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Hints, Tips and Solutions (Do NOT post requests for help here) If you have any useful general hints and tips for vintage technology repair and restoration, please share them here. PLEASE DO NOT POST REQUESTS FOR HELP HERE!

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Old 6th Jul 2015, 11:42 am   #1
stevehertz
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Default Felt washers for use under knobs

One source for felt washers for use under wireless knobs (where fitted), is the guitar spares market where they are used underneath strap buttons to interface strap buttons with non-flat guitar surfaces. If you google 'guitar strap button felt washers' you'll get lots of sources, one of them being as follows. You can always thin them down if they're too thick:

http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/parts...FYjKtAod_rID7Q
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Old 6th Jul 2015, 4:08 pm   #2
Dickie
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

If you're happy to cut them out yourself, plain felt is available much cheaper from a number of sources, e.g.
http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/cocoa-br...et/570391-1007

Incidentally, does anyone know why some sets have felt washers and some don't? Is it

1) To prevent any access to the control spindle to reduce an electric shock hazard on AC/DC sets,
2) To space the knob sensibly without getting any mechanical rubbing problems or unsightly veiws of the spindle,
3) A dust seal,
4) They all had them to start with and they get lost over time,

or what?
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Old 6th Jul 2015, 5:55 pm   #3
Boater Sam
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

I assumed all of the above.
I use felts intended for furniture legs to avoid scoring floors.
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Old 6th Jul 2015, 6:15 pm   #4
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

Most live chassis sets will have sleeved knobs in my experience...or would have had.

I've just thought it was to prevent that nasty scrape mark on the cabinet so the knobs can be fitted tightly on the production line without having to keep adjusting them til its right.

Can't remember where but I bought a sheet of the brown felt years ago (probably just a yard of it) and its lasted til now!
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Old 6th Jul 2015, 6:59 pm   #5
vidjoman
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

It also stops the knob wobbling about and makes the control feel smoother.
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Old 6th Jul 2015, 8:37 pm   #6
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

I bought a number of die-cut felt circles on-line ranging from 3/4" to 2 1/8" (or 19mm to 52mm) diameter in black and in white felt. All I do is make a cross cut in the centre to fit the control shaft. They are a fraction thinner than the vintage ones but do the job nicely.

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Old 6th Jul 2015, 9:51 pm   #7
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

So, where did they come from, Andrew?
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Old 6th Jul 2015, 10:50 pm   #8
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

At the mods discretion, little_gemz on eBay. Or just type in felt circles.

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Old 7th Jul 2015, 8:21 pm   #9
G6Tanuki
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

In the past I've made up new felt washers using a length of copper water-pipe with the end ground sharp as a hole-punch.

My preferred method is to use 2 discs of thin felt, stuck each side of an identically-dimensioned disc of Neoprene foam [old wet-suit rubber!]. The neoprene foam provides sustained resilience so the felts are held against the back-face of the knob/front-face of the panel while the two felts provide the important dust/sand-exclusion and the tactile modification of the control-knob friction.

This worked well on the R209 I still have and the C12 I had a decade or so ago.
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Old 2nd Aug 2015, 1:31 am   #10
Billie the Boss
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

While back I was scrapping HER banger. She decided she wanted a new Banger.
Any way. I noticed the floor covering in the boot. PERFECT. Now I have an endless supply of felt. You can pick it up in all kinds of colours and thickness as well.
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Old 2nd Aug 2015, 7:09 am   #11
G4XWDJim
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

I went to a local curtain material shop who had stocks of exactly the right brown felt sold by the metre. It would be perfect for washers and indeed was perfect for recovering the turntable on my HMV 150 gramophone.

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Old 24th Aug 2015, 11:25 pm   #12
FrankB
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

Any good sewing notions shop will carry felt, and seamstress may have some scraps you can get by just asking. ( Or maybe by a bribe of a bag of chocolates).
Over the last 45 years, I have made my own knob felts, tape recorder & VCR felt clutch disks, etc. with great success.
(Sorry for any real typos, as my new kitten has been "helping" me type.)
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Old 25th Aug 2015, 6:01 pm   #13
McMurdo
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Default Re: Felt washers for use under knobs

Ebay haberdashers also sell thin dark brown felt...I've just replenished my stock and got a square yard or so for about a pound.
After much thought I bet it was originally to allow speedy spacing of the knobs on the production line as I doubt they'd have enough time to keep adjusting the knob so it's a tight fit but not scraping the cabinet.
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