Many pro woofers have a top gasket (hard paper-type material?) for back-side baffle mounting. However, for top mounting I’d like to trim this down flush (hopefully leaving the surround intact- ha) with the top edge of the frame.
If the best option is to just remove it completely, I’d need to then flush up the frame with felt (as these gaskets seem to be set in a small trough on the top of the frame), but it would be nice if this can just somewhat cleanly be trimmed. Would a really sharp box cutter (limiting the blade extension accordingly) work and/or thoughts and suggestions.
Thx, I should have mentioned that a routed (waveguide-ish) grill would go over the baffle, so I’d be looking to flush mount the frame with the surround being proud.
Seems like those gaskets are very much layered paper and split between layers pretty well. I think careful work with a razor knife or Xacto would work.
Then depending on how ugly it is and if it matters to you, a layer of 1/16" neoprene foam tape could dress it up a bit.
Ok I had the thin cardboard ring in mind that you sometimes see on smaller cone drivers. Are we talking about the thicker gasket section on larger woofers that covers most of the flange section?
If so, I have tried hand trimming a foam gasket version. I used a circular “pizza cutter” fabric blade superglued to a stack of washers in such a way that the woofer flange is captured between the blade and bottom washer. It didn’t go well. It trimmed it, but didn’t do so evenly. I ended up peeling all the gasket off and making a replacement out of 1/8" kydex I had onhand.
Though the paper/cardboard gasket might do alot better if it is indeed layered construction.
You could try mounting the speaker on a large board and then trimming the top part of the gasket off with a router. Don’t know if this could be done safely, however, without the risk of hitting the metal speaker flame with the router bit. Could you post a picture of the speaker that you are planning to use?
I haven’t yet committed- it’s on the drawing board if I need to pull down to 10 in drivers vs my current beyma 12s in my OB build. The current best fit looks to be FaitalPro 10RS430s. Looks like the best plan is via a new sharp X-acto knife, as the material is layered paper- so probably the cleanest cut.
