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Planar Speaker Asylum Welcome! Need support, you got it. Or share your ideas and experiences. |
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Planar Speaker Asylum Welcome! Need support, you got it. Or share your ideas and experiences. |
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In Reply to: Best glue for Maggie repair posted by jjcarr on October 29, 2003 at 10:13:08:
If all you need to do is re-attach loose wires, have magnepan ship you miloxane (they will not ship it in the winter - sorry), and follow the directions below.Clean the area with acetone where the wires are loose, run 12 volts with at least 1.75 amps up to about 2.5 amps through the speaker (but if you go over about 2.5 Amps, just be careful of the tweeter section - you don't want the warm wires to melt the mylar)(I ran 12 volts at 1.75 amps just through the fine tweeter wires for over an hour without any problem. The electric current makes the wires magnetic, and pulls them against the mylar - right in exactly the place you want them - right between the magnets! I used no 3M super 77 spray glue at all, and just one thin, but thorough coat of miloxane. The speakers sound incredible!
Here is the very best way, and the one now(you can get away with more though (I being tested and used by Magnepan to adhere the wires to the mylar. (Magnepan at present is only attempting it on their midrange/bass wires. They have yet to determine if they can get away with it on the tweeters, so I played around with it on some SMGa's, MGI's and MGII's and came up with a balance between magnetic pull to hold the wires in place, and not generating too much heat to damage the mylar). I have repaired many pairs of speakers, ( I am the one who did one of the posts on Magnepan speaker repair, under Alex ).Note: You do not need any 3M super 77 spray glue at all!
The electric current will hold the wires against the mylar until the myloxane is dry.
Note: Magnepan will not ship Myloxane from Mid October until April/May due to freezing during shipment. - You have to wait until spring.
If replacing wire on the speaker:
Buy the following:
From Magnepan: Correct Guage Wire. (If you are nice to Margaret (she almost always answers the phone), they will put together some wire on a spool for you, even for the older MGI and MGII speakers).
Miloxane
Silver Solder
Silicone Sealant (for the connections)
Note: all this will come in the tweeter repair kit for your speakers. (I believe the repair kits are about $40)
I recommend updating the speaker cloth for $20 each. They come in off white, black, and dark grey. The dark grey looks great.
Also, ask for some of the newer connectors to attach the wires that do not use solder (but also ask for the solder in case you need some elsewhere).
Other Supplies Needed: Acetone (Home depot - any hardware store.)Good paper towels.
Rubber gloves (for removing acetone)
Paint Respirator (Don't breath a bunch of the
acetone - it evaporates quick -or just make sure you are in a well ventilated area).
Staple gun & staples - buy a powerful one. 1/2 to 5/8 inches long.
Power Supply- Radio Shack 12 Volt 1.75 Amp - About $30.
Paint brush(s) - don't use the one in the
miloxane can - it's not fine enough.
Soldering gun - higher amp version.
Soldering Flux.
Silver solder (if Magnepan didn't mail you any)
If you have any tears / holes in your mylar, talk to the repair department to see if they can give you any scrap mylar.
Clean the surface with acetone to remove all previous glue (don't worry about letting it soak (it may take 30 - 60 seconds to soften the glue. (if you are doing the base/midrange wires, make sure you draw a picture of the layout of the wires and/or use the other speaker of the pair as a reference).
Skip this part if you have no tears or holes in your mylar
If you have any tears or holes in the mylar surface, refer to my posting archived under Tweaks, go to near the bottom, under Miscellaneous, and look at the repair post there.
This following section is a detailed explanation of how to repair larger tears in the mylar.
Remove/separate the magnet/mylar (the metal frame that holds the is the central part of the speaker), separate it from the frame. Carefully pull off the metal braces that run across the width of the front side of the speaker (this allows the speaker to curve a little more. You may even want to flex the speaker, or brace or have someone flex the speaker to create a curve in the speaker so the mylar is loose across the width of the speaker. Trim a piece of strong 3M tape or piece of Mylar if magnepan will supply. Take some Pieces of paper towel or thin plastic, and slide it in the hole - make sure to tuck the edges under the mylar. Cover the rest of the speaker you don't want sprayed. Spray the 3M super 77 spray glue, wait 1 minute, pull out the paper towel/plastic in the hole, and lay down the piece of mylar / 3M tape(glue side up - not down). Let dry for at least 1 hour. Trim another piece of tape or Mylar sprayed with 3M super 77 3M glue( let glue dry a couple of minutes before you lay it down. Lay down and stretch out as much as you can as you lay it down. Use 3M Spray glue or stronger 3M high strengh spray glue to re-attach the metal braces (use c - clamps to hold each side of each brace). The re-attaching of the metal braces will flatten out the speaker panel, and stretch out the repaired area. I have done this repair for areas as large as 2" wide and 5" high with very good results.
Order the correct wire and miloxane from magnepan. Also, ask for some of their new connectors they use (instead of solder - it's what they are using now - they are mini claps that sandwich the wire between 2 metal surfaces screwed down together). But also, make sure they send you some silver solder for some of the other joints if they don't you can buy some at electronic stores - buy some flux as well. Don't go cheap on the soldering gun either, it's not worth the hastle. I've used cheap/lower power ones and it takes too long to melt the silver solder).
The less mass you add to the mylar, the better your frequency response will be. Just think, your speakers will sound better than they did new!When you get the coil of wire Magnepan sends you, lay the speaker down, - clean your hands (to remove oil etc.)and then lay out exactly how much wire you will need to go up and back between the magnets. Cut the wire to length, leaving about 1 foot of wire at the ends(better too long here than too short). Strip off the coating with a razor blade, or sandpaper.
Tweeters- Connect an electric current through the wire - 12 volts at
1.75 Amps will do the trick just fine. The electric current will make the wires warm (quite warm after a while, but not near enough to burn through the mylar. You could probably get away with little more, say 2.5 amps, but that's about it. I used a Radio Shack power supply for about $30, just get the one that is 1.75 amps of power. Connect the ends of the wires, and you are on you way.Lay the wires down, stretch the wire out some to remove the curves in the wire. At each end, just past the end of the magnets, bend the wire around a pen ( or something slightly smaller diameter for the tweeter - if you have), looping the wires back and forth at the ends of the speaker, just past the ends of the magnets. Make sure the wires are right in between the magnets for best results.
Use a good quality fine paint brush - not the one in the can of myloxane. You need to brush it on sparingly! Brush the miloxane back and forth in the direction of the wires, but be sure to initially go across (side to side)the wires(gently so you don't move the wires out of place), and then in the direction of the wires to spread out the miloxane. The goal is to be sure you get miloxane on both sides of the wires all the way down the length of the wires. You don't need to be too concervative as you initially apply the miloxane, but spread it out up and down the length of the wires before it starts to dry. If you are thorough in your application, you will only need one coat. If you are concerned you didn't coat it good the first time, trim the ends of the wires, solder (or use the newer clips magnepan has), and then test the speakers after a few hours or the next day, turn the volume up quite loud to be sure there is no buzzing sound. If there is, just apply another light coat of the miloxane.
With the electric current warming the area, the glue will set faster ( it will start to dry in about 1 - 2 minutes, but will not be dry for several minutes). Just start at one end and work your way down to the other. Just keep coating the wires and move down the wires a few inches per minute to stay ahead of the dry time, but be thorough in your coating as to not miss any areas of the wires. Don't be as conservative with the miloxane at the ends of the wires as you want it to adhere well. Be sure as you paint the miloxane on, the wires stay between the magnets. If the wire shifts some, use the paint brush ( or the other side of the brush) to guide the wires back into place, and continue painting it on. If the ends of the wires don't seem to be tight against the mylar, just make sure you coat the area , and as it starts to dry, just keep an eye on the ends, and press them down every minute or two, until they stay down.Keep the Power Supply on the whole time until the miloxane is dry ( give it at least 45 minutes to 1 hour. But longer is fine.
Midrange/Bass areas- do the same as for tweeters. If 12 volts at 1.75 Amps is not enough to keep the wires in place, you may want to go higher on the amperage, but just pay attention to how much heat the wires are producing. You don't have to be as concerned with a little more miloxane here. A touch more mass won't affect the sound like with the tweeter section. You will need to drill out the
rivit(s) that hold the 1" black plastic disk(s) in place (the real old MGI and MGII's don't have these). Be careful not to get metal/plastic shavings falling down between the mylar and the magnets (this happened to me, and it was really impossible to get them out - it did't seem to affect the sound though, but just be careful). Pour acetone on these plastic disks as they are glued down very well. Let the acetone soak for a couple of minutes, take plyers, grab the disk and gently attempt to twist/pry them of. Go buy a small nut and bolt and lock washer to replace the rivit you drilled out. Be sure you draw a diagram of the wires as each model speaker has some rows of wires with one wire going up and down the length of the speaker, and other rows have two wires. Each model of speaker is different too. You can use the other speaker as a reference if you are doing one speaker at a time.
After the miloxane has dryed and you have re-trimmed the ends of the wires to the correct length, re-strip the ends, and then attach them (either to the newer clamps, or solder them in place, then test the speaker(s) at higher volumes to be sure you used enough miloxane. Listen for any buzzing sound. If you hear buzzing, just apply another thin, but full coating over the entire surface again, wait for it to dry, and that's it.Put your speaker cloth covers on using the staple gun.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.
Good luck.
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Follow Ups
- Don't use 3M super 77 glue! - Alex 01:35:19 10/30/03 (1)
- Re: Don't use 3M super 77 glue! - akino 05:24:55 11/01/03 (0)
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