On 23 Aug 2005 13:58:15 -0700, "
wrote:

I got an email response from the customer support. The guy said the
spoke with production and they told him it was possible to get to the
pin in question by using a dremel tool on the expoxy potting. The pin
seems to be broken within the wall of the speaker (about 5/8 inch
thick, corian like material). I've carefully dremelled enough material
away(about 1/2 inch depth) to see a bit of the rest of the pin.

Now I'm taking a break before I screw things up. I understand that one
can really f**k things up with a dremel tool.

I've ordered a replacement pin through a dealer so I can see what I'm
dealing with.

What I think I might do is get some more of the pin exposed and find a
place where I can place a proper solder point. I would then cut the
original pin at that point, cut the replacement pin to match and solder
them together. I'm sure this will be stronger than what I'm doing now
since when I pull the pin out in it's current state of disrepair there
is solder bonded to the external portion which I heated; it appears the
solder is not well bonded to the stump embedded in the speaker,
probably since that part isn't hot.

I looked at the pictures. Looks like the material is copper. Are
there any threads on the stub at the bottom of the hole? If you can
dremel out enough material, a new part could be made that has a
drilled and tapped hole to engage the threaded (?) stub. Three
threads would be enough.

If the replacement part were knurled on the outside and the hole was
then backfilled with epoxy after the part were screwed onto the stub,
I think you'd have a repair that would be sound both mechanically and
electrically.

I would make the replacement part of brass, rather than copper.
There's enough cross-sectional area that the resistance would still be
negligable, and it would be somewhat stronger than copper.

This could have a spade lug rather than be a binding post, if you
like. I could plate it with tin or nickel -- or gold, if you
wanted to buy the juice.