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La Scala Splits Restoration


Maximus89

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On 8/5/2017 at 2:31 PM, Maximus89 said:


From there, I obviously need to remove the white paint(Church?)  that is depressingly all over the horns and tweeter.

Tips for removal?  Just any stripper will do?  Metal or plastic scraper?

Then from there, how do I go about painting it? Spray paint?  Brush?  What type and color?  What material are these? 

 

 

I have La Scala Industrial's. I'm just using the bass bins as I went with different speakers for the mids & highs. The only reason I removed the paint & repainted the bins is I added 3/4"plywood to the sides to stiffen them up to improve the bass (I would highly recommend this as it really improved the bass). The biggest hassle of adding plywood to the sides is you have to remove the existing paint & then repaint. And your doing this anyway. I went to Lowe's and got A1 3/4" plywood $50 +/- a sheet. Sanded the paint off with a Harbor Freight Belt Sander ($30), used Gorilla Construction Adhesive. To help hold the sides on while the glue set I used #8 x 1 1/4" flat phillips wood screws (I used 21 per side), drilled & counter sunk the holes. I did one side at a time & used the tops of the mid/high speaker to hold it down. Wood clamps would have probably been better. At first I tried a Palm sander & after spending an hour or two & getting nowhere I went a got the Belt sander. It removed the paint in minutes. I didn't want to deal with the smell & mess of paint remover. Although you've got tight corners to sand & I didn't. I then painted the bins with a roller....   Bill   

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1 hour ago, jimjimbo said:

Duratex is not that expensive, considering how well it performs, and the coverage you get.  Spray paint, or any other paint pales in comparison.

I was thinking it was $70 gallon plus shipping at PE.  If @Maximus89 was going to resell I might cheap out with a $20 gallon of no-name black paint.  If he plans to keep them which seems to be the plan right now, the extra few bucks for the Duratex would make for a nicer finish.

 

I was referring to the spray paint for the plastic horns, not for the enclosure.  I've used cheap black rattle cans and the Rustoleum and in this case the brand name really is better than the cheap stuff.

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Just got a chance to take out the drivers. Not as easy as I thought and seems like it's going to be difficult to put back together. 

Now how do I remove the crossover network? - nevermind. Found the 4 screws

 

Also can someone tell me about this type of xover and the difference between it and others? 

Type AL s?

 

thanks

 

IMG_1784.JPG

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It's 1:30 am and I just finished stripping...1 speaker. I am absolutely beat. My back is killing me from having to bend for all the different angles. I still need to sand lightly tomorrow before painting.

 

This is taking wayyy too long. I could have just sanded the white paint out of the cabinets with my sander....and what a mess the stripper left. I'd mutch rather dust and vacuum than clean that up. Paint goo all over the garage floor.

 

Not doing that again. The only thing that really benefited from the stripper was the mid horn. It came off beautifully like one peice. Maybe it just works best on plastic, bc the metal tweeter was a pain in comparison. The wood the worst of all and of course that's the majority of the work. 

 

Just going to lightly sand the next speaker and paint over most of it. 

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When using Duratex, I get the small 'trim' rollers 1" dia x 5" wide? at Lowes - the poly kind. The Duratex roller puts the texture on too heavy for me and uses a TON of material. Using this method I've recoated 8 EV 2x18" subs, 8 EV 2x12 tops two coats each with 1.5 gallons of Duratex. 

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14 hours ago, Maximus89 said:

Just got a chance to take out the drivers. Not as easy as I thought and seems like it's going to be difficult to put back together. 

Now how do I remove the crossover network? - nevermind. Found the 4 screws

 

Also can someone tell me about this type of xover and the difference between it and others? 

Type AL s?

 

thanks

 

IMG_1784.JPG

'S' is simply for the split cabinet configuration. It's an AL electronically. You might look up some of my threads on LSI restoration. I've done probalby 6 sets over the years. 

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15 hours ago, 32blownhemi said:

My Industrials came with metal trim all around the sides. I see that your's didn't but just wanted to show how I used the metal corners to help with my lack of carpenters experience  Lol... You could maybe find these if you needed to.... Bill20170808_170047_resized.thumb.jpg.60dc046ed8b5d675390a94e5502c47d5.jpg20170808_170149_resized.thumb.jpg.1e3c918b28e831ee78837b71d06b23a9.jpg

There was a forum member who made a die to recreate those corners, espeically the tricky angles ones for the top sections. The most highly prized of the LSI is the BG split models, which feature black fibreglass mat/resin as well as all aluminum edges/corners. 

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On August 5, 2017 at 7:42 PM, Schu said:

That's nice... even the pair with the paint don't look that bad.

 

On August 5, 2017 at 7:42 PM, Schu said:

That's nice... even the pair with the paint don't look that bad.

Yes at least the wood appears solid. So many of them have lived in basements, garages, or bars and smell like smoke, cat pee and beer.  Delamination is the worst issue in a LS bin because wood working is so difficult on them. 

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I just went with a satin black paint + primer from Premium after sanding the surface smooth..it was cheap and it looks fine after the 1st coat...im keeping these as my surrounds with the idea that one day i'll put figured walnut veneer on all 4 of them(how to get the edges straight for veneering?).  

Couldn't find the rust-o-leum canyon black in satin spray can, only in matte/flat black so that's what I used.  May have over sprayed the tweeter and carrying handle and under sprayed the mid horn(wasn't wearing a mask and it was hard to get inside to spray without it getting everywhere and still trying to see where I was spraying.

All in all, today was smooth.  Going for a 2nd coat in a few hours and then i'll let them sit for 24 hrs(necessary?) before I put everything back together and set it up as my center channel while I work on the next one.

The next one, i'm probably just going to sand the entire cabinets with medium to strong grit and just start painting. It's so much faster and smoother a process when using a power sander instead of the stripper which of course ill still use on the horns and plastics.

Sorry if it seems that I pretty much shat on most of the recommendations.  I didn't want to spend too much for Duratex if I'm going to veneer over everything eventually anyway.  The crappy paint strip job and picking at every odd angle with a scraper all day yesterday pretty much wore me out and I just want to get done ASAP. 

Thanks though for all the help!

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54 minutes ago, Maximus89 said:

All in all, today was smooth.  Going for a 2nd coat in a few hours and then i'll let them sit for 24 hrs(necessary?)

Especially if you are going to sand, I like to wait 24 hours for the paint to cure so it's hard enough to sand without clogging up the sand paper.

 

It sounds like you learned a few things along the way.  We have had other people here use a paint remover only to discover the paint was so embedded in the grain it was not effective.  Sometimes I think you don't know what will work until you try.

 

Glad to hear the paint you are using is giving you a good looking finish. 

+++

When you get a chance, I'd like to hear about your setup.  You said you wanted to use the 2nd LS as surrounds.  There are a lot of people who have similar configs.  @mustang guy has 3 LS up front and 3 LS in the back.  Of course he is powering up a small gymnasium!

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Can I remove this paint that got into the bug screen? I've never removed a diaphragm on these so it looks like it requires soldering? That right?

 

its funny that this diaphragm works, if you look at the original picture, this is from the tweeter that was completely painted. The one which barely got paint in it is the one with a bad diaphragm.

 

IMG_1785.JPG

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I don't think that one will work and I've been to 4 stores and they all have that same one but none are the ones I'm looking for with the twist cap. 

I still don't even understand how several made comments about how I didn't need the fuses, yet the speakers wouldn't work without them when I tested them.   Do I have to unplug something in the crossover and then the speakers will work without the fuses?

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That tweeter looks more like corrosion than paint.  It is hard to remove.  I have had this issue before.  Since you already have one other bad tweeter you may want to consider replacing the guts of both so you have a matched pair or close to a matched pair.  Bob Crites sells the replacements for those.

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TOSS that crossover, or at least remake it into an AL-3.  Schematics in the Tech section.  Bob Crites should be able to do it for you, if you don't want to.  Crites also has diaphragm assemblies to go in your tweeters making it easy. 

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31 minutes ago, mark1101 said:

That tweeter looks more like corrosion than paint.  It is hard to remove.  I have had this issue before.  Since you already have one other bad tweeter you may want to consider replacing the guts of both so you have a matched pair or close to a matched pair.  Bob Crites sells the replacements for those.

Not sure.  The entire tweeter was painted white, so i'm fairly certain it was also white paint that got in there, but if you've seen the same look from corrosion, perhaps that's the issue.  I've been thinking about the Crites tweeter upgrade and then putting the good pair into the other LSi and i'd have an extra pair of k-77 to sell with 1 bad diaphragm.

 

8 minutes ago, John Albright said:

TOSS that crossover, or at least remake it into an AL-3.  Schematics in the Tech section.  Bob Crites should be able to do it for you, if you don't want to.  Crites also has diaphragm assemblies to go in your tweeters making it easy. 

Is there something bad about this crossover?  More and more i get the feeling like these La Scalas aren't really all that liked.   I feel like the mids and highs are incredible compared to my Chorus II, but they definitely lack bass.  So much so that i thought there was an issue with the woofers b/c i feel like even simple bookshelf speakers I've heard go deeper than this K-43.  There really is a nice mid bass punch but i definitely need a sub to fill out most of the lower freq. where as with the Chorus II's i loved the sound just 2ch and no sub. 

I'm starting to be filled with doubt that these are the "ones" for me and i should sell both pairs and get myself 2 pairs of the home La Scalas with Al-3 network and k-33 woofers.  One thing i really love about these pairs i have is the trapezoid tops that i can angle for best placement and lay vertically for surround so they face up and over my head.

Should i just focus on upgrading the crossover and tweeters for my main left and right and leave the other 2 as stock for surrounds?  I need to sell my Chorus II first before proceeding with upgrades and there is still the issue of the k-43 in one of the LS im restoring right now not working.  I still need to to take it out and hopefully it just needs to be re-coned or something even simpler.

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46 minutes ago, Maximus89 said:

Is there something bad about this crossover?

Let me tell you what I've read, not what I know.  I had Type AA in my LS's, I have not heard the AL.

 

The Type AL is not well liked by some.  I'll leave it to others to describe the sound.  Others have weighed in on the AL and say they like it just fine.  In any case the lack of low end you describe is typical of LS in general and not due to the crossover.  The AL is not considered to be upgradable because most of the components will not be re-used.  If you don't like the sound then building a Type A or Type AA from scratch is the way to go.  Complete Crites replacements are available as well.

 

I suggest you play the speakers and decide for yourself how well you like them in YOUR house with YOUR amps.  If you like them, it doesn't matter what any of the rest of us thinks.

 

If you are keeping the two pair, then a tweeter upgrade might be in order.  FYI not everybody likes the upgrade, some have upgraded then gone back to the stock K-77's.  The K-77's might have a little more sizzle according to those who have changed and gone back.

 

If you are planning to sell them then I would suggest getting them working as economically as possible and get them as nice looking as you can, which I think you are already doing.

 

You've put some work into them already which I think will pay off, whether you keep them or sell them to fund other speakers you might like.  Win-win.

 

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