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AllenH427

Fi Recone Tutorial Courtesy of Nick

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I keep reading threads about people sending in there subs and waiting for a long period of time, as well as the outrageous shipping prices, just to get some recones.

I'll post a video of a guy reconing a N2 for your better understanding of the process, but I recommend doing the process like how I describe (from Nick.)

Part 1, watch all 5 parts. Not my video but it will help you understand the terminology. Once again, it is quickest and easiest if you follow the process I write step-by-step.

****************KEEP IN MIND, IF YOU SCREW UP YOUR RECONE, ITS YOUR FAULT AND NOT Fi's. ******************

Nick gave me the courage to do my own recones, and after two weeks of hammering down on them, all is well and I was successful.

Ripping out the existing cone:

Take a razor, have fun!!

Grind the basket where the surround landing and spider landing is if you are still using the same basket.

Clean the motor gap with a vacuum, keyboard dustoff, anything air pressure.

Cut up an old card and make a loop of tape on the outside around it, shove that thing all inside the gap.

Use a flashlight to make sure every single little spec of debris is cleaned from inside the gap.

Changing baskets:

Get an cheap $20 impact screwdriver from sears, use it to unscrew the basket.

When screwing down the new basket, I used a socket and fit a drill bit inside one that fit snugged and tightened them down. Be careful not to strip the screws but they will take quite a bit of force to make sure they aren't coming back up.

Put a dot of CA glue on each screw to make sure it doesn't back out.

When putting the new terminals in your basket (assuming you don't have to open up the holes with a drill,) put CA glue on the underside of the terminal to where it meets up with the basket. When you put the nut on the terminal screw, put a dot of CA glue on it to make sure it won't back off the screw.

Recone time:

Drop the recone onto the basket with the coil inside the gap.

Shims. Just use index cards and fit them inside the coil, but around the gap. Make sure you use the same number of index cards on each side an DO NOT overlap the edges.

Once your shims are in, pull off the recone leaving the shims still fitted inside the coil. They can be loose, just be sure to straighten them up when it's glue time.

Then you put glue on the outside edge of the spider and flip the recone upside down on the floor..surround down. When I say put glue on the outside edge of the spider, I mean it. When you flip the recone back over and put it in the basket, the glue will drip down onto the spider landing and create a nice seal.

Then you put glue on the spider landing, then the surround landing

Rotate the speaker so a terminal is facing you, hold the recone so the tinsel leads are towards you too.

Drop the assembly down in the sub when the shims not overlapping and make sure they are still snug and tight fitting. You HAVE to make sure the tinsel leads and terminals line up. As soon as the surround touches the surround landing with the glue, you have all of about 0.1 second to fix your mistake.

Push the surround down a bit with your fingers and put the surround gasket back around the edge of the basket, and push it down so it locks flat

***It can't be angled, it has to lock down. I recommend letting the gasket sit around the basket overnight just to stretch it out a hair to make it easy to get on.

Hold the spiders down a bit and accelerate the spider pack

Then accelerate the surround from the back side. Pinch the gasket and basket with your fingers to hold it down tightly.

**Spray the accelerator before you clamp it down, the clamp, then spray more accelerator.

To put on the dustcap, put it down on the cone, take a pencil and trace a line when it looked centered up. Remove the dustcap and put a bead of glue on the line you traced. Use a piece of tape and make a loop sticky side out and put it on the dustcap (creating a little handle) and then drop the dustcap onto the bead of glue nice and easily. Accelerate it as well, it won't harm or discolor the dustcap.

Then put your tinsels in the blocks and solder them. Make sure you use "electrical" solder, standard solder isn't good for conducting electricity.

This is actually an easy process. Watch the video, then re-read the tutorial to get a full understanding. Once again, if you make a mistake, you can't hold Fi liable, but I strongly encourage you to give it a shot. As long as your shims are snug and you put enough glue, you can't go wrong. A recone should only take you about 30 minutes to do.

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ill give it a shot with my bl 12

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good write up bro :)

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haha hey thanks nick those are my reconing video's was just skimming thru the topics and seen it...

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looks great and very informative. I've been doing recones for around 13 years and I must say that is a good write up! My wife even has done recones with us at daytona, and at my shop!

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looks great and very informative. I've been doing recones for around 13 years and I must say that is a good write up! My wife even has done recones with us at daytona, and at my shop!

Thanks man, hopefully more people read it. It's a win-win for everyone. Less time waiting on recones, and Fi can focus more on building subs rather than reconing whole ones.

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That vid is real good, he's real careful with the glue application. Solid, clean glue beads make for a fast, professional looking recone.

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