Fun weekend reconing Obsidian 18's

[nadcicle 77]

Well this weekend has been eventful. I was sure I wasn't going to have enough time to do all 3 and I was correct in my assumption. However, I took a giant stab at it and have took some pics along the way. I have been doing this a little at a time so if you have any advice then by all means. This is my first attempt at reconing any sub and I will be the first to tell you that if anyone uses as much glue as what came on these things then just let someone else do it if the price is negligible. It's different if the sub/motor is worth reconing to begin with, but what the hell I need to learn anyway right? 

 

So to start things off let's take a look at the culprits.

 

 

Ok, seems harmless. So let's take a closer look at those 3 drop in's. 

 

Well, this one seems a little bent outta shape upon closer inspection. Nothing a point finger and thumb couldn't fix though.

 

 

This one was the best out of the bunch with no bents or blemishes at all. 

 

 

If you look close at this one you can see a waviness of the sort at the base of the former. With extreme precision and a pair of needlenosed pliers I managed to piss myself off a few times. Then I set it down and came back and tried again and got it straight as possible.

 

 

Now it's time to tear these things apart and see what the problem is. You should probably know that I ran 2 20k watt toasters pushing these 3 subs. Who knew right..? Seriously though, low voltage + clipped music + bad tuning = this.

 

 

This is where things started to unravel.. lol i kill myself. You should know that these spider landings are reinforced with super duper hurricane resistant gorilla glass glue. Meaning, you better come prepared if you wanna remove the glue.

 

 

Kinda jumping around as I didn't take many pics to start off with, but this is what I tried getting the glue off with to begin with. Let's just say hell no to the chisel idea.

 

 

So after another run to the freight of harbor I come back with these little wire discs. Now these should of been where I started, but ok I learned my lesson and know better now. 

 

 

Take a look at the landing after using this thing. Wow right? I'm sure there has to be a better way than using even the discs. Funny thing is using a full size drill with the damn thing. I was holding the battery in the air and hitting it at an angle. My arm is sore as hell cause this took quite a while. However, here is the final result.

 

 

I'm kind of thinking about using one of these for the top, but after peeling back the surround I don't think I need to go that far. Perhaps just a cleaning and it'll be good.

 

 

So that's where I am right now. I will update with more pics as I go along. I'm curious about one thing though. As you can see in my pics the spider landing is 1 step inside and using clamps when I glue the spiders in will be sort of hard. I'm thinking do 1 layer direct then set the spiders and add a layer on top and it'll be fine if I weight the sub down with something on top. 

 

Ok so since this is my first time I've decided to do the first one by itself. That and because I didn't have enough clamps to do them all at once. So as you can see I have stripped down the surround landing pretty well here.

 

 

Here I took some card stock paper and made it to where I could test fit the recone to get it centered and check fitment.

 

 

Ok, so when people says CA glue combined with activator dries fast they weren't lying. You better have your shit together once you spray on the activator cause once you set it it's there. No turning back now. So i decided to go with glue under and over the spider to ensure I got a good bond using activator both times. It wasn't the easiest squeezing my hand in to apply the top layer, but I'm thankful for having this type of basket to be able to do it with.

 

 

And here's how it sets now after getting the surround landing glued down and the cap that sets on top of the coil. Last to do is the soldering tensil leads and gluing on the dust cap and then testing. If all goes well I will move on to the last 2.

 

Edited May 21, 2013 by nadcicle

[SacredTanakh 67]

nice, always liked the look of the obsidian 18s. Have to try one out someday. What do you think of them overall?

[nadcicle 77]

nice, always liked the look of the obsidian 18s. Have to try one out someday. What do you think of them overall?

 

Well, Like most any sub. They sound great in a well built enclosure and they handle a bit more power than rated. It's sort of like what a Sundown SA18 would be like if they made one. I actually picked up a 4th one to build back up. For a Chinese sub they are aight. I should add that I do believe that the Sundown SA series might just be a bit better too though.

Edited May 20, 2013 by nadcicle

[SacredTanakh 67]

nice, always liked the look of the obsidian 18s. Have to try one out someday. What do you think of them overall?

 

Well, Like most any sub. They sound great in a well built enclosure and they handle a bit more power than rated. It's sort of like what a Sundown SA18 would be like if they made one. I actually picked up a 4th one to build back up. For a Chinese sub they are aight. I should add that I do believe that the Sundown SA series might just be a bit better too though.

That's pretty much what I've heard, and the comparison to the SA series definitely makes sense. thanks.

[Quentin Jarrell 671]

You can spray CA remover and yet it sit.  Most of the glue will then come off with a scrapper

[Sencheezy 689]

nice progress.

[nadcicle 77]

You can spray CA remover and yet it sit.  Most of the glue will then come off with a scrapper

 

 

See I never knew this even exists until now. My way for sure took a lot of work.

 

nice progress.

 

A little at a time is all I can do. At least this way it'll get done properly. Today I will most likely clean the surround landing and remove the old leads and prep those. You're always welcome to come over. I wasn't for sure if you've ever done or been around anyone attempting a recone. 

[nadcicle 77]

Final result. Blown sub = 0 | Me = 1

 

1 down 2 more to go!