Speaker Grill Repair

The speaker front is the first thing people sees when looking the first time at your vintage Beovox speakers, if it looks bad they will think that it also sounds bad. So a 20 to 40 year old speaker deserves a new front.

Speaker cloth or fabric comes in several different types and colors and is advertised in different manners, but what I look for is a kind of open fabric, meaning you can look through it when very near to the eye, not so at 50 Cm distance, and it has a little stretch in it.

A close woven fabric will distort the sound, specially the bass driver needs to move some air and a closed fabric will inhibit that and furthermore dampen the other frequencies. Audiophile Fabric is like the Audiophile cable, Snake oil.

Before starting you will need the Fabric, tools and glue. Most important (of course the Fabric) is the glue, I use a good 3M spray glue, and at times Arleene's Tacky glue, I have tried with double sided tape, but after a week or so the fabric started loosening again, so try it out, there are as many glue types out there as beer in southern Germany

The drink and he cigarets are only for relaxing in between, doing hard work as this turned out to be.

We have to get of the old fabric. I cut the front edges all around, and the just pull of the rest from the back side.

On these Beovox 3702 grills it came of easy, but if someone did a bad job before you, you may have to use a hobby knife to get all old glue and fabric of, clean the base properly before attaching the new fabric.

Now check the base/frame for damages or broken pieces, specially if there are broken pegs, repair these before attaching the new fabric, my frame turned out like this.

So I decided to make new ones, I found a piece of 1/4" plywood, and before starting cutting I had the good idea to check the old frames against the speaker, turned out that the holes for mid range and tweeter was of by some 3 Cm. I corrected that on the new frames. Marked the plywood after the old frames and corrected the holes for tweeter and mid range, cut the surrounding and thereafter the holes with an electric top handle oscillating jig saw, then I took out my router and routed the edge offset and the offsets for screws around the hole for the bass driver, here the front

And here the back

In my secret chamber I found a liquid that will protect wood against termites, woodworms, meal dew, wrinkles and bad breath for 200 years, I will try that on my face some day.

Left it to dry for a couple of days, and then got out all the tools and glues needed for attaching the fabric, I placed a woolen blanket on our dining table (FS not at home) and over that the beautiful colored fabric, as the fabric had some wrinkles, I ironed it with an iron, never ever tell the FS that I can iron, I will have to do my oven shirts for the rest of our relationship.

I placed the frame over the fabric and cut, with the scissors, the fabric about 5 Cm bigger all around the frame. Then I took one frame to the garage and sprayed the front with 3M Super 77, left it for 5 min. and then placed it centered on the fabric, pressed it down and left 5 min. to dry.

Now I took the frame outside again and sprayed the edges with the spray glue, you may want to mask of, or hold a sheet of paper over, the areas where no glue is wanted, the glue is easy to clean of with acetone, but this will also clean of any paint applied, back at the table I started wrapping the fabric from the front to the back, with my 2 big thumps, stretching the fabric a little to get a close fit around the edge.

In the corner I cut the fabric to fit with a little overlap and glued with a drop of Arleene's

Then I grabbed the technically advanced tool, called Rotary cutter, check your FS's sewing chest, they all have one of these, and cut the fabric along the inner edge, be careful the rotary cutter has a mind of its own, you will have to guide it with a strong, clear eyed hand.

Cut all around and peel of the cut of fabric.

As you see, the glue will show if not covering before spraying.

Finished it looks like this, and the fabric color is not red, pink or whatever malicious members will call it, its maroon or magenta, as we call it in the printing business.

The old grills was attached to the speaker with glue, I like to be able to take mine of for cleaning or repairs. As the driver frame is 10 Mm. lower than the grill frame and I wanted the grill flush with the aluminum frame, I choose to make some bases for Hook and Loop pads, yes, in my secret chamber I found some round plastic pieces some 20 Mm long, I cut them down to 7 Mm, the H and L pads are 3 Mm. so here you go

And the grill with the H and L pads, ahh the pig, my doll made it, she makes dolls I fumble in vintage B&O

Here the grill on the speaker

Don't forget the B&O sign, drill a 2.5 Mm. hole and attach it, before drilling, cut a cross in the fabric, with a sharp knife, where the hole has to be made.

Here on stand, and I'm absolutely sure, it sounds better with new grill.

And that concludes the grill repair, comment and suggestions welcome