[rfeenstra]

Thanks Arran.  I just removed the metal parts that hold the surround in place and discovered that it was in fact leather.  I used to repair payer pianos and it looks like what we called pouch leather.  I actually have some, though it may be too old to use.

As far as the rectifier is concerned, I did disassemble it, cleaned the washers (the ones in contact with the copper oxide are lead so very easily distorted), and tightened up the assembly.  It didn't really improve things.  It very well may be that I'm expecting more out of it than it ever delivered.  Regardless, I hid a silicone rectifier in the pedestal and hooked up fake wires to the copper oxide unit.  Like I said, the transformer runs cool as can be and the magnet is quite powerful. It was ok with the copper oxide rectifier but there was noticeably more vibration in a screwdriver held close to the pole.  I suspect there was a fair amount of reverse leakage in the old rectifier.  What I've done should work just fine.

it was obvious that the speaker had been used with the voice coil rubbing.  There was bare copper showing on the surface of the coil.  I'm trusting that the insulation between windings is still there.  Used some lacquer to seal up the bare wire.  thanks for the tip on the "cone specialist".  I found his name at "The Radio mad House".