First TV- Ferguson 988T

[Oliver35]

Right, where did I get to?

I've been carrying on with this set in the evenings, but progress has been slow- I've been filling a myriad of tiny chips and dings to the cabinet, as well as staining down the new veneer to match the surrounding colour, which I did incrementally over a number of evenings so that I could judge the dry colour as a match and adjust it accordingly until, in theory, the patches couldn't be seen. I managed this very well when dry- but a wipe of white spirit and the new patches would stick out like sore thumbs, so in the end I toned the patches down fractionally darker so that they wouldn't be highlighted when the lacquer went on. I didn't quite achieve this, but once the tinted coat goes on i think it'll be all but imperceptible. I starting spraying the first clear coats yesterday, today's coat is now hardening off to be flatted back before a tinted coat or two is applied. Then the transfer, if I manage to create one effectively, and then a final couple of clear coats and a good polish. I love the finish you get with cellulose, in my book it can't be beaten.
One irritation I have encountered- and I've encountered it in the past when finishing a guitar- is the plywood sides, which I've stripped down and stain-matched to the top and front veneer- resist the application of the lacquer in little darts all over the grain, on one side of the set only. I've rubbed it all down, I've prepared both in the same way, I've degreased with cellulose thinners, I've tried working meths into the wood and sluicing it off with more meths, and still these little flecks appear where the lacquer pulls back like watercolour from a wax crayon line. I never found a cure for it with the guitar, but it's more obvious here as it covers a larger area. I wonder whether whatever adhesive they used in laminating the ply would have seeped into the wood around the more porous grain sections, and caused this problem, but nothing seems to clear it. I may try working some dilute PVA into the blemishes in an attempt to put a barrier between the lacquer and the whatever-it-is, but I'm really shooting in the dark. Has anyone else encountered this effect, or have any idea what it is?

I've also received a lovely (unbroken) replacement mask courtesy of John (Heatercathodeshort) which has been rubbed down and given a couple of coats of rejuvenating gold spray. The spray is a less accurate match to the original than the colour on the label suggests (surprise, surprise) so it's rather more rejuvenating than intended. I'll see what it looks like against the finished cabinet when reassembled, but I have a suspicion I may end up respraying it in the future, as it looks rather 'bling'- not my intention! There was a bronze finish spray in the hardware shop as well, but it looked far to coppery for my taste, so I avoided it. Some experimentation may be needed.

Anyhow, that's where it is at the moment. I imagine a great deal of spraying and flatting will keep me busy over the next week or so, and then the final polish and reassembly, which will be exciting. Photos below..

[Freya]

The effect you speak about can be caused by silicone in the wood fibres on early plywood. I have used acetone to help minimise the effect.

[Colourstar]

This is really looking very impressive and I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished result. Very well done on the work so far, Oliver.

Just one question: Where did you source the veneer from? (unless I've missed it somewhere along the way)

Steve

[Oliver35]

Originally Posted by Freya

The effect you speak about can be caused by silicone in the wood fibres on early plywood. I have used acetone to help minimise the effect.

Aha! I'm glad I'm not the only one. I shall try that, although now there's a coat of lacquer it could get sticky. I may have to strip that side and start again.. Thanks for the tip!

Originally Posted by Colourstar

This is really looking very impressive and I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished result. Very well done on the work so far, Oliver.

Just one question: Where did you source the veneer from? (unless I've missed it somewhere along the way)

Thankyou very much- I love having a thorough project like this- it brings such a range of tasks.

I can't remember if I mentioned the veneer- I actually had some laying around- I think it actually fell off some old furniture that I found somewhere, although I can't now remember what. I keep various odds for jobs like this, although in the past I have bought veneers from eBay. I got an A4 sheet of lovely ash burr to veneer a guitar headstock a couple of years ago. I also have 5 sheets of a gorgeous dark burr- possibly something like cherry- that I found for sale in a charity shop! No idea what I'll ever use them for, but you never know..

Oliver

[Oliver35]

Well, I creep forward slowly with the cabinet..

I've applied four coats of tinted lacquer, until I've reached a shade I'm happy with. It's a lighter shade still than the (very) dark and (very) brown finish originally, but I gave it a good few clear coats beforehand, so that the tinted coats didn't bite into the wood. If anyone ever wanted to return it to its original ominous colour they could, although it's hardly the world's most valuable or scarce set. It's not finished, as I now need to embark on making the transfer and giving it a couple more coats of clear before polishing it up, but I've temporarily slotted the bling-bling Puff Daddy gold mask into place, just to give me an idea of how it'll look. I'm quite pleased with it thus far. The replacement veneer on the front has merged in rather nicely in the end, certainly worth all my fiddling around with the weakest stain wash known to humanity.

I've also been polishing up the bakelite bezel that takes the two control knobs, one of which is missing in this set. I've dug out a couple of new bakelite control knobs that I think are made for cookers- they're black, rather than brown, but it's not immediately obvious. Maybe one day a correct knob will turn up, but it's not the end of the world. Photos attached- not the best, sadly my camera doesn't like low light levels, largely due to my reluctance to fork out on lenses, but they give an idea.

Oliver

[unitaudio]

That veneer has blended really well now. Looks loads better already and it's not nearly finished. Excellent job!

Regards,
Paul

[julie_m]

That is going to look absolutely stunning when it's finished!

[Boater Sam]

Silicone "sissing" is a problem in the auto refinishing business There is a little magic bottle of fluid that a few drops of in the cellulose will stop it. Auto paint shops sell it.

[PaulR]

Excellent job!

[FERNSEH]

I've always suspected why these older sets were lacquered in such a dark finish was simply to hide any defects such as the use of filler and surfaces which had been over planed. Of course the manufacturer didn't have the time to correct minor defects so the simple answer was just to cover up all those defects with dark lacquer. You'll often find underneath all that dark paint is very nice veneer patterns. That Sobell T143 cabinet I did a few weeks ago was sanded off to reveal perfectly book matched veneers, and yet the manufacturer had covered everything with horrible dark stuff. In fact they went ever further with the awfulness, the sides were simply painted with brown paint.

DFWB.

[Oliver35]

Many thanks for all the encouraging replies, I'm going to let the set sit and harden for a while while I experiment with transfers (and wait for more clear lacquer to arrive..)

Originally Posted by Boater Sam

Silicone "sissing" is a problem in the auto refinishing business There is a little magic bottle of fluid that a few drops of in the cellulose will stop it. Auto paint shops sell it.

That's interesting, I'll have to look for some. It's quietened down a bit after attacking it with acetone, as Stephen suggested, but the sides still have some light mottling. I shall be much more cautious with plywood in future..

That Sobell T143 cabinet I did a few weeks ago was sanded off to reveal perfectly book matched veneers, and yet the manufacturer had covered everything with horrible dark stuff. In fact they went ever further with the awfulness, the sides were simply painted with brown paint.

I read that thread, not least because I had almost bid on that set myself! I seem to remember that yours too had sides of plain plywood, which I expect they also wanted to hide. Presumably these sets were hand-finished, so did they all even come off the production line the same colour? Or did a blemished set just get blasted until the problems disappeared?

Oliver

[TV_Madness]

What an absolutely smashing job you have done on that cabinet. You must be immensely proud! certainly is going to look very, very nice when it's all done.

[Oliver35]

Haha, thanks! Secretly (perhaps no now quite so secretly) I am- although of course I can also see all the minor problems with it. I'll reserve final judgement for when it's all back together. I get itchy when I have to pause a project, I think I must be impatient..

Oliver

[McMurdo]

The act of using coloured lacquer to cover-up surface blemishes is still used. A mate of mine works for a fairly local luxury car maker, in the dashboard department. Any dings or blemishes on a walnut veneer shown up after a dashboard has been 'finished' are sent for customer orders where they've specified an opaque finish such as piano black or glitter-purple or whatever takes their fancy. Under the garish colour is invariably a bit of filler

[Oliver35]

Had a bit of a brainwave today- fortunately, it didn't hurt all that much. I've been thinking about the 'FERGUSON' transfer that goes under the screen- I've bought some dry-rub transfer paper that goes through the printer, and I may well give it a go, but I've got some concerns about the opacity of the print and the resistance of whatever the carrier is to cellulose, as well as the simple fact that printers can't print gold, just a sort of grubby ochre colour.

Nudging around in the back of my brain was the idea that I'd read something online years ago about a chap who made his own transfers for.. something.. I can't remember what. Nor can I remember what I was searching for when I found it, or indeed anything, but I remembered sufficient to reverse-engineer the process, as it were. So, this evening, I started experimenting. I have an old but fluid tin of cellulose-based gold enamel, and I wondered if I could create a clear carrier sheet by painting clear nail varnish onto cellophane. Turns out I can, and it peels off very neatly to form a thin, flexible layer with feathered edges. The next step was to clip a sheet of cellophane over the 988T service manual, and using the nail varnish substrate, carefully trace over the 'FERGUSON' logo obligingly printed at the top in gold paint. And it works. The printing on the service manual is slightly too large, at 9mm high, but any smaller and I doubt I could do it neatly. It's only 1.5mm out, so it's no big deal. My first attempt is not, in my opinion, good enough, and I probably need to thin the gold a little more, but as a proof of concept I'm happy with it. I'll probably use the first one as a test to see how well it merges into a coat of lacquer, but being all-cellulose, at least I'm guaranteed no reaction problems. Pictures below!

Oliver

[unitaudio]

Oh, fiendishly clever! I like that idea a lot! Looks good for just a trial run.

Regards,
Paul

[Oliver35]

Originally Posted by unitaudio

Looks good for just a trial run.

It does, but I had intended it to be the actual run, for which it looks nowhere near good enough..

Oliver

[David Long]

When I was spotty youth and just come out of school, I worked for Ferguson Dealer. The 998 was a very reliable set and could be repaired, not to go wrong again next weekend.
If I member rightly they had am unusual for that time Video Amplifier stage. The stage was - Dc Coupled from the detector (positive going of course for system A) but the cathode had a stacked metal oxide rectifier in its path to fix (& hold) the bias well down (class AB) the Grid1 slope. Most chassis's if memory is correct simply used a pull up for HT+ or just hoped that Auto Class A would be OK (which of course it was not) Early use of stacked diodes to mimic a Zener diode. Preserving the Black level was not thought of as important in those days. There was some terrible circuits about, the oddest I saw was a PAM? that had Frame interval gated AGC. It worked well until the picture rolled on a 'CUT' (no genlock) then oops it all went pear shaped.

[Oliver35]

I haven't yet become so familiar with the circuit that I can bring that to mind, but I've had a quick glance at the schematic, and I can't see a metal rectifier in the cathode of the video amp. valve. There's a crystal diode, which I guess is the detector, but I may well be guessing wrongly, I'd need to sit down and go through it properly. Currently still bogged down in cabinet finishing monotony. I was quite impressed with the economy of the design and the robustness of it- it didn't take too much of my slender brainpower to get it going again..

Oliver

Oliver

[Heatercathodeshort]

I think we are getting mixed up here including myself. I made the mistake of including the wrong model number [but correct text] in an earlier posting.
David mentions the 998T the entry model for the later series. The 988T and Super Twelve models both have an identical chassis and model number. The 998T included the 990T/991 992/994/995/996 and a few variants.These are easily recognized due to the LOPT being mounted in the center of the chassis under the CRT cradle. The EY51 sits in what looks like a coffin complete with lid!
There must have been endless mistakes when ordering spares back then with the two easily confused model numbers. John
PS A couple of pics of my 998T. The only thing in common with the 988T are the knobs!