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SBL Gasket Kit

Brian

Brian

Eating fat, staying slim
I'm experimenting with the SBLs I recently bought and I need to replace the gasket, I would rather not go down the £94 route from a naim dealer because I'll have to replace it again before I'm done.

Can anyone point me toward a substitute gasket that really does work? I can buy transluscent silicone sealant easily enough and I reckon there are loads of alternatives for the small aluminium pads, it's the gasket that is proving difficult.

Cheers
 
I bought them recently so they weren't put together by me. I took them apart the other day and found both the silicone and gasket stuck to the underside of the middle box. Removing that from the middle box has destroyed the gasket.

The gasket is about 4mm thick but the possible alternatives I found so far are thicker than that and would touch the middle box if attached to the bottom box. I'm assuming that is a problem even though I don't know why.

Investing in a load of gasket kits in 2004 would have been a good move since they are now £94.
 
Mine always came apart fine, but then I did lob on a fair amount of washing up liquid.

Bloody good job too. £94 ????

Naim are thieving bastards.
 
What's the purpose of using silicone as well as the gasket anyway? The gasket is 4mm thick, the gap between the middle and bottom box when the middle box is in position is about 5mm so if the objective is to create an air tight seal, why not use gasket strip thicker than 5mm that will be compressed when everything is in position? Just curious really.

Is it that if the middle box is simply resting on the spikes having made a dent in the aluminium pads and not gone through to the wood, that the middle box isn't completely secure and might move when in use?
 
The purpose is to create an air tight acoustic coupling but not a physical one. So the silicone spreads out to the thinnest needed to create a seal and is barely compressing the foam. And the mid box should not be pushed deep onto the spikes.
 
When I put gasket tape on the DBL, we thought we would try it first without the silicone sealant. And sure enough, the restitution time for the depressed woofer was much quicker than it was on the other sealant-sealed side. The recommended bead of sealant completely restored normal working.
 
rontoolsie said:
When I put gasket tape on the DBL, we thought we would try it first without the silicone sealant. And sure enough, the restitution time for the depressed woofer was much quicker than it was on the other sealant-sealed side. The recommended bead of sealant completely restored normal working.
Click to expand...

Ron, I know nothing about gasket tape. What size should I use and what type of silicon? thanks Bob
 
MJS said:
The purpose is to create an air tight acoustic coupling but not a physical one. So the silicone spreads out to the thinnest needed to create a seal and is barely compressing the foam. And the mid box should not be pushed deep onto the spikes.
Click to expand...

I see here a deep fog...
"The purpose is to create an air tight acoustic coupling but not a physical one."
Yes, I think so.

"So the silicone spreads out to the thinnest needed to create a seal and is barely compressing the foam"
Not - because the main target is not compress the foam at all.
When you re-seal yor SBL, silicon is fluid - won't compress anything.

So- why foam/gasket tape needed anyway?
Can be built even 10 mm size from silicon easily.
 
chord said:
So- why foam/gasket tape needed anyway?
Can be built even 10 mm size from silicon easily.
Click to expand...

This idea had occurred to me as well. I'm guessing that in most cases the gasket and silicon carry out some degree of physical support to the top box and therefore some consistency with that support is a good thing. The gasket with a thin layer of silicon would be pretty consistent.
 
As my SBL was placing nowadays a lot, it't high time to re-seal again.
I will try without gasket/foam with a ultra-soft/gel-liked materia what let spikes work really.
 
colasblue said:
comes in other sizes!

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/single-sided-foam-tapes/0554866/

Indeed if you don't (or your predecessor didn't) use the washing up liquid method destruction of the gaskets is pretty much assured on disassembly.
Click to expand...

I have some of this tape in my box of tricks, trouble is the naim gasket is cut from a square piece of foam so there are no joins at the corners.
Best if you can find somewhere that sells foam gasket is sheet form or a supplier who will supply them ready cut, get a quantity made up.
 
Trouble is that if you don't spend £94 on a real Naim gasket kit then you will always wonder if you should have.
I nearly broke my back, neck and speakers trying to get the boxes apart and then realised they were so well sealed I really should not have bothered.
£94 is absolute robbery as I am sure many gaskets, including the eBay ones above will be just fine.

Simon
 
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