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Help Teens Rebuild LaScala Speakers


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Update on our rebuild. Made facsimile labels to preserve the serial numbers as the refinishing / painting will make the stamped numbers even more difficult (if not impossible) to see...this will be the only label on one of the cabinets, on the other three they will be sandwiched between the original labels and the plexi covers (none of our labels still show any numbers).

Had good success with removing the badges. Citristrip seemed a pretty safe product to use around kids (following the precautions). After removing what looked like three layers of paint, heat was applied to soften the adhesive (a tip from a friend who rebuilds bicycles) and a tape measure "floss" was used to release. Note: acetone was used to remove residual adhesive from the back and it didn't damage the logo surface,

Thanks to everyone for the ongoing advise, making the process really interesting...

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Edited by mark heija
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Just a thought......

 

I would hold off on selling the second set of LaScalas until you have finished the first set, if you can.

 

Refirbing the second set will be much faster and easier, you may be able to auction them or sell them on e-bay Craigslist etc specifically advertised as funding you kids program, especially if you do a world class rebuild, which is the track you will be on.

 

You might also let the veneer store know what you are up to and solicit their help, practicing with inexpensive veneer or scraps and perhaps some technical assistance on prepping the surfaces etc. Many will help when asked.

 

For me, I would build a 1/4 scale size wooden box with the shape of the LaScalas, and practice the filling, sanding and applying inexpensive veneers and edges to learn the skills on a throw away.

 

 

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With the first speaker taken apart and with a better idea of where we're headed,  we will begin to apply each step to all four speakers simultaneously. I have the ok to use my budget to invest in this project...in our own reality show "Flip these Speakers".

 

It looks like we are going to order larger sheets (4x8) of the veneer to meet the La Scala dimensions, so there will be some extra to practice with. A number of years back (this is my 41st year working here) our Clubhouse went through a complete year-long renovation. We moved the wood shop into the gym and the members helped custom fabricate the cabinets, counters and sinks for our third floor arts & crafts studios: woodworking, screen printing, ceramics, jewelry/metal arts (now also bike repair), photo lighting studio and darkrooms (yes, we still process B&W!). I've had a lot of practice with contact cement and plastic laminate, j-rollers and routers but not so much with wood veneers...though we have done some chess boards and geometric inlay. As we are going to be working with much larger pieces of veneer and trying a heat activated glue for the first time your suggestion for a prototype is a good one we'll certainly follow.

 

Thanks for the good thoughts!

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With the first speaker taken apart and with a better idea of where we're headed,  we will begin to apply each step to all four speakers simultaneously. I have the ok to use my budget to invest in this project...in our own reality show "Flip these Speakers".

 

It looks like we are going to order larger sheets (4x8) of the veneer to meet the La Scala dimensions, so there will be some extra to practice with. A number of years back (this is my 41st year working here) our Clubhouse went through a complete year-long renovation. We moved the wood shop into the gym and the members helped custom fabricate the cabinets, counters and sinks for our third floor arts & crafts studios: woodworking, screen printing, ceramics, jewelry/metal arts (now also bike repair), photo lighting studio and darkrooms (yes, we still process B&W!). I've had a lot of practice with contact cement and plastic laminate, j-rollers and routers but not so much with wood veneers...though we have done some chess boards and geometric inlay. As we are going to be working with much larger pieces of veneer and trying a heat activated glue for the first time your suggestion for a prototype is a good one we'll certainly follow.

 

Thanks for the good thoughts!

 

 

Thanks

 

If you are doing "This Old Speaker"

 

Remember that they bring in the Plumber, the Electrician, the Landscape guy etc.

 

The prep and lamination are the parts that would give me pause, since I have zero experience.

 

I would definitely enlist the help of the veneer store for scraps, advice etc.......

 

IMHO there is nothing more beautiful than Mahogany or Rosewood $$$$$

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Back from the hardwood veneer store (MacBeath in San Francisco) and they have some really beautiful wood... very tempting... but first we'll have to see how we do on the sale of the first pair.

 

Looking at the drivers, I think we should take apart the tweeter to sand off the rust and repaint. Anything we need to be aware of in this process?

 

Should we be concerned about the mildew on the woofer?

 

-Mark

 

I would have the woofers reconed, or replaced, I don't know who the best speaker shop is in SF, but there is one.

 

The musicians that play live music blow their gear up all the time, so the musicians know who the best repair shops are. Or go into any place that has lots of live music and start asking around, you can also search the local yellow pages on line. There are several places you can ship them to for the recone Parts Express and Simply Speakers Tampa, and others.

 

Recone or diagphragms price list

http://www.simplyspeakers.com/klipsch-speaker-repair.html

 

I don't think Crites Sells recone, kits, but he does sell replacement woofers that would be all new. The existing ones can be sold on e-bay and someone else will recone them. Someone probably knows who the OEM was for the Woofers, ElectroVoice maybe and the kit number to order if you go recone. You can post this as a separate topic in Tech and someone will respond with the kit info.

 

If you are talking about the gasket between the woofer metal frame and the wood cabinet, that is part of the recone kit. The gasket between the wooden parts on the bottom of the speaker called the dog house for obvious reasons, can be different materials like weather strip.

 

The mid range drivers are the heart and soul of the LaScals so tread lightly if you are going to paint them or bead blast them etc, there is a rubber gasket to contend with and dust and debris concerns, They too can be sent out to Crites for new diaphragms and gaskets if you so desire, I would ask him about painting if you are sending them to him, pretty sure the top cover can be removed and painted, very carefully don't touch the diaphragms.

 

Judging by the mold on the speakers, I would give the inside of the speakers a careful look with a flashlight once the woofers are out.

 

Crites sells replacement tweeters with the lens two models, disassembly of the stock tweeters, bead blasting and painting may be more then you think, Check out K-77 Electrovoice tweeter rebuilds on Youtube. If you get new tweeters, the old ones can be sold on e-bay.

 

IMHO negotiate new tweeters, new woofers and new diaphragms for the mid range with Crites and ship him the mid range drivers after you repaint them for service and test. You will have new speakers in a better than new cabinet when you are done. The more expensive tweeters Crites sells are the better ones IMHO, ask others.

 

The large metal mid range horns interior must be inspected by looking for any casting defects visual, and then feeling with your hands for regular shape and smoothness particularity at the thin end the driver bolts to, if you have calipers measure the diameter, one LaScalas owner who owns a machine shop actually bored out his horns to bring them to spec.. If they need work, a good machine shop (performance engines etc) when they are done being amused will probably quote a fair price. Crites sells the replacement gaskets, looks like a hose washer. If they are machined, paint them sooner.

 

I like the AA crossovers and would build the system around them or the Crites replacement, the more on the mid the better.

 

Your old tweeters, woofers, crossovers can be sold on e=bay since they all test good, show the photo with the test meter connected so the numbers are readable. Describe and show any defects.

 

Agree, applying the veneer is the final step after all of the hard work is done.

 

This first horn removed has a very rough interior.  The pair I have at home have totally smooth surfaces. Would a machine shop smooth the entire interior or just the small end?  Is this a common condition?

post-63196-0-33380000-1466397586_thumb.j

Edited by mark heija
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OK the mid horn can be sanded smooth and you can sand the small bore end with some emery cloth wrapped around a dowel rod and put it in a drill. When I did mine I used rustoleum black enamel from HD or any color you want. Its messy but with several coats inside an out you end up with very nice horns. Buy cheap brushes for first few coats cause between coats just but brush in plastic bag . Very hard to clean enamel.I also sanded most of the rough stuff inside the big end of the horn with emery cloth.

The paint will smooth the imperfections left after sanding.

If look up my lascala project you will see I put magnets under the veneer for the top grill attachment. Also f you veneer the top front you can leave the grills off to show the pretty horn work..

The crossovers can be done by the kids easy study schematics on forum replace the capacitors. You can also replace the inductors if you want to make them look pretty. Don't worry about the transformer its fine. If you use the little round inductor take that screw out and hot glue it on the board.

I would get a roll of new wire 12GA from parts express or monoprice to re-wire the the speakers. The veneer can be got from wood workers supply and they may give you good price if you tell them what you are doing.

If you use the original tweeter you should leave those little diodes in there but it would be better all around to get Crites CT125 tweeter cause they handle more power. And then when re-building the cross over change it to 4500 cross over point which Crites can help you with parts on that.

I would do a lot ...A LOT .. of reading here before you proceed from where your at right now. Set up a plan before you go any further there are so many options to get the best speakers.

The kids can get a lot of experience with this project tell them we want to make the best speakers possible with in our budget. Another idea is to set up a pay pal acct. for donations from us forum members im sure there are some of us who would help. List your ideas on here before proceeding cause some of us have extra parts just laying around.

I have used both the iron on veneer and the contact cement veneer iron on is much easier to do trimming the extra takes practice.Wood workers supply has trimming tools I used a razor most of the time.

The best of luck to you all on this project.

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Back from the hardwood veneer store (MacBeath in San Francisco) and they have some really beautiful wood... very tempting... but first we'll have to see how we do on the sale of the first pair.

 

Looking at the drivers, I think we should take apart the tweeter to sand off the rust and repaint. Anything we need to be aware of in this process?

 

Should we be concerned about the mildew on the woofer?

 

-Mark

 

I would have the woofers reconed, or replaced, I don't know who the best speaker shop is in SF, but there is one.

 

The musicians that play live music blow their gear up all the time, so the musicians know who the best repair shops are. Or go into any place that has lots of live music and start asking around, you can also search the local yellow pages on line. There are several places you can ship them to for the recone Parts Express and Simply Speakers Tampa, and others.

 

Recone or diagphragms price list

http://www.simplyspeakers.com/klipsch-speaker-repair.html

 

I don't think Crites Sells recone, kits, but he does sell replacement woofers that would be all new. The existing ones can be sold on e-bay and someone else will recone them. Someone probably knows who the OEM was for the Woofers, ElectroVoice maybe and the kit number to order if you go recone. You can post this as a separate topic in Tech and someone will respond with the kit info.

 

If you are talking about the gasket between the woofer metal frame and the wood cabinet, that is part of the recone kit. The gasket between the wooden parts on the bottom of the speaker called the dog house for obvious reasons, can be different materials like weather strip.

 

The mid range drivers are the heart and soul of the LaScals so tread lightly if you are going to paint them or bead blast them etc, there is a rubber gasket to contend with and dust and debris concerns, They too can be sent out to Crites for new diaphragms and gaskets if you so desire, I would ask him about painting if you are sending them to him, pretty sure the top cover can be removed and painted, very carefully don't touch the diaphragms.

 

Judging by the mold on the speakers, I would give the inside of the speakers a careful look with a flashlight once the woofers are out.

 

Crites sells replacement tweeters with the lens two models, disassembly of the stock tweeters, bead blasting and painting may be more then you think, Check out K-77 Electrovoice tweeter rebuilds on Youtube. If you get new tweeters, the old ones can be sold on e-bay.

 

IMHO negotiate new tweeters, new woofers and new diaphragms for the mid range with Crites and ship him the mid range drivers after you repaint them for service and test. You will have new speakers in a better than new cabinet when you are done. The more expensive tweeters Crites sells are the better ones IMHO, ask others.

 

The large metal mid range horns interior must be inspected by looking for any casting defects visual, and then feeling with your hands for regular shape and smoothness particularity at the thin end the driver bolts to, if you have calipers measure the diameter, one LaScalas owner who owns a machine shop actually bored out his horns to bring them to spec.. If they need work, a good machine shop (performance engines etc) when they are done being amused will probably quote a fair price. Crites sells the replacement gaskets, looks like a hose washer. If they are machined, paint them sooner.

 

I like the AA crossovers and would build the system around them or the Crites replacement, the more on the mid the better.

 

Your old tweeters, woofers, crossovers can be sold on e=bay since they all test good, show the photo with the test meter connected so the numbers are readable. Describe and show any defects.

 

Agree, applying the veneer is the final step after all of the hard work is done.

 

This first horn removed has a very rough interior.  The pair I have at home have totally smooth surfaces. Would a machine shop smooth the entire interior or just the small end?  Is this a common condition?

 

 

 

You may be able to do it by hand, but I would call a couple of machine shops and take it over for them to look at.

 

They will most likely be amused and give you a hand once they understand the project, maybe make a guest appearance on "this old speaker" like when they visit their offsite vendors who are fabricating parts for them........

 

If the machine shop bores the units to spec for you, decks the mating surface, and either sands it or bead blasts it, or both, to smooth the surface, they will probably be willing to take the extra minute to put a coat of black epoxy on it for you. Bring them all 4 mid horns at the same time. Once the spray gun is wet, 1 or 10 is only a few minutes and isn't much paint. This will also enhance the value of the speakers, think world class rebuild. Might be a good field trip for your kids, machinists make up to and over $100K per year.

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This first horn removed has a very rough interior. The pair I have at home have totally smooth surfaces.

The pair of K400 horns I got from Mark (cincymat) are very smooth, and the throat is just about perfect. I feel very fortunate.

 

I am enjoying watching the progress.

 

Bruce

Edited by Marvel
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There are a few very good previous threads here I cannot seem to find that someone can search for, regarding the throat cleaning.

 

I understood it was not rocket science, just a matter of minimizing or eliminating any partial blockage or "step" in the driver/ gasket/ horn throat joint.

 

Not requiring of machine shop accuracy.

 

Some K400 it seems have casting "flash" there, that was never cleaned up at original assembly.

 

It really seems anyone with basic shop sense can do it with a pencil grinder, followed by some hand cleanup w sandpaper on a wood dowel.    

 

 Lars

Edited by Karsoncookie
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I signed up today to use the sand blaster and powder coating facilities at the TechShop... I'll start with the small brackets that support the midrange drivers.

 

Talked with Bob Crites about the horn roughness and his explanation was that the frugal PWK got as many horns from a mold (done by the local cottage industry) as possible. Horns produced near the end of the mold's life showed more abrasion from the gradual breakdown.

 

Thinking the plywood sheets that seal the woofer enclosures are so far gone (serious wear and coats of paint) that we'll just replace them...looking for similar heavy duty metal bumpers to attach to the corners.

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"Thinking the plywood sheets that seal the woofer enclosures are so far gone (serious wear and coats of paint) that we'll just replace them...looking for similar heavy duty metal bumpers to attach to the corners."

 

They are on the bottom.  So what?  Sand and paint, irrespective of how you finish the topsides.

 

 I guess it all depends on the expediting vs student experiences of the project.

 

Corners and hardware -  This is kindoff hiding in the website - "Hardware" -   http://www.parts-express.com/cat/hardware/84

 

Lars

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Very cool project....

 

Lascals's were the 1st Klipsch speaker I ever owned. We got ours some 25 years ago found em in the Sunday paper. That's my daughter sitting in one them. My wife and I would find her sitting in the bass bin when we played them. 

My Lascala's are still one of my favorite Klipsch speakers. 

 

Looks like your project is going right along..... You need to video the look on the kids faces when you power those up. Years ago my shop helper came to my house. He was always doing goofy audio things in his car. He was unable to understand the efficiency of a speaker. 

I powered up the LaScala's..... his jaw just dropped and his eyes got big.... after the 1st track I asked him "so how many watts do you think that was?" He was like "that's gotta be 1000 or so"  I was laughing........I told him we were hitting them with about 20 watts.... he couldn't believe it.....  I said hold on.... I'm gonna put 100+ watts to em. :o  

At that time he was about 18......he was hooked...... I sold him my Cornwalls when he was about 25 with the understanding if he ever wants to sell them I must have 1st shot. 

To this day we are still friends...he'll be 30 this year.... has three kids and I am the god farther to one of his sons. He still loves coming over to my house and playing with all the gear. He still has keys to my shop and gets to play the shop Klipsch as well.

Klipsch and music got our friendship going.....and it's still a big part of it.

 

Enjoy your Klipsch....... enjoy the project ;)

 

MKP :-)

Edited by MORE KLIPSCH PLEASE
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello Folks,

well it's been a busy few weeks here at the Boys & Girls Club. Besides all the other crafts programs we've been running: jewelry, ceramics, pin-hole cameras, printmaking...

we've managed to pull out all the components from our four LaScalas, sand and fill the bottoms, fabricate new hatches and over the weekend I sandblasted (lightly) the dirt and grime from the horns and stripped most of the paint (up to four layers on some surfaces) from the cabinets. The kids also built 1/2 scale models to practice the veneering. Looking at the condition of the boxes we are going to add a layer of 1/4"mdf prior to veneering and then trim with hardwood. We did a test grille in Baltic birch (1/4"), using the cabinet as the template and a straight cutting router bit. Worked very well. Is 1/4" wood thick enough, I've only seen mention of 1/2"? Thanks for all the suggestions, Mark

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Those pictures just made my day! Thanks for sharing and posting.
Same here! I would be stoked to have had the opportunity when I was younger. These kids are never going to forget this, especially when they hear them reproduce some good music.

 

Bruce

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