[Happy Camper]

I bought my RS-1s used. They had one nick where the wood was hit with something sharp on the outer edge of the wood ring. The nick is small but visible. No wood was lost, just the indentation.

Is there a way to draw the wood back out of it's compressed state without damaging the cup/driver?

 

[laboitenoire]

Not really. The only way you're going to get rid of the nick is by sanding the rest of the cup down or by using wood filler. Both of these will probably affect the sound more than that tiny little nick does.

 

[SleepyOne]

Possibly, with the use of wet kitchen towel (ideally with no indentation on paper towel) and hot cloth iron. Wet the kitchen towel (but not dripping) and fold it. Placed towel on dented spot and use hot cloth iron on the paper towel where the dented is for a few seconds (steam should appear). Obviously take care not to burn the wood, keep the paper towel wet. Do it a few times and check to see is there any improvement. If necessary, repeat the process. Do becareful not to over do it as it will remove the wood vanish. This is the standard method to repair dented wood furniture.

 

[Happy Camper]

Would a steamer with a towel do similar? I can put a small stream of steam onto the location, through a tight mesh cloth towel. I'm thinking the steam will loosen the compressed fiber and a soldering iron over the top to draw the moisture will pull the fibers out a bit.

 

[SleepyOne]

I wouldn't use soldering iron - too much heat, you might ends up with a burn mark. I don't know what a steamer is so can't comment on that. As for tight mesh cloth towel, it is probably ok - traditionally cloth is used (instead of paper kitchen towel) but do take care it has minimum pattern on it, otherwise you might ends up with a mesh pattern on the vanish of your RS1 wooden cup.

 

[rds]

Sounds like a very bad idea. I suggest living with the dent rather than attempting to fix it and ending up with something much worse.

 

[Happy Camper]

Thank you Sleepy. The soldering iron idea was to heat it to desired temp (35-50 c), unplug and lay the tip on top of the towel (over the dent). As the tip cooled, it would draw the moisture up and thus the fibers of the wood. A varnish sacrifice is no problem as I would touch up when dry (several days).

 

[SleepyOne]

Ok, you got a super solder iron! Even more controlled. You could give it a try, it might work. I suspect it is the steam that drawn out the dent, i.e. when the cloth iron pressed the wet paper towel steam came out.

Maybe it is a good idea to do an experiment on some wood surface with dents first before you proceed to your RS1. This way you know whether it works or not and whether there is any problem etc.

 

[Canuck57]

My Dad used a hot iron & a wet cloth (not paper towel) to steam out small dents in wood all the time. It works!

http://books.google.ca/books?id=b8l2...20iron&f=false

 

[SleepyOne]

Correct, traditionally wet cloth is used. The reason I switch it to kitchen paper towel is because it has less pattern on it so less likely to leave make on the vanish. But if the cloth is tightly knit then there shouldn't be much problem and works just as well.