Woofer repair?

[Brion55]

My granddaughter (5) took the grille off the front of one of my speakers and proceeded to poke the woofer (cloth) dust cap. The woofer seems to be fine other than the dust cap is now kinda pushed in. Is there any way to "pop" it back out? Yes, I know that no one will ever see it, but it's driving me crazy (you know what I mean).

Oh, and yes, she was sentenced to time-out and 5 minutes of hard labor (room cleaning).

[HK26147]

Depending on how bad the dent is I have done the following:
Gently rub some adhesive tape at the center of the dimple and pull out quickly ( kind of like car fender work popping dents ) while holding the cone steady.
If it won't pop - use ( or fashion ) a dental pick with a curve or hook in it and gently penetrate the dust cover ( paper I'm assuming ), and use the hook to pull out the dents.
The hole is small and can be sealed very easily.
I have also carefully held the cone and used a small suction cup or light vacuum to pull out the dent.

[THUMP LUMP]

The hose on the end of a vacuum cleaner work most every time.

[Dave R]

The bulb from a turkey baster works most of the time.

[Cal Weldon]

Putting your lips directly on the cap works sometimes.

[BlueWizard]

If you are going to use tape, which can work very well, you need to consider what your cones and domes are made out of.

Mine are poly-coated, so I had to use a very strong fiberglass re-enforced package wrapping tape. This tape is very close to duct tape in its level of adhesion.

Now if the domes are cloth or paper, you need to be careful not to tear the paper off with the tape. In this case, masking tape might work better.

Though on the other hand, most tape doesn't really stick that well to paper, especially coarse paper similar to what you might find on a speaker dome.

Domes can be replaces easy enough, though you have to be very careful not to get any contamination into the voice coil or to misalign the voice coil in the process.

For a bass speaker, if it sounds all right, then I would be inclined to leave it.

If you use a vacuum, you need to be VERY CAREFUL to control the vacuum level so you don't end up sucking the dome right off the speaker.

Some, on occasion, have suggested using some type of glue and string or a toothpick. Put a dab of clear silicone or latex caulking in the center of the dent, insert a string, etc..., and let it dry. Pull the dent out, then VERY CAREFULLY cut off the string and as much of the glue as you can.

Any method has pitfalls, but again, you can buy domes, so if you totally blow it, it can be patched up.

Steve/bluewizard

[lhwidget]

If it's big enough & has a vented pole piece & you have an old-fashoned pencil with an eraser, you might be able to push it out from behind...