Recovering Beovox S-Series Frets

Hi everyone

As a fan of doing things right the first time, I am seeking some help with recovering Beovox S75 and S45.2 frets. I have searched around the site and found a few threads with steps to recover M70's (thanks Rich) and CX series (Leslie has done EVERY colour), however the M70 frets can be laid flat on a table with the material stretched out, and the CX frets are quite small and seem to only have one angle on the front.

The 70's S series frets for my S45's and S75's are made of plastic (or similar material) and have a bend in the middle which gives them that sexy profile. What is the best way (once I have obtained a suitable fabric) to attach the new fabric.

I was thinking I would stretch it out on a table, use a spray glue on the front of the frames and top corners and then start from the top corners and adhere it down the front on the upper portion of the panel, flip the panel over and then do the lower portion, if we try to push the panels flat they will snap in the middle so thats not an option. I dont want to end up with the fabric not following the curve of the panel correctly.

Any help or pictures (we all love pics) would be great!

btw Leslie I think I might go for a nice grey for the S75 instead of white...

Drew

Hi Drew,

 

This is easy. I redid my two pair of S 75 speakers as well as the S 45.2’s and they turned out great.

 

Søren has a great piece on this with step-by-step photos.

 

I was just told dinner is ready, so have to run, but I posted a thread on this and Søren also suggested a source for the fabric, which was FANTASTIC!

 

If you have trouble finding the tread or Søren’s piece, let me know and I find them for you tomorrow.

 

Jeff

Hi Jeff

This is the one I found, but its not about the S series with the curved plastic grills, rather the older wooden grills. http://archivedarchivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/t/42235.aspx 

If you or anyone else can post a more suitable set of instructions about the 70's S series would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Drew

 

Spray glue is fine.
Just keep the glue at least a cm or two away from the speaker cutouts or they will show through the fabric.

Martin 

Here is a thread for wooden frets, for the angled plastic frets I would do it in 2 steps, place your fabric on a table so it fits the upper part, cut big enough to wrap around to glue inside, the fabric for the lower part let hang over the table edge, spray the upper part with glue, place the upper part on the fabric wrap the fabric in place and make sure it is glued well into the corners, now turn the fret around, fold the fabric for the lower part to the upper part, cover it, spray the lower part, place the fabric on the table, holding the fret vertically at the table edge, keep the fabric stretched with weights, turn the fret carefully to horizontal pos. and press it to the fabric, wrap and check the corners, cut off over standing fabric, evt. strengthen the inside corners with Arleens Tacky glue, let dry until glue is clear.

Andrew:

Hi Jeff

This is the one I found, but its not about the S series with the curved plastic grills, rather the older wooden grills. http://archivedarchivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/t/42235.aspx 

If you or anyone else can post a more suitable set of instructions about the 70's S series would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Drew

 

Hi Drew,

 

Søren was so good as to provide a link to his article, which is beyond helpful. Follow his advice and you can’t go wrong.

 

Like you, I was concerned about the corners with the plastic curves, but the fabric just stretches around it.

 

The whole process looks intimidating, but isn’t.

 

I think the key is the proper place to do the work as you don’t want to be using spray glue in the house.

 

Also, Søren came up with a great idea, to mask the spray area so only the part you want sticky will be. Works like a charm.

 

Now Søren and Rich delight in choosing wild fabrics to express their personalities while I choose to reproduce the original factory appearance…. the choice is yours. The only consideration is the openness of the weave, as you should avoid a truly dense material which will muffle the sound.

 

The cloth I chose (as per Søren’s suggestion) looks solid, but under bright sunlight you can actually see the speakers behind it….. this material is being sold specifically as speaker frets. This really black cloth most certainly was a clone to the original material.

 

Anyway, as I see you have found Leslie, I am sure he can find you exactly what you want.

See photo of the finished S 75's and a lone S 45. 

 

All the best!

 

Jeff

 

astormsau:

recover M70's (thanks Rich)

You're welcome. Always pleased to hear a bit of something I've done has inspired another person.

Whether reclothing M70, S45-2, P45, or S40, the process was the same. Always put some weight on the fret frame to make it lay flat while the spray glue sets.

Come back the next day to trim the cloth to fit and fold it over to the back of the frame. Common white PVA can be used for this step.

As far as the fabric goes, I took a swatch of the original fabric from my S45s to Joann's (a store for FS and craft hobbyists in the US) and found an exact match with 28 count black linen. Yes, the fabric used for cross stitch projects. I kid you not. Since they didn't have a large enough piece of fabric at Joann's, I had to order two large pieces from eBay. The results look identical to the original frets. Applied with spray glue as others have mentioned.

My later S45-2 speakers have a more conventional speaker fret fabric that you can buy from several sources. I'm just pointing out the fabric may differ based upon the speaker and it's vintage. Good luck.

Dom