get a big "way to go" from me!!! :)

Paul
 
#13
Robert Sjea said:
Dumb question - how do you know when to recone? I have an Avatar 210 and one speaker is starting to buzz around the edge. Thanks,
robert
Click to expand...

You may just need to re-glue the edge (surround). Might be that the surround is separating from the cone or the frame, take off the grill and see what's going on with it.

I have re-edged a pair of home audio woofers, it was quite a chore scraping off the old surround and glue. Putting it back together was enjoyable and the speakers sound excellent.
 
#14
I just reconed two 12" drivers from a pair of cheap ass PV TSL P.A. cabs. I used parts from Weber (1 3/4" voice coils, cones, spiders, tinsel, dust covers) and reused the gaskets. I used superglue ultra on the voice coils and a solvent based self leveling glue (E 6000) on the spider, cone landing area and dust caps. I used white elmers glue to dope the edge of the cone.

It cost about $35 dollars for parts (including glue and $9 shipping cost) for two speakers and was not very difficult. The hardest part by far was stripping the old glue off the frames and making sure the gap was clean. I spent more time on this then the actual reconing.

to set the voice coil depth, I simply used the original as a spacer, holding it upside down with the edge of the old spider touching the new coice coil, and the top of the old VC touching the new spider. Checked in 4 spots, then set the assembled cone/spider/voice coil in the basket and shimmed. since the weber parts fit together snuggly, i was comfortable removing the assembely, and gluing on both sides of the VC like the factory piece was.

the gap on these speakers was so tight I had to use 4 strips of printer paper cut into 1/4" by 2.5" strips instead of the index cards mentioned in the online tuturials. these fit nicly, as I could rotate the assembly and the shims would stay in place. this indicates the VC is centered in the gap.

with no previous reconing experience and using the links mentioned in this thread, I had no problem completing the recones in an afternoon and they sound great (*for low wattage cheap ass PV speakers).


I'm surprised that there are not more people trying this. With all the possibilities of swapping around parts and their low cost it seems like it would be more popular then the remove and replace 'mods' that are common.
 

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