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Hi Fellow Beoworlders,
I thought I’d share my recent adventure, finding a good fix for those pesky little brittle speaker frame lugs on all of the S45 / S55 / S80 / S120 / MC120 / MS150 / M150 and point 2s. The sizes of the plugs and screws relate to the MS150s.
I know the lugs and holes are smaller on the S55s so I would imagine its different on at least the smaller ones.
Although I think these look just as incredible without the fabric frames, it seems maybe due to their large magnets pets and small children are hypnotically drawn to investigate the fragile dust covers with furry noses and tiny fingers!! So the frets must go back on.
Most covers do hold on with the odd missing clip, but 40 years on these are breaking more and more. This became more apparent during my current complete restoration of a pair of incredible MS150 speakers, I wanted to restore the fabric frames to make these last as long as possible and not keep breaking in the future.
Rather than snapping off the remaining lugs I went ahead and snipped each one off so not to put any unnecessary pressure on the surrounding fragile frames. Although at a glance all these frames look unbroken.
Again with the fragile frames, the Dremel allowed me to cut with very gentle pressure. Dremel flat just before a hole appears, you’ll learn this depth on the second one! You’ll notice on this photo this lug had already snapped at its frame (we’ll get to this later on).
Not wanting to risk drilling down through the fabric and table! I used a flat wood drill bit, and with very little pressure by hand in the centre it revealed the existing hole in the centre of the lug, which was very handy to find. Then again by hand with just a few turns it was large enough to accept a screw.
I went through various solutions of spacers and solid pins, and couldn’t find any clips on the market that would flex in like the originals (which was actually quite a neat design… until things got snappy) and still be allowed to come out whilst at the same time still holding firm enough. Once I’d decided on my solution I trialed various 10mm Rawl Plugs. Using plugs the intended way around made them splay out and I couldn’t get consistency and I didn’t think gluing them on was going to be a permanent enough solution. The final choice was made for these particular ones due to their flat, solid top construction, where most wall plugs are rounded and split at the top or just joined at the top with a thin plastic thread. They even already have a crosscut in the top that just happened to accept the screw.
Here’s a picture of a lug completely broken off its frame from its underside showing the existing hole, larger than the hole I’ve opened up in the top.
Rawl Plugs snipped off to the same length as the original lugs, the fabric frames now fit onto the speakers, the frames now feel as they should, just enough pressure when going on to hold firm, but not too much so they can be removed relatively easily.
Purely for beautification purposes I snipped off the 2 thinner prongs and snipped the ends to points. They are holding just as well with 2 prongs out of 4 and if anything slightly easier to insert the frame onto the speaker. There’s another break in the frame, you’ll have to take my word for it these were all there before.
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