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Glue removal tips


djcheung

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Hi all,

Just started working on a woofer with a rubber surround replaced by the previous owner.

The rubber surround is very think so I need to remove it and put foam surround on.

Removing it from the basket was easy enough but it is a completely different story when it comes to removing it from the cone.

The surround was replaced I believe 5-6 years ago and it is still very fresh.

The glue just wouldn't come off so is the surround.

Any thing that I can use to remove the surround/glue without damaging the cone ?

Or should I just stick the new surround on top of the leftover rubber edge ?

Best regards,

David.

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Trying to determine which industrial solvent was used as the diluent can be a lengthy trial and error. The easiest and relatively safe solvent to try first is isopropanol. Lacquer thinner has many solvents in it but the fumes are dangerous with health and flammability issues. Another popular diluent is toluene, Hard to find and expensive. Yet, it too is dangerous to work with and will pull fat right thru your skin. So always wear appropriate gloves. Nitrile gloves will stand up to most solvents for a good deal of time.

Iso has the right idea but check for solvents in the mix. Another popular remover is Goo-B-Gone.

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That black ring on the cone perimeter looks so smooth (except for that one location) that I'd be tempted to attach the new surround directly to that existing rim. With regards to trying to remove that ring, my concern would be the possibility of doing more damage to the cone than making any improvement. Why remove it - - are you concerned about added cone weight? My thought would be to leave cone as-is and simply clean up the metal basket frame to ensure a neat glue joint.

In your first post, you mentioned that the rubber surrounds were "very think", and it is unclear if you meant "thin" or "thick". 

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Re: "thick", I suspected so, but just was not sure.

On the cones, I'm only trying to offer a word of caution since I know how tenaciously some substances adhere to those heavily textured paper cones. It appears you may already have an excellent surface to attach the inner foam, so I would hate to see you make it worse. 

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I have tried using a new xacto knife but with no luck.

I figured even if I can get it off, it will leave an uneven surface for the new foam and I may damage the cone material.

With what I have tried, the old glue seems to have penetrated into the paper cone and bonded with it.

I have glued a new foam surround onto the old rubber surround and I will wait for a day to see if it will hold.

Some picture when I have completed the job.

  

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I am currently refoaming a 6 1/2 woofer and the last remnants of the glue are imbedded on the outer perimiter as you described.

I really see no reason for me to go any further. In fact it will probably make for a better bond. I'm just going to leave well enough alone. No sense in damaging the cone.

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Quote

I really see no reason for me to go any further. In fact it will probably make for a better bond. I'm just going to leave well enough alone. No sense in damaging the cone.

Stan makes a good point. If you were on this side of the pond I'd say send them to Bill LeGall. I had a pair of AR 12" woofers that looked awful, with a sloppily glued surround. The solvent-based glue was thick and gloppy. I decided not to tackle them and sent them to Millersound. Bill did his usual outstanding work!

-Kent

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  • 3 years later...

I was about to start re-foaming my AR-16 Woofers so knew I had to get the old glue off. So I read all the posts on this site and a few others. The glue on the speaker metal I removed using a sharp craft knife and then "sanded" it with coarse emery paper. This was probably some sort of rubber adhesive.

I then had to get the glue off the paper cone. I was worried about tearing the paper but didn't want to try lots of different chemicals so decided to try shaving off the glue using a disposable knife. I stress the word shave rather than cut as I only took off a very thin layer of this hard black glue at a time.

image.png.799ce5783014fe12d5ed6e6cd3e2335f.png

image.png.7576cdb3f6181b477995010afa7a4ae6.png

Doing this slowly I got a lot glue off but it was still very uneven.

So I carefully sanded the remaining glue down using coarse (P60 grit) then fine (P400) emery paper just a small piece about 2" X 2". You have to support the cone under where you are sanding it, I just used my fingers under the cone or rolled up paper towel where my fingers would not fit.

When I had finished it looked like this:

image.png.3594c816b4e51af05fc005226bb5782c.png

Which I considered good enough to attach the new foam without damaging the paper.

Hope this information helps some one else. 

I'll post more photos of the AR-16 speaker refurbishment in an other post.

Thanks Steve

 

 

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1 hour ago, Steve B said:

When I had finished it looked like this:

Really helpful description with excellent results. You've created a very good new cone edge surface for attachment of new foam surround.  Please keep us updated with the AR-16 restoration.

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I remember reading a thread by Doug G (the Advent guy) where he brought up the theory that solvents never completely disappear from being absorbed into the cone material and over time can weaken the bond of the new glue. He went on to recommend just mechanically removing the glue residue by scraping it off.  

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