Anyone recover TSW(-510) grilles?

[Guest]

Yowie...these look like heck.

What kind of adhesive would I use to replace the old dry cracked stuff I took off? Anyone have a clue?

If you've done there or know someone who has, I'd like to talk.

My local shop wants $75 to do them....I figure I should give them a try first.

Thanks,

Keith

[Guest]

After getting the grilles redone quite nicely, I thought I'd just post a bit about what I did.

Adhesive - My local shop said they used hot melt glue. That sounded a little fishy (how do you keep it liquid enough long enough?) so I did some net searching. On Huw Powell's Human Speakers site, he makes reference to using contact adhesive. I tried that...works beautifully. However, unlike you might be used to when using contact adhesive, don't let it dry for 15-20 minutes, let it go no more than 2 minutes, this will allow to you more easily remove and reapply if you need to before all the volatiles come out of the glue. If you end up with "dry spots" after a remove-reapply, a little additional glue seems to wake it up.

Method - I figured there'd be one of two ways after not finding anything about a stretching method on the net. 1) Stretch the sides, then the corners or 2) stretch and apply the corners then the sides. I tried #1 first and it soon became apparent that it was NOT the method to use. Scratch one piece of grille cloth. Had to clean the frame off again.

The corners first method worked very well. I first applied contact cement to the corners only...about 2-3 inches down the frame in both directions from each corner. Then, while holding the cloth in the center, I stretched just as little cloth as I could very hard into the very point of one corner, the repeated on the opposite corner. Once the very center portion of all four corners was adhered, I started forming the rest of the cloth in the corners as far as I had applied adhesive. It appears to be very critical to stretch the cloth as much as possible in the first 2-3 inches of the corner. Then, I went to work on the sides, applying adhesive to opposite sides, adhering one evenly then stretching the other side. Oh, I should add, that I was using a wallpaper seam roller throughout this process to really press the cloth into the contact adhesive. Then, once everything was adhered and left overnight, I trimmed the excess cloth carefully with a new x-acto blade.

Since all but one of the plastic pegs had been broken off, I used 3/4" velcro dots applied with contact adhesive to provide the mounting. I removed the little rubber cups in the cabinets and plugged them with LIGHTLY glued tapered dowels. If by chance I come across grilles with unbroken pegs, I can remove the velcro, knock the dowels into the cabinet with a punch and reinsert some new rubber cups.

All-in-all, I thought they came out great (my wife was even impressed), and the cloth, velcro, and adhesive only cost me $23 as opposed to the $75 shop job. The cloth is nice and tight...will even bounce a quarter quite well!

I'd be happy to answer any other questions. It really wasn't hard at all...easier, in fact, than I had imagined.

Cheers,

Keith