UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post

David G4EBT · 27th Oct 2017, 9:26 am

It's really kind of fellow forum members to make such encouraging and flattering comments, which it's nice to be on the receiving end of. But without wishing to sound falsely modest, I can only reiterate that anyone who has a basic woodturning and metalworking lathe and a few tools, together with an average level of skill could attain the same results. Obviously you have to be fairly accurate to get the dimensions correct, for which a cheap pair of digital calipers is useful, but it's hardly precision engineering. I'm sure that anyone who does possess and use a lathe would agree with those comments.

To my mind, in all that we do in life, for us to make much of a success of anything, we need to be 'pernickety' - a word sometimes used as a term of derision - 'excessively precise, fussy, overly attentive to detail', obsessive even. But if we're not all of those things, I think we're on a slippery slope, in the wrong hobby and it becomes a chore - not a pleasure.

Of course you do ideally need an original knob as a pattern - if only a damaged one, and it may be that if replicas of Bakelite knobs are required, especially if the knob has features that aren't easily reproduced in wood, such as milled edges, then casting would most likely produce a better result. I'm going to have a go at that and if the results are worth sharing, I'll post a thread on it.

In some instance, depending on the colour and texture, maybe 3-D printing would be a good option, but that requires considerable investment in equipment and expertise.

At risk of turning the forum into a back-slapping 'mutual admiration society', 'high-fiving' each other, the level of resourcefulness, skill and investment it time to achieve the accomplishments is the posts below is way up in the stratosphere, far out of sight of my replica knobs!

http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/s...d.php?t=111951

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=47965

http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/s...d.php?t=114857

http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/s...d.php?t=138304

That's where 'pernickety' - in the nicest sense of the term - gets you!

27th Oct 2017, 9:26 am	#32
David G4EBT Dekatron Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Cottingham, East Yorkshire, UK. Posts: 5,760	Re: Making replica wooden knobs on a lathe It's really kind of fellow forum members to make such encouraging and flattering comments, which it's nice to be on the receiving end of. But without wishing to sound falsely modest, I can only reiterate that anyone who has a basic woodturning and metalworking lathe and a few tools, together with an average level of skill could attain the same results. Obviously you have to be fairly accurate to get the dimensions correct, for which a cheap pair of digital calipers is useful, but it's hardly precision engineering. I'm sure that anyone who does possess and use a lathe would agree with those comments. To my mind, in all that we do in life, for us to make much of a success of anything, we need to be 'pernickety' - a word sometimes used as a term of derision - 'excessively precise, fussy, overly attentive to detail', obsessive even. But if we're not all of those things, I think we're on a slippery slope, in the wrong hobby and it becomes a chore - not a pleasure. Of course you do ideally need an original knob as a pattern - if only a damaged one, and it may be that if replicas of Bakelite knobs are required, especially if the knob has features that aren't easily reproduced in wood, such as milled edges, then casting would most likely produce a better result. I'm going to have a go at that and if the results are worth sharing, I'll post a thread on it. In some instance, depending on the colour and texture, maybe 3-D printing would be a good option, but that requires considerable investment in equipment and expertise. At risk of turning the forum into a back-slapping 'mutual admiration society', 'high-fiving' each other, the level of resourcefulness, skill and investment it time to achieve the accomplishments is the posts below is way up in the stratosphere, far out of sight of my replica knobs! http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/s...d.php?t=111951 https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=47965 http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/s...d.php?t=114857 http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/s...d.php?t=138304 That's where 'pernickety' - in the nicest sense of the term - gets you! __________________ David. BVWS Member. G-QRP Club member 1339.