Al Margheim Posted January 8, 2021 Report Share Posted January 8, 2021 Hi, I'm replacing the surround foam on my AR11 woofers. About 25 years ago, I had a speaker repair shop in Dallas replace the original foam and now I'm wondering if they did it correctly. The outer edge of the surround is glued on top of a hard gasket that is glued to the speaker frame. Is that normal? Whenever the articles and videos that I've consulted deal with gaskets on woofers the foam surround goes between the gasket and the metal frame, not on top of the gasket. On the other hand, the pictures of AR11 woofers that I've found on the Web do seem to show the surround on top of the gasket. Should the surround be glued to the top of the gasket or be between the gasket and the frame? Another question I have is on how to remove the adhesive that the shop used on the foam. The adhesive will soften and get gummy with rubbing alcohol, but the adhesive hardly dissolves at all. The only way I've found to remove much of the adhesive is by scraping with a sharp x-acto knife, but the adhesive won't come off unless I use enough force that the blade also sometimes removes small amounts of the paper cone. This does not seem right to me. Is there a better way to remove the adhesive? Thanks, Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aadams Posted January 8, 2021 Report Share Posted January 8, 2021 The Masonite ring is a spacer and mounting surface. Don’t damage or remove it. Scrape glue with razor blade or exacto. Surface does not need to be perfect. Use Alene’s white glue. Get surrounds from speakerworks or parts express. Be sure to shim the voice coil. Search this site, there are a lot of 12 inch woofer repair threads. PIA on a phone keyboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Margheim Posted January 9, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2021 Thanks for the info. I did spend an hour or so reading woofer repair threads on the forum before I posted but I didn't see any posts that directly addressed my questions. I'm using surrounds that came in a repair kit that I got some years ago from wooferrepair@alltel.net, but I might buy some Alene's white glue so I can use fresh glue. Thanks again. Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lance G Posted January 9, 2021 Report Share Posted January 9, 2021 "I'm using surrounds that came in a repair kit that I got some years ago". If the proposed replacement surrounds are already several years old, maybe consider a new set before embarking on doing the work ? To not do so may be a false economy if you are intending to keep the speakers ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted January 9, 2021 Report Share Posted January 9, 2021 Hey Al. A belated welcome. Adams gave good advice. I would only reiterate the old glue does not have to be completely removed from the paper cone. Get too aggressive and you risk damaging the cone. Scraping works and you can also use some rough sandpaper. I'm not familiar with the supplier you used. Maybe others can tell you how to be sure you have the correct surrounds for your AR woofers--not generic ones. Also, some kits come with a solvent-based glue like contact cement that is just awful to work with and totally unnecessary on paper cones. Some supply white glue which is essentially the same as Aleene's Tacky Glue as Adams recommended. The Tacky Glue can be spread with your fingers, cleaned up with water, and if there are any goofs you can pull the pieces apart before they are entirely cured and try again. Kent PS: I see Lance was typing while I was. Good advice. I get my foam kits here: https://www.speakerworks.com/11-Inch-Angled-Speaker-Repair-Kit-p/swk11a.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Margheim Posted January 9, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2021 I appreciate the additional tips. I am planning on keeping the speakers (with a note attached to them to tell my kids to check current prices online before they sell them for too little at a garage sale 😬). The link to the SWK11 kit was especially useful. The surrounds in my kit are for an angled cone but their outside diameter is only 10-1/4", not the 10-1/2" OD surround that comes in the SWK11 kit. The glue in my kit is unlabeled white glue. Given that it's winter and the latex glue that speakerworks.com sells shouldn't be frozen, should I look for a local supplier for fresh Alene's white glue, or just order the Nitrile rubber adhesive from speakerworks.com? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aadams Posted January 9, 2021 Report Share Posted January 9, 2021 1 hour ago, Al Margheim said: Alene's white glue, or just order the Nitrile rubber adhesive from speakerworks.com? Plain ole Alene's Tacky glue is better than the generic white glue and Nitrile is not needed. Nitrile gives you about 1.5 tries before you're screwed. These are not the woofers with which you practice your nitrile skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted January 9, 2021 Report Share Posted January 9, 2021 39 minutes ago, Aadams said: Plain ole Alene's Tacky glue is better than the generic white glue and Nitrile is not needed. Nitrile gives you about 1.5 tries before you're screwed. These are not the woofers with which you practice your nitrile skills. Ditto that. Also I should have mentioned that this time of year SpeakerWorks will substitute the nitrile glue for that reason. Order 2 foams without glue. I also order dustcaps and shims even though SpeakerWorks say it’s unnecessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Margheim Posted January 9, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2021 Thanks Guys, I'll look for some Alene's locally and hope it wasn't frozen in transit to the store. My old repair kit came with shims and dust caps. I'll use those. Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Margheim Posted January 17, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2021 I finished replacing the foam and want to share a brief update on the repair. I stopped worrying about the large amount of old adhesive that I was unable to remove with rubbing alcohol and scraping after reading the instructions included with the speakerworks.com repair kit. The instructions said "Generally, it is not necessary to remove original adhesive residue." The new Alene's Tacky glue that I got from a local Hobby Lobby seems to have worked just fine over the old adhesive. When it was time to glue the foam to the outer edge of the cone I peeled back the plastic mesh on the outside of the speaker basket so I could wedge the cone up above the edge of the frame. I glued the plastic mesh back with Alene's after repairing the cone. I appreciate all of the help that I received on this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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