[cathoderay57]

Earlier this year I purchased and restored a Mullard MAS281/15 - see pic below. I was impressed by how sensitive it was and what a decent sound it produced. It was a fair bit of work as the cabinet was in poor condition in places with little bits of veneer missing. I managed to find a fairly close match of veneer, cut pieces and applied them with PVA glue. Once the glue was well set I stripped the cabinet with Nitromors and applied dark wood dye to the dial surround and base rim, and painted the edgings with black enamel. Finally resprayed with Rust-Oleum Crystal Clear Lacquer. I know the original had black painted sides but as the side veneers were pretty good I chose to just spray them with clear lacquer. For the internals a new magic eye and the usual replacement of electrolytic and paper caps plus rotted rubber wire were needed. It's a nice looking "Woodie" but what I really wanted was the bakelite cabinet version of the same radio, which is the Philips 170A. I spotted one on eBay with a smashed tuning dial and thought I might get the radio for a reasonable price, and have a go at making a replacement dial. So I bid, won it, and waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually I didn't get anything delivered and the seller provided a refund. However, in the meantime I had bought a piece of glass and ordered water slide transfer paper. I decided to go with the "new 170A" dial design (there are 2 types) not realising that would incur a problem with wavechange indicator - more of which later. I downloaded the dial jpg from Pasttimes Radio. I also spotted a scrap Mullard MAS281/15 chassis at a local Amateur Radio rally which I obtained for £3 and intended to strip for parts. I'll continue the saga in a second post in a bit. Cheers for now, Jerry