Removing X-Overs Glued to Cabinet

[TonyPTX]

Anyone have any suggestion on how to pull a x-over that's been glued down to the bottom of the cabinet w/o breaking it. The glue is about 15 years old and is yellow and malliable with a fingernail. One x-over popped right off, the other is being difficult. Maybe heat from a hair dryer?

[pjdami]

The fish string undermining didn't work?

I'd be careful with a hair dryer too. Gentle heating. Not sure if this is going to get you very far.

If the fish string doesn't work, try some thin wire and saw back and forth and wear gloves.

P.

[RuSsMaN]

Agreed, some 10lb test ought to do it.

[TonyPTX]

not much room for all that crap. I'm working through a 10" woofer hole. Any other ideas?

[RuSsMaN]

You cant reach both hands in, with some fishing line, and run under the network?

If not, let the MacGuyver side in you come out, rig something to get in there and 'floss' it out.

Cheers,
Russ

[pjdami]

Yeah,

I was thinking the same thing:

rig something to get in there and 'floss' it out.

Like those "y" tip teeth floss things they have now except maybe you need to cut out some 1/2 thick wood and make a "sligshot" tool that you can use with one hand with the string tied on really tight.

P.

[pjdami]

Tony,

Capiche??

[TonyPTX]

haven't been able to find something that will withstand the high stress. every piece of wire, line, string has broken. even the damn kevlar insert used as rip-cord in CAT5 wire.

[RuSsMaN]

Originally posted by RuSsMaN
Agreed, some 10lb test ought to do it.

[TonyPTX]

just tried 20#....snap. The surface of contact for the glue is about 3" x 2"

[RuSsMaN]

Jesus, are you 'sawing' or just pulling? What speakers are these, and are you saving the cabs, or just yanking the networks?

Cheers,
Rooster

[TonyPTX]

just pulling, not enough room to "saw" I need to save everything. I'm doing a Frankenstein project. Installing some Polk (Vifa) ring tweeter in some circa 1985 JBL studio monitors. I lost the tweets about 7 years ago and replaced them orginally with some $5 Rat Shack horns. The original x-over was designed for an 8 ohm tweeter. The Vifa is 4, so I need to add some caps to the 1st Order filter so that the x-over for the Vifa is around 3 kHz and not 5 kHz if I leave the network alone.

[RuSsMaN]

Can you do it 'in-line' with the tweet, ie, on the lead wire?

Sounds like a cool project, I remember you talking about it recently, no? Take some pics brotha, document the process for us.

Cheers,
Rooster

[TonyPTX]

I plan on taking some pics... caps in series don't fuction the same as caps in parallel since the total capacitance can only be as large as the smallest capacitor in a series run. NOT what I wanted. Since I can't pull the old x-over out to remove the existing high pass cap filter, I'll have to think of something else. At this point, I've busted out the good ole' trusty alligator clips and will clamp on the new cap across the old cap and give it a test drive before I blow a fuse on this whole thing. That way it involves no soldering and is fairly easy for me to do without having to pull the x-over out.

[TonyPTX]

X-over is on the bottom, however, it's only about 6" deep and too close to the front to get at easily...

[RuSsMaN]

Brotha, go to the local hardware store tomorrow, and get the thinnest, pliable hacksaw blade they stock.

That's not a bad network, from what I can 'read'.

Cheers,
Rooster

[gidrah]

You might be able to get a paring knife in there. They're not usually serated, but very flexible. You could try heating it up or dipping it in nail polish remover.

[TonyPTX]

THAT SOM-a-BEACH FINALLY POPPED OFF...

Just tried about everything I could think of.. wire, knives, hair dryer, hacksaw. Finally said F' it, if it breaks, I got the schematic to build another one....added heat since this seemed to be the only thing that really loosened up the glue and just rocked the mofo back and forth and it twisted off after about 4 hours of screwing around with the damn thing. I had heard a "SNAP" at first and I was like SHEIAT. It just happened to be the glue letting go of it's death grip on the damn network. Now I can finally do the internal wire upgrade as well. Now I'm just waiting for the FedEx guy to come by so I can size the tweet holes.

Total upgrades on these JBL J325A's will be:
New terminal cups with 5-way binding posts...screw them cheezy spring clips.
New Polk/Vifa Ring Tweeter...Main Reason for this Project
New internal wiring. Going to run some of this extra Monster XP 14 Gauge I got laying around.
Rework the existing x-over network and upgrade/replace some of the components to work better with the new Polk Ring Tweeter.
Maybe some new batting. This stuff in here isn't bad but it's falling a part. Wonder if it has asbestos in it? It shouldn't since it was fabb'ed after 1980.