[David G4EBT]

I'd contemplated making a stand for an A22 back in 2009 when I'd restored two sets - one for myself, one for my son. I scoured the net and found no information, but someone suggested I contact a gentleman called Robert Chesters - reputedly something of an expert on Ekco radios. This was his verbatim response:

Quote:

8-<

Although this sounds a very interesting project I will have to scotch an element of it straight away. To my knowledge the A22 did not have a stand produced by ekco to mount it upon, so there are no plans that I can furnish you with. The pre war stands are all made to measure for the various sets that sit on them so it would be a bit of a hopeless gesture supplying you with those dimensions. However, as I am aiming to become the patron saint of lost causes I will give you the height, width and depth of the stand for the AC76 - you will have to position the feet of the A22 mark where they will sit and cut some little recesses accordingly. All of the stands for the round sets slope inward towards the top so I will give you the details of the top and the bottom. To be honest with you I would just make it up based on the height but here we go:

Base: Width 17inches, depth 13 inches
Top: Width 3inches depth 9 inches
Height :26 inches

There is a stretcher running all the way around at a height of 4 inches and a shelf at 14.5 inches

I hope that this is useful to you.

On anouther point - as you note Coates was indeed a clever fellow however, he did not design the chassis for his radios that was handled by the in house team at E K Cole. In fact he found that the people engineering the chassis caused him problems as they would tell him what could and could not be done. Reputedly, the AD65 was originally intended to lie backwards and be tuned by rotating the whole set. This was not favoured by the engineers and the round Ekco became a much more conventional "upright" set. This claim by Robert Hawes is supported by an original blue print produced by coates that does not have a tuning knob and instead has a device at the back implying that the set lies on its back and can be spun around. What fun if that had been the solution that had been accepted! No need for stands then!

8-<

End quote.

I have the necessary woodworking skills, materials and equipment to construct a stand, (routers, bandsaws, biscuit jointer etc), and nowadays, with biscuit jointers there wouldn't be a need to use mortice and tenon joints. I'm more inclined to think that the stands would have been made of beech rather than oak, as beech has closer grain and finishes much better than oak. I doubt the stands were French polished - more likely sprayed with toner, then cellulose lacquer, as was the norm for wooden radio cabinets. Nowadays, black ebonising aerosol sprays are excellent if a black finish is needed, and if a stand is stained brown, modern acrylic gloss or satin car aerosols such as 'Tetrosyl Trade Spray' give an excellent and durable finish.

For staining oak black, many woodworkers/woodturners use a solution of wire wool immersed in vinegar and left overnight. (Well cheapskate northerners do!). The acetic acid and steel react with the tannin in the wood. (A good reason to never use wire wool on oak for finishing purposes, unless you want black blotches that is).

I did actually have the plans somewhere for the AD65 stand and was going to adapt them to suit the A22, but in the end, I thought it was tempting providence to perch an expensive radio on a stand which - if nudged, could well topple over.

I think someone on the forum did actually make a stand some years back and posted details. (MerlinMaxwell perhaps?).

It will be interesting to see if this thread goes anywhere!