Speaker cloth shrinkage?

[davegsm82]

Regarding the Elpico AC-55 I recently purchased, one of the jobs will be to clean the manky speaker cloth before refitting. However the last one I cleaned on my Cossor radio managed to shrink by about 5%, making refitting quite difficult.

I'd like to prevent this happening to the Elpico as its already only-just the right size, any shrinkage will be very apparent.

Thanks, Dave.

[Michael Watterson]

I've decided to only clean plastic cloths. Or possibly heavy robust ones.

Older cloths can split, shrink madly etc and be worse than if you just brushed them.

[davegsm82]

Is it possible to clean them while on the unit?

Last time I used some of that generic 'Oxy' cleaner that fizzes up, it brought so much rubbish off that I had to give it a second round.

This particular 'cloth' is very plasticy, not like a normal fabric cloth.

Dave.

[KeithW]

I've had excellent results on various old cloths (not just speaker covers) using upholstery cleaner, the type you spray on as a foam, massage in, allow to dry and then vacuum off (gently) as a powder. It can take two or three goes and the results can be amazing. I would think you could probably have ago without removing the cloth from the baffle board. I've not had any shrinkage problems.

Worth trying on a small section first to check the colour fastness.

Keith

[Mike C]

A dry toothbrush is also useful if used gently and you don't press to hard other wise you just stretch the cloth even more, if the cloth is in a fragile state sometimes its better left if there is a danger of it ripping, plastics of an early age can become very brittle in some cases and celluloid is one of these materials that can become fragile and crack. I teased my Sky leader speaker cloth back in to place by using cocktail sticks pulling the cloth near the edges very carefully.