Nice job and beautiful cabinet. I have done the woofers on my S55 and S120.2 speakers. I found them easy to center and refoam as well. I wish all woofers were like that.  The CX-50 and CX-100 series weren't bad either but I did use a frequency generator to test the centering on those.  I really depended on the generator for the RL-140 speakers. Those woofers are by far the most difficult. I know Søren Mexico will tell me to shim, shim, shim but if I can do it without cutting open the dust cover I would rather try it 🙂

Leslie I would trust the touch of your hand over my shims or battery trick anyday.

As usual - good job.

I think I did one set of CX-100 drivers that way.. I dont really think size makes it anymore difficult.

[quote user="sonavor"]

Nice job and beautiful cabinet. I have done the woofers on my S55 and S120.2 speakers. I found them easy to center and refoam as well. I wish all woofers were like that.  The CX-50 and CX-100 series weren't bad either but I did use a frequency generator to test the centering on those.  I really depended on the generator for the RL-140 speakers. Those woofers are by far the most difficult. I know Søren Mexico will tell me to shim, shim, shim but if I can do it without cutting open the dust cover I would rather try it 🙂

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You guys get on my strong stretched nerves, yes shim,shim,shim, will be back shortly with a drawing and motivation for shimming for all of you😁😁

[quote user="Eugene"]

Leslie I would trust the touch of your hand over my shims or battery trick anyday.

As usual - good job.

I think I did one set of CX-100 drivers that way.. I dont really think size makes it anymore difficult.

Thanks Eugene! What's shimming? Have tried to translate that word, but nothing....

[quote user="sonavor"]Nice job and beautiful cabinet.[/quote]

Thank you Sonavor, the cabinets are indeed "awesome" and in new condition🙂

Shim and the magnet methood aside. I said I trust Leslie's touch more than some people using shims and magnets for a good reason.

In the end no amount of "proper" preparation can account for the clumsiness of some DIY jobs. It would be fun to have a thread were we post up pics of botched refoam jobs we come across whether it be our own experience or something we spy on eBay. Most of us have seen them. In particular a lot of poor tortured CX100 drivers.

In my own experience last year I had to refoam a set of S80 drivers that had been previously "profeesionaly refoamed" a few years earlier. The surround was installed behind the driver not over the face. I also had to re-refoam a set of CX100 that done with cheap wafer thin surround and barely any glue. started to come apart very quickly.

In the end I trust Leslie eyes and his care for detail we have all seen it in his other work, but next time at least use a magnet. Your apt to give one of us purists a stroke if you dont.

[quote user="sonavor"]

Nice job and beautiful cabinet. I have done the woofers on my S55 and S120.2 speakers. I found them easy to center and refoam as well. I wish all woofers were like that.  The CX-50 and CX-100 series weren't bad either but I did use a frequency generator to test the centering on those.  I really depended on the generator for the RL-140 speakers. Those woofers are by far the most difficult. I know Søren Mexico will tell me to shim, shim, shim but if I can do it without cutting open the dust cover I would rather try it 🙂

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First of all congrats Leslie as always a top job. But now to why shimming, (I dont understand why you always try to avoid that) its easy. First af all here a pic of what happens when you use the battery trick, with a 1.5 V cell, you pull the cone some 4-5 Mm and when gluing the outer surround edge, the edge is pulled to the inside,  about 3-4 Mm. So if the max pull of the driver is 10 Mm, you are of center (rest position) with some 30 %. Dont tell me that there wont be some distortion because of this.

And now to why shimming.

When the surround is of, the only thing that keep the cone and the cone tube in place is the spider, if the spider is only a little damaged or misaligned, the gap between tube and magnet will not be parallel, and if there is only a 0.1 Mm like in the RL140 drivers, you've got trouble.

By shimming, and pushing the shims all the way to the buttom of the voice coil, you get the tube parallel to the magnet and same distans all around, after gluing, the surround keep this adjustment. The dustcap is no problem, just cut it near to the cone, but leave about 5 Mm not cut, kip it to the side and when the surround glue is dry, kip it back and glue it. Dont cut the dustcap before you have cleaned everything and the inner edge of the surround is glued on.

I know I'm stressing this, but in my opinion its the only way you can be sure, not do it again.

I'm sure Leslie did the refoam, like he did, only to get me going😁😂