Recently working with my AMT3's, I managed to create a 3/4" tear in one of my brand new Dayton ST255-8 woofers that sport butyl surrounds.
After years of working with speakers, and a hot sweaty day in the garage I manged to do the "unthinkable". Crap-new $80 woofer shot.
First I tried silicone sealer-would not stick. I took it to Midwest speaker-they used some black stuff-same result (in fact this stuff got kind of hard and "scabby" within a month or so.
I figured I would wait till they went on sale-since these use unique surround types, and even re-cone kits aren't available.
I decided to do a bit or research on butyl rubber, and ran across a thread dealing with bicycle tubes types, thickness etc. The thread went on to describe successful repairs in shop, and on the trial and recommended a kit from Germany that had superior taper patches, but more importantly in my case superior butyl rubber self vulcanizing cement.
I found a kit @ Amazon, and decided to give it a try-$5.14, why not?
http://www.amazon.com/Rema-Touring-...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352515604&sr=8-1&keywords=rema
I used a small brush to apply the fluid to the rear and front of the tear. I was a bit bummed as the tear at one end, toward the cone, kind of puckered up. Oh well I thought-worth a try.
The next day, a took a look, and the tear was now perfectly flush!.
I pushed on the tear from the front and back with my finger, trying with some good pressure to open the tear-it was fixed! I took the end of a nylon tie to try to scrape the dried fluid off the surround-impossible without scraping off the original rubber as well.
It appears to have chemically vulcanized itself to the surround.
I added 2 coats and called it good.
Over the 2 months, I have used this repaired woofer in my testing, and applied some good long term power to the woofer and it's still in good shape in the repair area.
The fluid, when dried is just as flexible as the butyl surround, and hasn't dried out or lifted.
I will keep a eye on it over time-who knows, but for now it seems to have worked well.
Granted this is a new surround, but from what I ran into initially, this is almost worse then a older surround as a new one is very slippery.
I didn't scuff the rubber, or apply automotive tire repair buff solution, just the cement.
With this woofer, I can't hear any difference between this woofer, and a non repaired one. A smaller driver/mid might be different-but judging from the flexibility of the dried repair fluid so far-I really doubt it.
How it works on older surrounds I couldn't be sure, but for $5, its worth a try.
After years of working with speakers, and a hot sweaty day in the garage I manged to do the "unthinkable". Crap-new $80 woofer shot.
First I tried silicone sealer-would not stick. I took it to Midwest speaker-they used some black stuff-same result (in fact this stuff got kind of hard and "scabby" within a month or so.
I figured I would wait till they went on sale-since these use unique surround types, and even re-cone kits aren't available.
I decided to do a bit or research on butyl rubber, and ran across a thread dealing with bicycle tubes types, thickness etc. The thread went on to describe successful repairs in shop, and on the trial and recommended a kit from Germany that had superior taper patches, but more importantly in my case superior butyl rubber self vulcanizing cement.
I found a kit @ Amazon, and decided to give it a try-$5.14, why not?
http://www.amazon.com/Rema-Touring-...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352515604&sr=8-1&keywords=rema
I used a small brush to apply the fluid to the rear and front of the tear. I was a bit bummed as the tear at one end, toward the cone, kind of puckered up. Oh well I thought-worth a try.
The next day, a took a look, and the tear was now perfectly flush!.
I pushed on the tear from the front and back with my finger, trying with some good pressure to open the tear-it was fixed! I took the end of a nylon tie to try to scrape the dried fluid off the surround-impossible without scraping off the original rubber as well.
It appears to have chemically vulcanized itself to the surround.
I added 2 coats and called it good.
Over the 2 months, I have used this repaired woofer in my testing, and applied some good long term power to the woofer and it's still in good shape in the repair area.
The fluid, when dried is just as flexible as the butyl surround, and hasn't dried out or lifted.
I will keep a eye on it over time-who knows, but for now it seems to have worked well.
Granted this is a new surround, but from what I ran into initially, this is almost worse then a older surround as a new one is very slippery.
I didn't scuff the rubber, or apply automotive tire repair buff solution, just the cement.
With this woofer, I can't hear any difference between this woofer, and a non repaired one. A smaller driver/mid might be different-but judging from the flexibility of the dried repair fluid so far-I really doubt it.
How it works on older surrounds I couldn't be sure, but for $5, its worth a try.
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