I bought a pair of A7 VOTTs. The drivers work fine, and I am disassembling them to send to GPA to recharge the magnets and perhaps get new diaphragms. Upon taking off one of the tweeter drivers and looking into the neck of the 511b I noticed a 2" long "blob" of welding metal inside the horn neck. Somehow no one noticed it and ground it off at the factory. I am afraid that it will affect the sound in some way. Any suggestions? I guess I can get a dremmel tool and grind it off, or I could just buy another 511b to replace it.
They are welded from identical top and bottom castings, the visible seams along the sides. Sounds like someone blew through when welding and just left it. As long as the weld on the outside is good, just clean up the inside and your good to go.
Agreed ! They are aluminum so it is a soft metal and shouldn't be too hard to clean up.. Try to make the inside as smooth as possible as it will affect the sound... I can't believe that someone hasn't noticed this inside the horn yet... Like to see a picture.
I would like to post a pic, but I can't figure out how to resize my pics. Too big.
Originally Posted by Altec Best
Agreed ! They are aluminum so it is a soft metal and shouldn't be too hard to clean up.. Try to make the inside as smooth as possible as it will affect the sound... I can't believe that someone hasn't noticed this inside the horn yet... Like to see a picture.
Yep, they blew right through when welding the seam. Can you reach in there with a file and work it down without touching and messing up the flange? Files can be bent if heated to a dull red, just don't do that on the section of the file that you want to use. Another trick is to wrap the file part that will be moving in and out of the flange area with tape.
A good machine shop supply house will also sell rifling <sp?> files, used to get at areas like this, just not cheap as they usually come in a set.
A little bit of careful clean up and it will be like new.
A file and about an hour of work took care of the welding blow through. Upon further inspection I found other spots where welding material had splattered and filed it off as well. Now to sand them down and repaint.
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