# Repairing a speaker puncture -- preferred adhesive



## DavidP (Mar 7, 2006)

This is a personal worse/first in my history of amp building/restoring/repairing -- never had to face it till now. Due to circumstances beyond mortal control, this Weber 10" speaker got caught on a baffle mounting bolt, and suffered a small puncture on the paper surround (pics or it didn't happen, right, so see below).

Given the punctured piece was still attached, I'm able to get the piece pretty well realigned and figure some flexible adhesive applied over both sides of the tear (vs. a patch) should be an easy fix. The question is what adhesive to use??? It needs to stay flexible, so potential candidates are: Shoe Goo, Permatex Gasket Maker or Silicone Sealant, Aleene's Tacky Glue, or (pricey) MG Chemicals 83337 Speaker Repair Cement. Fortunately, all of these are more or less locally available. Given the paper construction, probably better to work in a water-based adhesive (like Aleene's) vs. a silicone/rubber?

Given, I'm not the only person who's confronted this issue, thought I'd ask around as to what others have used and success/failure stories before proceeding further.


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## BBreb (Nov 23, 2016)

Hi. Ex electronics technician here. I’ve used Weldbond for surround repairs. It looks just like normal white glue and dries clear.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

You're not the first one to put a mounting stud through the cone of a speaker. Nor will you be the last.

I use either white glue or carpenters glue when it happens to a friend of mine.


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## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

I use this. The best stuff out there IMHO. It's rubberized and flexes easily. That said, I'm probably fixing a lot more speakers than you are so it might be a wee bit more than you'd ever need.


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## Alan Small (Dec 30, 2019)

back in the day in the countryside we would use white glue and layers of kleenex


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

Another vote for the MG chem. product. It's worth it. 

"excellent adhesion to metal, paper, cloth, foam, felt, rubber, and more" You may find you have a lot more uses for it than just speakers.


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## Latole (Aug 11, 2020)

jb welder said:


> Another vote for the MG chem. product. It's worth it.
> 
> "excellent adhesion to metal, paper, cloth, foam, felt, rubber, and more" You may find you have a lot more uses for it than just speakers.


I agree !

In Canada ;








MG Chemicals - Speaker Service Cement


The 8337 Speaker Service Cement is a flexible, durable, solvent-based, rubber resin adhesive that is designed for speaker repair. It has excellent adhesion to metal, paper, cloth, foam, felt, rubber, and more. It is used to repair surrounds, speakers, and cones.




nextgenguitars.ca














Or Active Electronics





Speaker Service Cement | Active Tech Electronics Distributor


Electronics Distributor, Active Tech has all the parts and components you need for Miscellaneous Adhesives, view our Speaker Service Cement




www.active123.com


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## Jim Jones (Sep 18, 2006)

I’ll probably grab some of that MG Chemicals stuff one of these days but I just used contact cement and a coffee filter on a speaker the other day and it worked great!


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Optimal glue depends on where the tear is: in a part of the cone that is supposed to be rigid or a part that is supposed to be flexible.

The corrugated area at the perimeter of the cone is intended to be flexible (that's why the corrugations), which would suggest to me that you want to use a glue that would dry to a flexible, rather than stiff, state.


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## DavidP (Mar 7, 2006)

Update FWIW.
A tech friend swears by Shoe Goo for this kind of repair, clear, flexible, and the price was right as he had an open tube around. Applied a very small dab to cover the puncture area and onto adjacent margins. The whole operation on his front porch took less than 5 minutes! 
Reassembling later today to hear if it sounds any different, but he doesn't think it will given the small size of the puncture.


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## BGood (Feb 20, 2015)

DavidP said:


> Update FWIW.
> A tech friend swears by Shoe Goo for this kind of repair, clear, flexible, and the price was right as he had an open tube around. Applied a very small dab to cover the puncture area and onto adjacent margins. The whole operation on his front porch took less than 5 minutes!
> Reassembling later today to hear if it sounds any different, but he doesn't think it will given the small size of the puncture.


I'd do that. Silicone would also work great, in the long run it'll stay more flexible than Goo.

I'd put a piece of masking tape on the front of the booboo to stabilise the tear and smear a little silicone with a finger on the back. Let dry overnight, remove tape.


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