How to Fix this Speaker (Radiola 100)?

[Winky Dink]

October is Loudspeaker Month. This month congress will elect a new Speaker of the House, and I’ll be restoring speakers in my house.

Already I’ve acquired an Atwater Kent Model E to pair with the Model 37 receiver. This acquisition was no fun at all. The speaker works perfectly and needed nothing but a repaint on the grille and base. Boring.



However, for the Radiola Model 28, I’ve acquired a Radiola Model 100 speaker which needs some attention. It actually plays, but the sound quality is less than optimal…



…because the cone is entirely detached from its suspension. I think this will sound pretty good when it’s fixed.



I have some cardboard picture-backing which is big enough and hard enough to make a ring to suspend the speaker. I would welcome any suggestions on what to use (adhesives, paper, fabric…) for this repair. If I use paper or light cardboard for this, I envision about 40 bent tabs glued to the cardboard ring and the cone, making a complete 360-degree enclosure.

So, what types of adhesives might work well? What do you use to repair cracked or torn cones? Would it be preferable to use fabric to suspend the cone?

One other question: Does anyone know what the original color of the grille cloth was? From the remaining cloth, I can’t tell whether it was red, gold, brown, tan, or whatever.

Thanks for your help.