Broke my speaker, help

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Broke my speaker, help

Postby K-MAN » Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:38 pm

I'm almost done my Dynaco speaker's but when I removed the woofer before the two terminals broke off :o They looked as if they were already starting to crack so it didn't take much. Now I'm not sure how to repair them, I was thinking of just soldering the tab back on but I've heard that the tinsel leads are very easy to damage by soldering. Why don't tinsel leads take solder very well anyways? Here are some pics to see if any of you have suggestions, thanks.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o293/Renton83/amp/DSC01377.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o293/Renton83/amp/DSC01360.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o293/Renton83/amp/DSC01372.jpg
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Postby WA4SWJ » Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:07 pm

K-MAN,

I would just solder the leads to the vertical posts that are still remaining. I would gently wrap the wire around the post and solder it. It should work just fine and if you wrap it completely around the post it will help hold the lead going to the voice coil in place. Just be careful. I think soldering the tabs back on would be difficult since the solder holding the tabs on will melt again while you subsequently solder the wires on and they will come loose. This will force you to solder it again thus putting more heat into an already fragile terminal mount. Heat is a big enemy of these aging connections.

That is what I would do. Do it last before you re-mount the woofers back into the enclosure to minimize the stress you put on them while moving the woofers around.

BTW - nice close up pictures! Sorry you're having the problem though. I really don't see it as serious at this point.

Good luck!!

Regards,
Ed Long
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Postby K-MAN » Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:24 am

Is there anything I can do so the solder won't wick up the tinsel wires? I was thinking a small clip as a heatsink.
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Postby WA4SWJ » Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:34 am

Yes, a small clip would help. The solder will likely wick some due to capillary action but if you don't apply excessive amounts of heat it may not happen at all. Heat the joint to get good flow around the wire that you are attaching and then stop. Just use enough heat to get a good joint and no more.

Pictures of the aftermath would be interesting. It shouldn't be too hard to fix this with no damage to the speaker.

Regards,
Ed Long
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Postby erichayes » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:49 pm

The trick to soldering speaker terminals is using a high wattage iron (40-60W) and small diameter solder (.020 or smaller). You want to heat the immediate area up as quickly as possible, with a minimum amount of "soak" time--that would allow the tinsel to absorb solder by capillary action--and apply the minimum amount of solder to ensure a reliable connection.

Reminds me of a line from an Oscar Brand song regarding kissing a duck's rear end . . . "You blow and you kiss, but you gotta be quick".
Eric in the Jefferson State
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Postby K-MAN » Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:05 pm

The soldering seems to be working, I used a small alligator clip as a heat sink and it really works well. I'm crimping some disconnects on the wires so next time I won't have this problem Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_05
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Postby nyazzip » Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:10 pm

just make sure blobs of molten solder don't drip into your speaker. block off the frame voids with something, like a piece of paper. unless you are soldering upside down, in which case button up your shirt to the top and squint.
looks like at sometime in the last 35 years, somebody undid all the mounting screws, loosened the speaker from the box, placed it back, started tinkering with something else, and then decided to remove the woofer and gave it a big YANK! D'OH it was still connected to the crossover. check those joints too. i only say this because i have done it also, more than ONCE! god i'm dumb
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Postby K-MAN » Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:30 am

Ok almost done my restoration but ran into a snag. When I took the top part of the tweeter of containing the voice coil and terminals I forgot which way it was mounted, either the positive terminal goes to the right side or left on the base. I marked which terminal is positive and negative so is that the only thing that matters, not how it sits in the magnet?
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Postby K-MAN » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:36 pm

Done! I had a heck of a time fixing those speaker terminals because the tinsel wire would get hot quickly and seperate from the solder. So I put a small clamp over the speaker wire and tinsel wire so it was pressed against the terminal. Tinning the wire and using my butane soldering iron helped allot, but the big thing I learned is to always put a heatsink on the tinsel wires so solder doesn't wick up it. I then covered the terminal and wires with my silver conductive paint and then glued the whole thing with silver epoxy! The remaining part of the terminals was pretty fragile so I did this to make sure the thing wont break off when I install them. I gotta say soldering speakers is one of the most challenging things to work on.
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