L100T's Thanks to Heather (hjames)!

[svollmer]

and thanks to you for keeping the legacy alive...

although you'll be sorry when he starts putting down things like
'bubble back 375s' and 'truextent diaphragms' on his christmas wish list!

Thanks, but I don't deserve a lot of credit other than exposing him to our hobby. Actually, I think I'm reliving my youth as my Dad and I were the two in the family who shared an interest in audio and used to go to audio shows in and around the Washington DC area. Good memories.

Like a lot of kids today, he absolutely loves music, but also wants convenience and portability. He also loves video games. So, I put together a system in his room of spare stuff (a CRT TV, the Pioneer receiver, and the Advents) and when he heard the difference of the sound of his video games on it, it was a revelation. Then I let him play his Ipod through it and he liked it. But when he heard the same stuff on CD, it really clicked.

You're right about the future. I have to convince him to keep up his good grades in school and get a high paying job so he can buy "us" a Synthesis system.

[wu6fiend]

Congrats on scoring a pair of L100Ts for such a fair price ($100)

I'll be watching this thread with interest. My L100Ts are among my most prized possessions, and I enjoy listening to them at least 1-2 hours each day.

With regard to the different JBL labels/white serial number label etc, I think you have a pair made up of early & later L100Ts. Strange. I own two sets of L80Ts also, and one pair has the JBL label with the serial number, and wooden base, while the other pair has the white serial number label, JBL label without serial number, and a plastic base.

With regard to the damaged grills, some owners have resorted to reattaching them with magnets or velcro, or you could do what I did, find a nice pair of original grills for sale on eBay (I think I paid $30 for them).

[svollmer]

Thanks wu6fiend. I probably won't be doing anything too extravagent, but I will document the rebuild in case it's of any help to any current or future members. And thanks for the idea on the grill. I do like the original ones and would like to keep the original look. But when I've been searching for "JBL L100T" or "JBL L100T3" on eBay, not much has been coming up. But these things come and go in waves, so I'll keep on looking.

Steve

[pathfindermwd]

Congratulations on the L100T find! I love these speakers! I have 2 sets, one with L100T3 crossovers, and another with modified L100T to T3 crossovers with L-Pads added. Duanage here did the mod. I refinished my first L100T's. The veneer was in pretty good shape, with the usual watermarks on the top from being used as plant stands , and of course the bikini tan from the grills. I decided to refinish mine with stain, here's the post with some pics: http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...ers&highlight=

Painting them black should be no problem. I would wipe them down a few times with mineral spirits to remove any furniture wax or oil from handling. Give them a quick sanding with 180 grit by hand, and patch any chipped areas with wood filler, and block them smooth with 100 grit then lightly with 180 (or similar). Wipe down again, prime them with a aerosol can of Kilz, or some other stain blocker, not more than 2 coats, and do another quick sanding with 220 or similar. Paint them by brush with an interior semi-gloss oil-based paint. Oil-based paint dries very slowly so your brush marks shouldn't be too obvious, but they will have a good luster and show most of the grain (and possibly some patches depending on how big they are). Since the paint dries slowly you want to make sure they do not get dust blown on them while they are drying. If you don't like the finish you can always wait until they are cured to sand them down again and move on to the more involved heavy primer, blocking, and spraying, which is what a body shop would probably do. But I really think you would like the look brushed semi-gloss would give you, and they are wood veneer, so it fits well. If you are opposed to brush marks you could use a mohair roller, which will make the work alot faster, but also take more paint, it should offer a sprayed look ( less some sheen) without the hassle of spraying - since oil based paint dries so slowly it lays down nicely.

I wouldn't personally go for the super-smooth "gloss" option with gloss black because though they might look cool for awhile, they are hard to keep clean, and scratches show so easily. If you really want to go that direction I would suggest a different color. White hides everything, and can be pretty dirty without showing it. Or how about Ferrari Red?

Or, how about a carbon fiber look? You can find it at a local fiberglass supply store, or use a vinyl veneer:
http://store.ijdmtoy.com/Glossy-Blac...FQd6gwodFnQvLw

There is so many ways you could personalize them. Whatever you choose, they are great speakers. Hope it's a fun project! Post back some pics for us when you are done!

[lgvenable]

It's easy to fix the chips. look at a good hardware store for the filler made with walnut dust. Use this to fill the chips, troweling the edges from each direction to make a clean edge. Follow by being patient and allowing to dry completely and sand until the surface is finished flush to the veneer. Follow by using a # 2 pencil or dark brown coloring pencil to create grain lines. You want to get a stainable filler, so that if needed use a light walnut or pecan stain to match the walnut color.

Once matched, use Watco walnut finish and enjoy your new as mint spaghetti finished wood board, but finished correctly they'll look brand new....that's my 2 cents.

I did it on the small chips in two pairs of L100T's, BTW $100 is a world beater price.

[svollmer]

pathfindermwd/lgvenable:

Thanks very much for your refinishing suggestions. Other than finishing a few pieces of butcher block maple for my equipment racks with Minwax Poly, I've never done any refinishing, so your suggestions and insight will come in very handy. My son is still debating what finish he'd like on them, but he keeps leaning to a semi-flat black finish with the grain showing through, like you see on a lot of today's speakers. But, I believe they're black over ash which has a deeper grain. I have a friend who has a pair of gloss black over walnut Legacy speakers and they look pretty nice. If I were finishing them for myself, I'd try to just refinish them as close to original as possible. And if I screwed it up, I'd probably try my luck at re-venerring them. And if I screwed that up , I'd build new boxes from MDF that were deeper and more narrow on the front with a bunch of shelf bracing, keeping the same net internal volume, of course.

And yes, $100 was a steal for them; Heather was a saint to pass them along to us .

I owe you all some pictures, but for now, a narrative update is in order.

• The boxes have been completely stripped, but no sanding or refinishing work has begun on them.
• The particle board "risers" on the bottoms were swollen from getting damp. They've been removed and will be replaced with a flat board and/or spikes to keep them stable on carpet.
• The crossovers have been removed. All wiring was de-soldered from them in preparation for upgraded wiring. Nothing fancy, just a nicer twisted wire, probably 16 AWG (at least to the woofers). And we're either going to upgrade the caps, or possibly upgrade it to the T3 crossover. Maybe Duanage is still offering this service.
• The JBL badges on the fronts were removed, repainted black, and sanded so the silver around the edge and the "JBL" is nice and shiney.
• Liam and I started working on the woofers. Original foam surrounds have been removed. He sanded the front of the baskets so the silver is now bright. We began the refoam process last night. We installed the foam on the back sides of the woofers, as originally done, and left them to dry overnight. We'll glue the other sides to the baskets today.
• OF NOTE: I looked into the vent hole on the back of one of the woofers and noticed something moving around in there. It looks as if JBL installed foam filter on the inside of the basket over the vent hole before installing the cone. This foam had rotted and fallen in. We used a small piece of tubing hooked to our vacuum and sucked it all out. The other woofer still had it in place, but it was cracked. So we removed that one too. I'm thinking that if we left it in there, maybe it would eventually turn gooey and get caught in the gap, but I'm not sure. Before re-installing them, we'll put some kind of filter media over the vents on the outside of the magnets to duplicate their purpose.
• As stated earlier, one of the 035Ti's was not working. After disassembling it, the v/c didn't look bad or overheated, but it had no continuity. I assumed it was dead, but Liam noticed that one of the leads looks broken just before it's soldered to the Faston connector (oh, to have 13 year old eyes again!). So, we're going to try to dig the lead out of the glue around it and re-attach it. We probably don't have a good chance, but what the heck, it's already broken. If we can't fix it, I'll be looking for a replacement.

Well, that's all for now. I'll get some pictures of the above activities posted as soon as I have a chance. If you have any other suggestions, please keep 'em coming and thanks very much in advance!

Steve

[opimax]

call me for tweeter check around 8

Mark

[4343]

pathfindermwd/lgvenable:
...

• As stated earlier, one of the 035Ti's was not working. After disassembling it, the v/c didn't look bad or overheated, but it had no continuity. I assumed it was dead, but Liam noticed that one of the leads looks broken just before it's soldered to the Faston connector (oh, to have 13 year old eyes again!). So, we're going to try to dig the lead out of the glue around it and re-attach it. We probably don't have a good chance, but what the heck, it's already broken. If we can't fix it, I'll be looking for a replacement.

...
Steve

That's fairly common, the posts move just a bit when plugging/unplugging and there you go...

I was able to get one from my L100T's working again, then added a bit of hot-melt to try to keep the post from moving. Of course, when you heat the post enough for solder to flow, it will melt the plastic, and a bit of quick pressure on the melted plastic will also keep it from moving.

[hjames]

call me for tweeter check around 8

Mark

They're travellin' ... Steve and Liam just left here ... what a thoughtful pair!
I had just sat down to do some reading and saw them coming up the sidewalk - loaded!
Those nice guys just brought me a case of Hofbrau Octoberfest beer! YUMM!
That stuff will last Emma and I a year ... he he he!

Very nice - Thanks so much, guys!

We chilled a couple down and had them with dinner last night.
Emma says they are very quaffable (!) ...
I say its quite a fine beverage, thanks!

[BMWCCA]

That's fairly common, the posts move just a bit when plugging/unplugging and there you go...

I was able to get one from my L100T's working again, then added a bit of hot-melt to try to keep the post from moving. Of course, when you heat the post enough for solder to flow, it will melt the plastic, and a bit of quick pressure on the melted plastic will also keep it from moving.

+1. Very fixable. And don't try to straighten out the Fastons, even if they look crooked. Ask me how I know!

[svollmer]

They're travellin' ... Steve and Liam just left here ... what a thoughtful pair!
I had just sat down to do some reading and saw them coming up the sidewalk - loaded!
Those nice guys just brought me a case of Hofbrau Octoberfest beer! YUMM!
That stuff will last Emma and I a year ... he he he!

Very nice - Thanks so much, guys!

No, thank YOU! Liam and I finished the refoaming last night. Will update with pictures ASAP. He's really digging this project!

Sorry Mark! Didn't see this until this morning. I'll try to call you this evening. Thanks!

[svollmer]

+1. Very fixable. And don't try to straighten out the Fastons, even if they look crooked. Ask me how I know!

I was able to get one from my L100T's working again, then added a bit of hot-melt to try to keep the post from moving.

Mike/Phil: I was just going to try to touch it up with some thin solder. Is this what you recomment, or is there a "cool" method of fixing a crack on the lead wire?

[BMWCCA]

Mike/Phil: I was just going to try to touch it up with some thin solder. Is this what you recomment, or is there a "cool" method of fixing a crack on the lead wire?

I used my Wahl Isotip

[svollmer]

First some cabinet prep:

We taped up the decals on the back and the ports (I was afraid I'd damage them if I tried to remove them). This picture was from before the tape job on the ports was complete.

Then we removed the risers on the bottoms. We'll either replace them with 1" thick MDF boards, like on the Ti series, or install spikes so they penetrate the carpet and keep the cabinets from rocking around during the bomb blasts of his video games!

For some reason, I can't get the pictures to load in proper order; sorry!

[svollmer]

Spraying the logos and wet sanding them:


: