Punctured cloth surround AR-4x

[meta_noia_fot]

Well I went and made a real amateur screw-up. While screwing a woofer into the cabinet of a 4x I picked up, my screwdriver slipped and I punctured the cloth surround on one of the woofers. Very small screw driver puncture through the surround away from the cone. All the material is still there. Is there any way I can seal this surround? No picture included because it doesn't photograph well. Doing some tests with the speaker reassembled, that woofer is making a raspberry sound on low bass notes at higher volumes, I'm assuming since it's not sealing.

I have a small jar of the sealant Vintage AR sells (and maybe @RoyC formulated??) but I don't know if that would work in this situation, nor do I want to go globbing it on without checking.

Thanks

[meta_noia_fot]

On second thought, here's a photo. It's a pretty minute tear I think.

[Aadams]

Does either arrow point to the damaged area?

[meta_noia_fot]

Neither. It’s in the blue circle 

[Aadams]

I would repair it on the back side with a narrow strip of high count cotton attached with the least amount of flexible fabric adhesive possible, then dope on the front side with RoyC goop.

 

Can't recall seeing a repair like this in the forum. 

[meta_noia_fot]

24 minutes ago, Aadams said:

Can't recall seeing a repair like this in the forum. 

Oh god I've gone and done something novel

The more I look at this, the smaller it seems the puncture is. The sort of diagonal line in the blue area is not a full tear. The actual puncture is quite small.

26 minutes ago, Aadams said:

I would repair it on the back side with a narrow strip of high count cotton attached with the least amount of flexible fabric adhesive possible, then dope on the front side with RoyC goop.

I think that could work. And the puncture is so small, the patch would hopefully not (significantly) affect woofer performance.

[meta_noia_fot]

I followed @Aadams advice. I picked up a high thread count color sample and a fabric adhesive called Unique Stitch from Jo-Ann’s. I tested the adhesive and it didn’t seem to add much stiffness to the fabric. Unique Stitch is also supposed to hold up under machine washing, so hopefully the patch will hold up with the movement of the woofer. 
 

I made a small circular patch, glued it in place, and applied the goo after the adhesive cured. It’s difficult to see the patch from these backlit photos, but you can see they puncture damage in one photo and not in the after photo. 
 

I’ve reinstalled the woofer into the cabinet and there is an OK acoustic seal (woofer fully bounces back after 3/4 sec or so). At this point I just need to drive them for awhile and hope the patch holds on. I’m also considering applying a second layer of the woofer sealant goo…much of the woofer doesn’t feel tacky, like the cloth absorbed it mostly. 

[JKent]

12 hours ago, meta_noia_fot said:

there is an OK acoustic seal (woofer fully bounces back after 3/4 sec or so).

Remember--the 4x doesn't have the kind of acoustic seal other ARs do. The dust cap is porous. I seem to recall Roy saying the 4x doesn't really need to be re-doped, usually. I'm thinking less is more in the case of the 4x.

[meta_noia_fot]

29 minutes ago, JKent said:

Remember--the 4x doesn't have the kind of acoustic seal other ARs do. The dust cap is porous. I seem to recall Roy saying the 4x doesn't really need to be re-doped, usually. I'm thinking less is more in the case of the 4x.

I didn’t know that. Thank you @JKent. This pair definitely needed to be redoped at least once. When I got them, they appeared to have never been opened yet had no seal at all. 
 

I’ll hold off any redoping a second time.