Chapter 53

We were walking across crackling grass ... late frost? Whatever ... it was frozen ... and freezing. I hope the concrete doesn’t heave. That’s a problem in Wyoming ... continental winters. It gets colder in the middle than it does on the edges. The middle doesn’t have the mitigating influence of large bodies of salt water.

We had to walk around to the side door ... Tommy had closed the garage doors.

“The cold was messing with my heads,” he said.

“Tommy, think about what you just said.”

He looked at me like I had two heads.

“What?”

“Messing with your heads.” I slapped him on the shoulder.

He still didn’t get it.

“See if I ever joke with you again.”

We opened the Walk through Door ... hey ... General Steel calls them Walk Through Doors ... as opposed to Drive Through.

“Snooped, huh?”

“I picked one heavy and one light,” he waved me ahead. “The light box had a re-coning kit ... complete with glue and instructions.

“The heavy box had a brand new Ampeg 18 inch woofer. At least I think it was new ... it could be a factory re-cone.

“Tommy ... you’re a wizard! Where’s my portaflex?” I started looking around. “There you are ... Bobby? Gimmie a Philips ... No?”

“You need to look.”

“What’s to see ... it’s screwed on.”

“Take off the top and have a look see.”

So ... to humor him, I unclipped the top. It didn’t take long.

“My God, Bobby ... those aren’t screws ... those are spears.”

“Pull off the grill and talk to me.”

It’s sorta Velcro ... but not. George de Mestral hadn’t perfected it. This Velcro was kind of white ... not the ubiquitous black so familiar today. It was the hook and loop but it was different. Still it separated when pried and I soon had it off. The spears had no screwdriver slot ... no Philips ... no hex socket. Did I Really want to satisfy curiosity ... really? Could I sacrifice one just see how it worked?

One thing for sure ... mounting a speaker was just asking for holes in the cone.

I suppose I had better have a look ... I needed to dismantle at least one. I have a good selection of tools ... wrenches, sockets, pliers, drivers of assorted types and sizes. A deep well socket and a rachet removed the nut and lock washer. A bit of hammer work and the spear began its removal. Very interesting. The head end of the spear has a serrated ring that wedges itself in the wood surround. The nut and lock washer tightened against the speaker basket causes the serrated end to securely fasten the head of the spear in the wood, allowing the nut and washer to be tightened against the basket. Eight threaded spears secure the speaker against a fiber gasket that keeps the metal basket from contacting the wood surround.

It looks like the safest way to prevent cone perforations is to lay the speaker box on its face ... install the speaker in the box, drive the threaded spears in the proper holes through a speaker mounting hole and then tighten the nut and washer.

I have a choice ... remove the spears and re-install the spears though the metal rim ... or take the chance of leaving the spears and lowering the basket over the sharps.

I drove out the remaining spears. The completed speaker is heavy. Murphy says ... you’ll spear the cone ... every time.

Removing the speaker from its box, I discovered a bag of new threaded spears with new washers and nuts. This tells me I am supposed to take out the old and use the new. They wouldn’t have included new if I was supposed to use the old.