Removing rust from voice coil gap

[Cliff Schecht]

I have a really cool old Altec Lansing 600 (non-B according to the label) that I guess at some point in my childhood my dad set aside. Unfortunately my mom moved it into our backyard shed where it sat for MANY years. Although it was "inside", it was still exposed to some elements and has developed some rust along the magnet and right down into part of the voice coil gap. I ended up ripping the cone/spider/voice coil out (all were shot anyways) to find what can be seen in the attached pictures.

How can I safely remove this rust so that this speaker can be reconed? Is there someone else that will do this for me on top of a recone?

Also, if I do get this off to be reconed, I will surely opt out of the metal dust cap.. I still enjoy my high frequency hearing too much..

[cbass]

I'm not sure but it probably needs to be sent to someone that can demagnatize it.Then the rust could be cleaned off without it sticking own in the gap

[vibratoking]

I am not sure. I would want to lightly sandblast or bead blast it. On second thought, give it to your Mom and have her do it.

[JazzGuitarGimp]

From what I gather, degausing / remagnatizing equipment is big and expensive. I have read that the reconing houses of yesteryear had this equipment, and used it for pretty much every recone they did. It was considered the only way to do a recone while being able to guarantee no ferris debris wound up in the gap. I am guessing that today, not all reconers do this or are even equipped to do this. You'll probably do best to look for an 'old timer' who has the tools and knows how to use them.

[Scumback Speakers]

Orange County Speaker Repair might do this. I'm not sure how much it would cost to remove the rust, though. Alnico magnets lose their charge once they're disassembled. That would most likely need to be done for this one to clean it properly.

Then it would need to be cleaned of the rust, check to make sure the gap was still correct, reassemble the frame, re-magnetize it, then recone it.

Had to do this for a couple of old Celestions and it was $140 for the whole process. That was 7 years ago.

Shoot Bryan or Eric a call at OCSR. 714-554-8520 They open at 9 am PST.

Good luck!

Jim

[NickC]

Naval jelly will remove rust chemically. No worries about rust flakes clinging to magnetized surfaces that way.

[Cantplay]

Birchwood Casey also makes rust remover thst works well.

You may be able to wipe the gap with duct tape to get the particles.

FeO is still attracted to a magnet.

John

[Cliff Schecht]

Got a quote today for $125 for the recone. This is reasonable for an Altec/JBL/EV style speaker but alas, this will need to wait until I has a jerb. Unless the speaker is worth more than this after a recone (which it probably isn't), I'm going to just set this aside and keep a close eye on the light rust. I don't think it will get any worse sitting in my closet.