Dented Cone

02006-02-26 | Uncategorized | 17 comments

Dented Cone
Any ideas how I could fix this dented cone without opening the speaker?

17 Comments

  1. Victor

    What kind of material is that? If it’s plastic then you might try applying some suction… maybe use a shop-vac. Of course that might suck it completely out!

    If it’s metal then I’ve heard you can remove car dents by applying dry ice to the dent. Just plug in “dry ice” and “car dent” to any Internet search engine and you’ll get a bunch of web pages that describe the process.

    Disclaimer: I’m not a speaker technician and I don’t play one on TV either. So please don’t hold me liable for destroying your expensive speakers if either idea turns out to be bad advice. ;-)

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  2. Sean

    Try a vacuum cleaner?

    Reply
  3. Mike

    Ottmar, I would try suction. Maybe get some type of small suction come of sort and pull it out that way, or a vaccum pump of some kind. But, I think suction is the answer, anything else will harm the speaker. Oh oh, looks to me like a little person may have decided.. Hey, that looks cool, let me push on it. My son did that to mine when he was little. Hope that works for you Ottmar.
    Have a good day,

    Mike

    Reply
  4. Tyler Love

    It would be really easy to damage a tweeter like that with suction, I know if it were my monitors the whole tweeter would probably suck right out if I put a vacuum to it. I’d say either a large suction cup or taking it apart are your only options

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  5. Tyler Love

    …actually if that is just a 1″ cone you could probably put your mouth to it and suck it out too…

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  6. Carol

    Heat on the inside. Cold on the outside. Like a lot of people, I don’t know how/if you could get heat on the inside though, so I won’t suggest anything? )

    Reply
  7. Thirtyseasons@aol.com

    If you’re concerned about how much suction a vacuum cleaner is going to apply, and if it’ll damage the speaker, just get a peice of flexible tubing, similar to garden hose and available at most hardware stores. Try to match up the diameter of the hose with the center of the cone. Use some Saran Wrap to make a seal, and use your mouth for suction. It shouldn’t require too much vacuum topull out those dents, the surface of the speaker looks like it’ll keep a seal with Saran Wrap, and it minimizes your risk of damage to the speaker. Good luck. Will (The seed guy)

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  8. Curt

    Whoa! These suggestions for using a vacuum seem so extreme! I would suggest using a piece of duct tape (strong masking tape works well too). Take a piece of tape a few inches long. Press one end of the tape into the dent as firmly as possible without making it worse! Then slowly pull the tape away at a slight angle. I’ve had to do this a few times and it works great. I’ve never had to do it on a metal dome cover…

    Cheers!
    Curt

    Reply
  9. russell

    Back in the old days, we used to repair similarly dented silk dome tweeters with a very small piece of duct tape wrapped around the eraser end of a pencil. Apply a very lite touch, just getting the tape to adhere to the dome enough to pull it out into shape. There’s sort of an art to “rolling” the tape off the dome so you don’t pull it out of shape.

    Now, if that’s a polyprolene dome, it might stretch. If it’s a metallic dome, there might be no way to do it.

    Of course, if you apply to much pressure, the adhesive in the tape sticks to the dome and you could be in big trouble.

    That said, I wonder if the difference, with the dome dented, is only aesthetic and not acoustic. It might just be something to live with, unless you’re ready to take a chance and be forced to replace the driver.

    Good luck Ottmar. I wish I had some better solution to offer.

    Reply
  10. Whit

    Just Googled the same problem and came across this page. You duct-tapers are spot on – works like a charm. The end result isn’t perfect, there are a few little “scar” dents around the edge of the dent spot, but my “new” used speakers look a helluva lot better after yanking those tweeter domes out. Thanks!

    Reply
  11. Oli

    A small piece of duck tape on the end of a pencil works very well, even on Aluminium domes. As Whit states it does leave a small scar around the edge of the former dent but it certainly looks better!

    Reply
  12. Gary

    I just had very good luck using a variable-speed dirt devil vacuum, corner attachment, on the dented center part of an old 6″ woofer. i held the corner attachment close to the dented region, and gradually increased suction until the dent pulled itself out.

    Reply
  13. Matt

    I had the same problem with my subwoofer, I initially started off cutting a coke bottle top off and sucking through that. I then move on and used a dyson with no attachment on. once the dyson had crabbed onto the cone, I slowly closed any holes alone the dyson sucker to create more powerfull suckion….and viola….the cone popped out.

    The only problem I now have is creased in my cone….anyone got any tips for that?

    Reply
  14. Dave

    My son just poked my dome tweeter in on a four day old pair of studio monitirs. Packing tape, pencil eraser, rolling the tape, peeling at an angle and BANG! Some scarring like they said but my son is no longer banned from the recording studio!

    THIS SITE ROCKS!

    Reply
  15. Vidit

    Brothers, this duct tape method is awesome!!!! Yesterday i bought Yamaha MSP5A. My brother told me that there is a dent in tweeter of one of the speakers. I called the shop, he told me that he has no other piece available…he asked me to change to Behringer or M-audio. Then i searched on net, i found this site, i read this method, i unpacked the dented speaker, got a duct tape a pencil with eraser back, after a few ‘tender’ and ‘gentle’ efforts, dent was finally gone….and yes there is no scar on my tweeter membane!!! it looks like new!! Thanks to everyone…i’m a happy man!! ……

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  16. John

    Well, I don’t know how many of you have very long lips, but I couldn’t get my mouth anywhere near the dented cone, so what next? I shall have to rig up a gadget to the vacuum cleaner and try that method!

    Reply
  17. word!

    the vaccume cleaner worked like a charm!. use the hose attachment, turn the vac on, and slowley move the end of the hose closer to the center of the speaker until it sucks onto it. it pops right out. just make sure u turn the vacume off second it pops out.! thanks for the tips guys.

    Reply

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  1. Random Acts of Linkage #48 : Subversive Influence - [...] in case you ever need to “un-pop” the dust cover in the center of a speaker cone… visit Ottmar…

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