Speaking of Tweeter domes...

[pmakres1]

Hi Guys,

Okay restoration specialists: Is there any way of restoring the shiny silvery finish to an 066 dome without compromising performance? I have one that is missing some of the finish, otherwise seems to play fine. No dents, it just doesn't look that good. Any ideas?

Peter

[johnaec]

What - you don't have a place near to you that does aluminum vapor deposition? :p

John

[pmakres1]

What - you don't have a place near to you that does aluminum vapor deposition? :p

John

You mean spray painting? LOL :rotfl:

[Robh3606]

An airbrush would do the trick. You can regulate the volume and preasure and put on a very thin coat. A serious scale modler will certainly have one. Know anyone who does RC Cars or Planes??? If they are in a club someone will proabably have one.

Rob:)

[johnaec]

You mean spray painting? LOL :rotfl:Actually, I think the original process deposited a thin layer of aluminum via vapor deposition in a vacuum chamber. Someone correct me on this...

John

[pmakres1]

Actually, I think the original process deposited a thin layer of aluminum via vapor deposition in a vacuum chamber. Someone correct me on this...

John

Yes I do remember that from the JBL literature of the era. But, I remember a thread somewhere that held that this may have been fancy language for spray painting. I don't know for sure, this is one reason I wanted the opinions of forum members to see if anyone thinks that a restoration using something like spray paint would compromise performance.

Peter

[pmakres1]

An airbrush would do the trick. You can regulate the volume and preasure and put on a very thin coat. A serious scale modler will certainly have one. Know anyone who does RC Cars or Planes??? If they are in a club someone will proabably have one.

Rob:)

I do know a fellow who races model boats that may be able to assist-I'll have to talk to him.

Peter

[Mr. Widget]

Actually, I think the original process deposited a thin layer of aluminum via vapor deposition in a vacuum chamber. Someone correct me on this...


Yeah... it is really hi-tech... same technique is used on those "gold plated" plastic trophies.:D

Peter I have a paint that is used for simulating chrome. I guarantee no one here has used it, (it originally cost $2K per gallon and now is about half that) Anyway it is extremely fine aluminum powder suspended in a fast evaporating solvent. You essentially dust on the aluminum powder and the solvent evaporates on contact. Typically you clear coat on top of it to protect it from being rubbed off. In this case no coating would be necessary as no one should ever touch the surface. This "paint" would add no mass and would restore the aluminum coating.

If you send me your tweeter, I'll re coat it for you.

Widget

[John]

If you send me your tweeter, I'll re coat it for you.

Widget


Now please tell me on what other speaker or audio related forum will you see offers like thathttp://audioheritage.csdco.com/vbulletin/images/smilies/applaud.gif

[Mr. Widget]

If you use an airbrush with paint you will also be adding additional polymers along with the aluminum. (Virtually all silver paints use aluminum powder in a clear paint base.) I am not sure if the acrylic, latex, or urethane polymers would really be such a good thing to put on the tweeter. The material I have will quite literally put a very fine film of aluminum and only aluminum onto the surface.

How long will it take and how many would I do? Don't know, never did one. I would be happy to do one for free. The "paint" does cost $350 a quart and it is almost all solvent so it doesn't go far... I would need to see how much material it takes. As for time required. It will take about 30 min. to apply several light coats. It will also take several minutes to mask the front plate.

Widget

[Mr. Widget]

I just took a look at the photo... it might not be a bad idea to coat the whole darn thing. That would mask the oxidation too. The material is so fine it will not obscure the brushing on the face plate. Unfortunately if the oxidation has created pitting, these won't be masked much either.

Widget

[pmakres1]

If you use an airbrush with paint you will also be adding additional polymers along with the aluminum. (Virtually all silver paints use aluminum powder in a clear paint base.) I am not sure if the acrylic, latex, or urethane polymers would really be such a good thing to put on the tweeter. The material I have will quite literally put a very fine film of aluminum and only aluminum onto the surface.

How long will it take and how many would I do? Don't know, never did one. I would be happy to do one for free. The "paint" does cost $350 a quart and it is almost all solvent so it doesn't go far... I would need to see how much material it takes. As for time required. It will take about 30 min. to apply several light coats. It will also take several minutes to mask the front plate.

Widget

Mr. Widget,

I had already decided that your offer is the way to go, and your offer to assist is greatly appreciated. I can use my spare 066 that has a slightly damaged dome during the interim. I can send the tweeter to you this next week, if you would like to send me a PM with your address info, I will get it off to you. I will of course, pay the return shipping as well, we'll need to make an arrangement for that. If you can accept paypal payments that would really make it easy for both of us. I greatly appreciate your assistance, this issue is really the only thing keeping my pair of 4313's from being nearly mint. I'll await your info. Thanks!!

Best regards,

Peter

[pmakres1]

If you send me your tweeter, I'll re coat it for you.

Widget


Now please tell me on what other speaker or audio related forum will you see offers like thathttp://audioheritage.csdco.com/vbulletin/images/smilies/applaud.gif

You are quite right John, and I would like to thank Mr. Widget and the rest of the forum members for their input on this. :applaud:

Best regards to all,

Peter

[briang]

Actually, I think the original process deposited a thin layer of aluminum via vapor deposition in a vacuum chamber. Someone correct me on this...

John

This is correct. In my past, I worked for an eye glass lens manufacturer that did MIVD (metal ion vapor deposition) onto a polycarbonate lens substrate as an anti-reflective coating.

I found this in a google search: http://www.ipsen-intl.com/pdfs/IVDPaper.pdf

[Alex Lancaster]

:applaud: Briang: Thanks for the great read; So, another little weekend project?;) .

[pmakres1]

This is correct. In my past, I worked for an eye glass lens manufacturer that did MIVD (metal ion vapor deposition) onto a polycarbonate lens substrate as an anti-reflective coating.

I found this in a google search: http://www.ipsen-intl.com/pdfs/IVDPaper.pdf

Cool! Very informative. Thanks!

Peter

[Mr. Widget]

Here is the tweeter in question prior to re-coating with aluminum.

[Mr. Widget]

Here it is with a fresh coat of aluminum on it... not perfect, but significantly better.

Widget

[duaneage]

Looks perfect enough to me

[pmakres1]

That looks great!!

You'll probably now be inundated with tweeter rehab requests!!

:applaud: :applaud: :applaud: :applaud:

Peter

[johnaec]

Would judicious use of steel wool perhaps get rid of the dark marks in the flat part?

John

[pmakres1]

Would judicious use of steel wool perhaps get rid of the dark marks in the flat part?

John

That's a good thought John, I hadn't tried that. I had used aluminum polish, with some improvement. I have a unit here I can experiment with. Thanks for the suggestion! :D

Peter

[4313B]

Looks good Mr. Widget! :)

Where's the CLIO plots? :D

[briang]

Great Job Mr. Widget!:applaud: :)

[Mr. Widget]

Speaking of Clio... I got version 7 a couple of days ago. The previous version was 6.5. When I met with the Clio folks at last year's AES they were demo-ing a beta version of 7... I suggested that I would buy now (back then) if they would give me the upgrade when available. It looks very cool! I haven't yet downloaded the manual or loaded it on my machine but among many other things it now does polar plots... of course you have to take all of the measurements... a real PITA without an automated turntable.

http://www.cliowin.com/tour1.htm

Widget