How to Refoam a 15" Cerwin Vega woofer (153w) 

I don't think people realize that there are different shapes of foams for certain cones. On this particular woofer the foam is not only shaped for the flat edge on the outside of the cone but the part of the foam that gets glued to the cone is much narrower that most others.

@@SavingVegas Yes I did notice the bump wasn’t as high, where did you get the foam that from?

@@THEKINGS001 I got these ones from Simply Speakers

My pleasure!

Yup I was pretty excited when I pulled them out of the cabinet and see them. The guy I got them off of said if nobody came to get them they were 1 day away from hitting the trash.

@@SavingVegas What a nerve wrecking thing to say! Looking forward to see them move!

How did your speakers turn out from Midwest speaker??

Welcome, glad your enjoying the videos. There are products out there for foam and cloth surrounds that is a type of sealer. It's available from Simply Speakers and I do use it but only for cloth surrounds. When applied to foam surrounds it seemed to stiffen them up a bit more than I like.

Good chance that the rotting foam is the cause. There's also a chance that they have been refoamed incorrectly, depending on the environment they have spent their life it's not impossible that they have been refoamed once ready because is some places the foam can rot in 10 years or less. If the voice coil is rubbing do not play them tell you get some new foam on them. Prolonged use with coil rub can cause permanent damage and then reconing is your only option to fix. New foams are fairly inexpensive and it's not rocket science to install them.

Depending on what type of glue was used and how bad it was smeared on the cone, possibly. Try heating the glue up with a heat gun or hair dryer. This should cause the glue to become more pliable and you may be able to remove it carefully. It is very tough to do without removing a layer of the paper cone. I have tried this many times on many different woofers and have been unsuccessful most of the time unfortunately.

I would go with a pro audio amplifier for those. Find something that will put out somewhere north of 400 watts at 8 ohms per channel. They have parallel inputs so same 1/4 inch mono type connection as my 215P's. Only difference is it has parallel inputs but only one us needed if using a 2 channel amp. They have 2 1/4 inch inputs and or outputs so you can run another cable from one to the other so they can be hooked up together to run off one channel. I would look into Crown or QSC 2 channel pro amps.

I get parts from whatever supplier has what I need in stock. Simply Speakers, Speaker Exchange or Springfield Speaker. Brew City Audio stuff is good quality and available on ebay.

@@SavingVegas Thanks man

When you say rebuilt did you just do the foam surround or did you do a full recone. Getting the voice coil perfectly centered is important. Was there any rubbing sound coming from the woofer before it quit?

Sometimes they do need to be pried out. I have a hook and pic set I use to get under the frame of the basket by sticking it through one of the mounting holes. Just have to get it between the frame and cabinet.

@@SavingVegas thank you, I will try it. But they sure are stuck in there.

That would be a matter of opinion really. These early CV woofers were made by Heppner and seem to be more desirable by most. Wether or not that's because of the rarity of these original Heppner cones or performance, that's depends on the person I guess.

@@SavingVegas I know the 18" woofers but not the 15's. I never heard a Prostax 15 or the models with curved cones.

Well as you can probably tell I am not a professional. This is just a hobby I'm very passionate about and wanted to share all the work and playing around I do with any audio gear I can get my hands on and obviously focused mostly on CV's. I have never really given my procedure for removing the dust caps much thought about weaking the cone. Although what you are saying does make sense. I have yet to have any problems with the way I am doing it but considering your feedback I will definitely keep that in mind. I don't intend on ever getting rid of these 215P's anytime soon and I do plan on pushing them because that's just what I like to do. I will keep a close watch on that part of the cone for potential failer in the future. If or when they do fail in that spot I will most definitely upload a video on it and this conversation. Always great to discuss anything to do with all audio gear. You can never know too much, thanks for the info and thanks for watching.

@@SavingVegas i have seen a guy use alc to remove foam on the edge the edge died sadly efter a few month.

It's very rewarding to hear a speaker you rebuilt yourself. Patience is the biggest thing.

I got my E-712’s off a burn pile . Not 1 good component in them. But I got them back to 100% original specs. My HP-215’ all 4 15’s were blown and so were the crossovers. But I bought a 1970’s pioneer Sx-828 for $200 off a buddy and he gave the Ho-215’s for free.

I always shim the coil when replacing foam, only way to know it is 100% true. Using a test tone works good too but in my opinion shimming is the best. I'm not sure what the set time of the glue has to do with shimming the coil but that is the best glue to use for this application.