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Old 28th Nov 2018, 10:29 am   #11
David G4EBT
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Cottingham, East Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 5,737
Default Re: A new lease of life for a KW FB10 'Toaster'.

Quote:
Originally Posted by crackle View Post
Nice result David.

Mike
Thanks for your informative post Mike, and for your excellent website.

This 1950 advert shows just what a major player KB was in its heyday:

http://kbmuseum.org.uk/kb_1950_catalogue.htm

I'm always in awe of the designers, engineers and pattern makers and how that blended the technical & functional aspects of radios with the aesthetics to reflect the tastes of the era. It must have been hugely expensive to design and produce Bakelite cabinets, and would need a long production run to get into profit. One of the key selling features of the FB10 will have been that it was compact, transportable, and light enough to take from room to room in an era when radios were too expensive to have several in one household.

I do have an original undamaged set that I bought from a 'junk shop' back in 1980, but all of the others have been damaged in one way or another, so were all under a tenner. I've attached a few pics below:

Pic 1: A wire 'armature' made from a paper clip to help bridge a gap and provide support and strength to the filler.
Pic 2: Gap filled and sanded ready for priming.
Pic 3: Finished set sprayed red.
Pic 4: A pink one (at my daughter in law's request!).
Pic 5: A simple chassis 'cradle' to support the chassis whilst replacing components and carrying out voltage tests.

We're hobbyists and not under the time pressures of radio service engineers of a bygone age. They repaired faults on radios in half an hour and went on their way, whereas we, for the most part, restore them, taking several hours over days or weeks. I've seen examples of people balancing a DAC90A chassis on bits of wood or anything that comes to hand, while they try to replace several components and carry out tests on a live chassis radio on a cluttered workbench. To my mind, that's asking for trouble and makes no sense to me.

Thanks to everyone else for their kind and encouraging comments.
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