I found a very dirty pair of NHT VT1.2's at the local goodwill type store for $50. I picked them up and had to replace a couple of crossover capacitors to get them sounding wonderful again! I was really shocked how good they still sound. All four 4" woofers appear to have had their 1.5" paper dust caps "fingered" and pulled back out multiple times. They are not ripped but look horrible with permanent wrinkles/divots. They can't be "fixed. So I ordered new 1.5" paper caps. I started removing the old caps with a fine tipped razor knife. The caps' paper fibers are very loose from all the in/out abuse they've received. The loose fibers mean the caps aren't gonna come off cleanly. There is a remaining fibrous ring where it was glued to the cone. The weight/mass of the paper cap that I removed was very, very light. I'm concerned that some of the fibers from cutting these old caps out will get into the exposed magnet gap/voice coil. Due to the caps' low weight/mass would it be safer to just glue the new caps over the old damaged ones? The other option would be to give that remaining fibrous ring a coating of something like dust cap glue to solidify the fibers, but wouldn't that add as much weight/mass as just leaving the old caps under the new caps. Btw, not replacing the caps is not an option. I want these to look like new again. Luckily the tweeters look perfect and the cabinet cleaned up very well!
Last edited:
The worst you could do is adding mass to those drivers so yes, i would remove the old caps. If the replacements are close in diameter, just ''jam'' the old fibers
with the same gluing.
with the same gluing.
I went ahead and removed the old dust caps. Here are some before and after pics showing the old condition of the speakers and what they looked like after new dust caps and a thin coat of flat black paint....
Attachments
much nicer! FWIW I have some printer ink left over from the craze years ago of re-filling ink cartridges. Only did that a couple of times & decided it was too messy.... the ink works well for painting paper speaker cones.
Thanks! I wish I had invested in a tube of actual speaker cone glue. I used e6000 and it was a little inconsistent and stringy. Btw, I found that a pair of 4" fiskars curved scissors
worked MUCH better than an exacto knife at removing the old dust caps. The cuts were cleaner and there was no chance of me accidentally poking the tip of a super sharp knife through something.
Those curved scissors were perfect for trimming the round dust caps right up against the curved cone. I can't recommend them enough!