Nice work on the coil...murphy's law was applied in your case
it was the last piece of wire that was broken
I usually patch my speakers with kitchen paper soaked in a solution of wood glue and water, it works very well and retains flexibility and resistance. how did you patch that one? sometimes i keep modern speakers to reuse the cone and the modern foam suspension when the old one is badly damaged. when i reuse the cone i keep the original spider and voice coil and glue the new cone on it, sometimes keeping a bit of the old cone in place because they tend to be deeper....it works very well, sounds good and doesnt rattle. not for audiophile grade of course but more than enough to keep a radio going