Question on refoaming

[ien2222]

Hey all,

I have a pair of Infinity's that I need to refoam. I was wondering how hard it is to do yourself and also what are some good companies to get a kit from?

Specifically they are Infinity CS3006 and a CS-video (I think that's the name of the center channel) that might need it soon.

Thanks

 

[blackhawk1928]

Are you talking about replacing the foam surrounding the cone surface?

http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=CAT&srchCat=373

 

[ien2222]

Yes, sorry should have been more specific. The surrounds are becoming brittle and starting to tear.

I've looked around on various forms, but it's hard to judge the difficultly of doing it yourself. Some say it's easy, others say it can be a bit tricky, but there's never any description as to why they think it's either, they just leave it at easy or not so easy.

Also they all agree that there's a wide variety of quality out there. I'm looking at Orange County or maybe Speaker World, but if there's someone else I should be looking at I'm open to suggestions.

 

[blackhawk1928]

I actually recommend getting rubber surrounds if they are available. My woofers on my basement speakers have rubber and it seems to handle excursion and beatings better than foams. It feels a lot more durable.

 

[jacobboe89]

This is not very hard to do , i would prepare by watching some you-tube videos . you will see the way to do it correctly and incorrectly . some of how you perform this task is a matter of preference . I reformed a pair of advent prodigy speakers recently and they happened to be my first reform job . I would recommend that you remove the dust cap and install shims to position the voice coil to maintain alignment , also depending on what type of glue you use be ready to spend some time adjusting or pressing until the glue gets tacky . obviously the more rotten the foam is the easier it should be to remove. measure measure measure to make sure you get the best fitting replacement foam , cone sizes vary . hope this helps.rubber is better , but rubber may change how the speaker performs , so if you love the characteristics of the speaker in need of foam maybe you want to stick with foam.

 

[americanaudiophile]

Most Infinity speakers have polypropylene cones which can be tricky to glue foam onto. It is critical to align the cone precisely. As jacobboe89 says it is usually not a good idea to change the surround because it essentially makes it a different speaker.

 

[jacobboe89]

the polypropylene being tricky to bond some how doesn't surprise me . the woofers i reformed were paper cones . i suppose you may want try a few adhesives before you attempt , which is sort how i decided on using the tacky glue fro my project. maybe you try a gluing a small piece of less rotten foam on the edge of the cone to get a feel for what type adhesive will work best . I think your top 2 best options are going to be dap cement or allne's tacky glue . The contact cement probably is a better way to bond some things as opposed to the tacky glue , but when it's ready to go you can't make adjustments very easy .

 

[ien2222]

Thanks for the responses. The Infinity's I have are IMG's, are they easier to work with than poly? I was planning on getting a kit with came with adhesive, would I be better off going with either of the 2 agents you mentioned instead?

Again, thanks for the responses
Mitchell

 

[jacobboe89]

i am really not so sure in your instance . i have glued a host of things made of all sorts of materials over the years and do recall having trouble getting 1 or 2 different plastics to bond or adhere to glue itself . so the best advise i could give is if you want to do this once and have it go smooth, try or test a couple of adhesives by preparing the speaker to refoam , test a SMALL area where the foam will be glued , glue a non-rotten price of old foam if you can find one . or glue a toothpick where the foam will be glued . when the glue is cured , break the bond to see how good it was . if the bond is too tough to break , cut the glue off with an exacto knife . this is how decided which glue i wanted to use .
but if this seems like too much for you , you could just do the job and see how it comes out .
as for the white glue that comes with a lot of kits , i do believe that aleen's tacky glue is just as good or maybe better and it's only 2-3 bucks for a 4 oz bottle that will probably last for a long time and prove to be useful for many other things. good luck ask you if have ay other questions

 

[soundguruman]

Hey all,

I have a pair of Infinity's that I need to refoam. I was wondering how hard it is to do yourself and also what are some good companies to get a kit from?

Specifically they are Infinity CS3006 and a CS-video (I think that's the name of the center channel) that might need it soon.

Thanks

The answer is that it takes a lot of practice to do it right.
Besides cleaning all the old rotted crud off the speaker, you have to center it correctly, and align the voice coil just right.
It should be done by an experienced person.
The people who sell the foam want you to think it's easy, but it's really not that easy.

 

[jacobboe89]

i would have to disagree with some of your statement but maybe agree with part of it as well. no it's not as easy as some would have a person believe , but this something that a guy with some common sense and a little bit of know-how and willingness to learn , can achieve . yes an experienced person could potentially do a better job , but how did the person with experience gain that experience .not by letting someone else do these types of projects for them . chances are the guy with experience has had a couple projects not go the way intended ,which is part of becoming experienced .
electronics repair is probably better left to a qualified experienced person , because of the specialized equipment required like an oscilloscope .to refoam a speaker you may need ,some exatco knives maybe a dental tool , and maybe a dremel for the exceedingly difficult clean up AND TIME this will take some time .it may also help if you have an understanding of how a speaker works . if you don't have that basic knowledge maybe you want to do some learning before you attempt or think whether or not you are capable of this task. it looks simple to a lot of people ,but the devil is in the details .

 

[ien2222]

Thank you for the input also Soundguruman.

The situation I'm in is this. I live in Honolulu, and unfortunately I haven't found anyone who does speaker repair and since it's rather cost prohibited to ship them to the mainland it looks like doing myself is the only option.

My brother in-law runs an engraving shop so I do have access to certain tools that would help out. Also, I can be exceedingly patient and deliberate in what I do. If it takes some 10-20 hours to do 4 drivers I'm perfectly fine with that.

So it comes to just how hard is it. Though I should probably replace them now, they aren't too terribly bad at this moment. I don't overpower them so there's still enough support where I'm willing to bet that I can get another 2-3 years out of them before it gets to the point where there's no longer any question.

If it's reasonable to assume that I can get close enough if I'm careful and patient, I'd prefer to do it now on my own, but if it really is something I should have done professionally I could just use them as is and save up money to either purchase new speakers at some point or to have my old ones shipped out for repair.

Again, I appreciate the help you guys are giving me,

 

[jacobboe89]

I say give it a try . if you want to see what you may be in for or learn about how it would go , there are a slug of videos on youtube from people who have done this . that is part of how i prepared to attempt this . but basically aligning the voice coil is the biggest thing you have to get right . if the foam is all the way gone now you can lightly push on the woofer cone ,just enough to make it move and you will probable feel the voice coil rubbing .the shims are how you can ensure that it doesn't rub when its back together with new foam . watch a few good videos on youtube and you'll see .

 

[ien2222]

Alright, sounds good. I haven't had time to look at videos yet but should be able to next week. The foam isn't too bad yet, but it's starting to go. Fortunately no rubbing at this point in time.

If it looks not too bad after watching, I'll probably give it a go now. If not, I'll probably wait until I'm forced to. Have you actually done refoaming? I ask just in case I end up with specific questions after watching some videos.

 

[soundguruman]

when you position and glue the surround to the outer rim of the basket, make sure the speaker moves in and out freely without scraping. This is the biggest point of failure.
If the position is off, the voice coil will rub against the magnet gap, and destroy the voice coil.
Call Hot Licks Guitars in Aiea, and get their speaker tech to do it. If I still worked there, I would do it for you.
Aloha, dude.
PS: say hi to Carlos for me.

 

[soundguruman]

i would have to disagree with some of your statement but maybe agree with part of it as well. no it's not as easy as some would have a person believe , but this something that a guy with some common sense and a little bit of know-how and willingness to learn , can achieve . yes an experienced person could potentially do a better job , but how did the person with experience gain that experience .not by letting someone else do these types of projects for them . chances are the guy with experience has had a couple projects not go the way intended ,which is part of becoming experienced .
electronics repair is probably better left to a qualified experienced person , because of the specialized equipment required like an oscilloscope .to refoam a speaker you may need ,some exatco knives maybe a dental tool , and maybe a dremel for the exceedingly difficult clean up AND TIME this will take some time .it may also help if you have an understanding of how a speaker works . if you don't have that basic knowledge maybe you want to do some learning before you attempt or think whether or not you are capable of this task. it looks simple to a lot of people ,but the devil is in the details .

Since I have re-foamed hundreds of speakers, I can assure everyone that it takes skill, that you will not obtain on your first try.
You have a 9 out of 10 chance of screwing it up, if this is your first attempt.
Remove the dustcap, install shims between the voice coil and the magnet gap, just like a pro.
Now, you can glue the surround to the basket. After it dries, take the shims out, glue the dustcap back on.

Clue: Use MEK to loosen the old glue and clean the rim of the basket. Use industrial contact cement to attach the new parts.

 

[ien2222]

Hehe, it figures it would be a guitar shop that I should have looked for instead of an audio shop. Darn Hawaii, always having to be difficult. 😉

I should be out that way next week so I'll stop in, thanks for the tip

 

[blackhawk1928]

^A classic...all the Audio-Guru's on one thread I think