Use rubber cement as a sizing for old dry, brittle speaker cones. My dad used to do this back in the '40s. The added mass seems to improve the sound, too.

Bill

I been using liquid tape for long time

I too have used rubber cement on speakers. It seems to work well for me.

GC "Service Cement" is my speaker glue. It soaks into the paper and strengthens it. Especially important for those little radios where the heat gets trapped inside.

Mark Oppat
www.oldradioparts.net

Yes, rubber cement works very well. Also, if you have tears in the paper, you can use rubber cement to glue pieces of tissue paper (non-lotion facial tissue works fine, or a stronger grade of toilet paper) over the tears, then coat the tissue with more rubber cement. I did this on a 1936 Air King Model 21 I have, and it works great!

I've had luck with RTV gasket maker for automotive use. I redid the mostly-crumbled surround on my Scott 800B's speaker and its doing just nicely now. The gaps were just big enough for rubber cement to not do the job.

I have also cheated and just used elmers white glue (PVA?) and toilet paper to repair tears in paper speaker cones. once used rubber cement and strips of canvas to repair the surrounds on the speakers in my college roommate's car back when neither of us had much more than a few pennies to rub together and replacement speakers would have broken the budget. probably lost some fidelity from factory new, but it worked a helluva lot better than no surrounds at all.

I don't like rubber cement so much because it seems to remain a bit sticky and attract dust. also doesn't seem to hold up permanently as well as some other adhesives. that said, it can be used to tack things together initially and then use something better to finish the job more permanently.

after repairing a tear I like to paint cone with wood deck treatment using a small artis brush cause they donot hold much becarefull the teatment is very thin and will run , but will make cone lot stronger

Here's another vote for rubber cement; I have been using it on speakers for decades.

The other day, I went to the hardware store for some sheet plastic, to seal up the window air conditioners for the winter. The plastic came in a roll, with tissue paper rolled up with it to keep the plastic from sticking to itself in the roll. After the owner cut my plastic, I told him I would take the all of the leftover tissue paper as well! Just the thing for speaker repairs.

Speaker dope is still out there but only OEM shops can buy the stuff. I tried keeping some in a container that was air tight but I think it has to be metal or there is a reaction and it hardens into an almost super ball inside what ever you have.
Elmers is very much like the glue used to hold surrounds on if you have ever changed those. Takes some time, is messy and you have to shim the voice coils which means removing the dust cap, often needing to replace that.
I use a single layer of gauze for rips. If you are missing chunks get something about the same age, cut a chunk out of it and use, toilet paper, Brawny, gauze or whet ever you like with the glue that you like and as long as the cone hasn't shifted and the VC isn't rubbing fix it up.
Some places require a glue that will dry but never get hard. Some places like the edge of a surround that the old glue has given up (I get this on hard cones with rubber surrounds) clean the old glue off with isopropal (rubbing alc) but higher proof by using the high grade Heet used to get water out of gas. It will melt old glue, but be careful it can mess up the kind of plastic used in a lot of drivers in the 80s.
I like paper the best, or the new fiber stuff like bamboo or hemp which makes a strong and stiff paper. You need light cones and strong magnets to keep up with the tweeters.
Good paper is made from a few things, but often there is old cotton or silk or some other strong fiber in the cellulose. If you have the correctly shaped cones made out of screens to let water through you could make your own out of old cones and what ever would soften and integrate into the slurry and 2 cones that let out the liquid it was suspended in. Print makers (Fine Arts) often make their own paper or buy from special paper makers.
A guy in OK city has the cones for Altec (I think, and maybe owns the molds for making more. He is an old tech that bought tooling so he is the guy for reconing Altec drivers using original, made to fit into the basket paper, surrounds etc. I think, repeat think that he bought the dies for making the diaphragms for the compression divers for the horns. Maybe the paper cones are made in Kentucky at the last large maker of speaker drivers left in the US, all they make are drivers, not cabinets etc.
Jensen is gone, you can't get the cone to fix the old drivers that came with Scott radios. You can go to a repair guy who can get a cone to fit, but it isn't the same shape, won't have the same throw, etc. Getting good made to fit cones for the old alnico drivers is getting harder all the time, so often you have to settle for what fits, or do a rigged by yourself way to get a few more years out of those drivers.
I would check though. Find out if you can get a speaker reconed. If you can, do it. You have that nasty foam that got passed on to us, get it changed out by a pro if you don't know how to do it yourself. It isn't hard to do, but you need the space and you can't let anybody mess with it while it is being done.
Back on topic, getting the right dope out of a tube in the hardware store would be a great find. I need to get to a real old hardware store here in town that has guys who probably were electricians and plumbers etc that have kept working as experts in the type of things they used to use on the job. I don't know if there is a dope that can be used for this. Maybe shoe dope would work. Maybe we should all find a ripped driver that isn't needed and use it for a test bed and tell our results here. We know Elmers, we know ATV, I am going to see if I can get some info at the Dallas Ft Worth Arlington etc group( VRPS ) convention this weekend. Ask. Maybe ask everybody at the banquet if I can get away with it, put a box and a bunch of cards someplace if I can get permission and see what I can find out.
Some of the old field coil drivers had chamois surround and cones that were screwed on, easy to replace, but you have to have the cones and they aren't around anymore except in other radios.
Well, I think it is time for some tunes and I need to go through these tube caddies and figure out what I am going to keep and what to put in the auction. Support your local radio club, make a few bucks and if the wife doesn't take it all support the online place where I am getting all this great info.
Thatch

Speaker dope is still available at my local electronics parts store. I've never seemed to have an issue with it coming in glass bottles.

I pretty much use GC service cement for small speaker repairs. Just because it is at hand. Cannot recall trying too much to fix anything really drastic though. Like half a cone or something. As for rubber contact cement, I can think of alot of other uses in old radios, for that. So I have a bottle of that.

I use WeldWood contact cement for lotsa things myself.
Work and home.

I like fabric glue for speaker repairs. Looks like Elmers but remains somewhat flexible, so useful around surrounds. Also, thinned a little, makes a good strengthening coating for painting deteriorating cones.

Reece,
what brand and where do you get that "fabric glue"? Price? What size does it come?

I like the GC "Service Cement" as the little bottle has a brush in the cap. It takes only about 15 mins to set up, full set in about 4 hours I think. I also coat whole paper cones with it and it soaks into most paper and strengthens it.

Mark Oppat
www.oldradioparts.net

Could someone post a picture of this so called rubber cement I have ask in few stores everyone looks at me like I am crazy well I am but , a picture or where to buy it and makers name all info that can be supplied

Rubber cement is everywhere:

http://www.elmers.com/product/detail/E904

Any office supply store.

Chuck

SOBO fabric glue.

or
Aleen's Tacky glue

Peter!
Just want to say Thanks! for the speaker tips, I had read lots of the speaker posts and followed your advice got some cones from Electronix have done a couple of recones and a few Aileen's repairs and have 2 more recones to do on the Zenith 245. Thanks again Take care! tt

I had a friend that used clear finger nail polish on speakers.