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Old 24th Feb 2011, 5:07 pm   #181
dominicbeesley
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

Hi Jeffrey - Am I right in thinking that that is the large thing that looks like a ferrite rod - at first I thought it was some kind of tripler.

Should one end be earthed?

Is it there for EHT regulation or is it to stop runaway EHT?

I've often thought that EHT regulation is sorely missing on older sets - my Pye V4 has that lovely APC but is let down by crappy EHT regulation!

Dom
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Old 24th Feb 2011, 9:24 pm   #182
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

It's a reservoir capacitor as otherwise the brightness would vary across the line. Only found in sets with a tube that does not have an aquadag coating as these use the tube itself as the capacitor. Regulation is another matter as this is a fall in EHT voltage when the anode current varies.
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Old 24th Feb 2011, 9:26 pm   #183
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Hi,

Many thanks Dom we both enjoyed seeing you once again and I can thank Dom for selling me his Aurora at a price I would have been a fool not to accept so I’m now in front of the game and ready to test the chassis in due course.

I think I’m a pure novice on TV chassis as I said to Dom last night I thought the rod to be a ferrite rod aerial and had never heard of a Metrosil? Oh dear I’m in for another steep learning curve once the cabinet is completed.

Today has been unbelievable; I almost took a picture of the sun to hang in the garage!!

I re-glued the very small bit of veneer joint on the cabinet front edge; it was only a corner and soon lifted with a knife whilst I applied glue beneath then closing the joint; removing excess glue and applying a bit of masking tape; apart from this veneering has been excellent.

I’ve given up hope of obtaining a bit of decent 3/8” thick plywood to make a baffle board from so had another session with hammer veneering. I cut a 6mm thick MDF core at exact size to the original then brought this into the kitchen and put the glue pot on the gas stove with fresh hide glue added; whilst the glue was gently heating I cut enough veneer to cover each side of the core twice in order to bring up the correct thickness.

I used light coloured veneer to apply a base laying it across the core in short lengths cutting perfect joints using the overlapping method and once both sides had been laid up went over again but this time using oak veneer with the grain running the length of the core. I applied plenty of hide glue and wiped away excess as it was squeezed out with the hot iron and hammer using a wet cloth.

I can guarantee my version of plywood has absolutely no voids or overlapping plies!!
It will be interesting to see if the woodworm attack this as they will need sharp teeth to get through the oak and the formaldehyde in the MDF will give them indigestion.

Veneering is now becoming easy for me due to the practice I’ve had with this cabinet. I’ve been turning the new baffle board over every hour in order to balance drying both sides; it’s possible I’m being too cautious as I’ve applied balanced veneers but I don’t want to take chances and end up with it warped.

Once the board fully dries I can trim it to finished size adding the holes and slots and will post a picture of the finished item.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 25th Feb 2011, 12:58 pm   #184
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Hi,

Whilst waiting for the new baffle board to fully dry I’m now looking at finishing the cabinet. The cabinet is almost ready to receive it’s French polish (shellac) finish having been fully scraped and sanded with only the repaired front veneer joint to make good by sanding.

I’m not happy with the colour of the quartered Sapele and have already failed miserably whilst trying to stain this earlier and subsequently removing most of the stain whilst scraping the stringing flush. I’m determined to finish this cabinet to my satisfaction by somehow bringing the quartered Sapele to either Jacobean dark oak or Vandyke brown and again after performing very basic staining on a test piece of veneer this morning the test has failed.

This failure was expected but the test was worthwhile and is information for others to save them a lot of grief should they try to mask with tape adjoining veneers in order to add colour to one; thankfully I had enough sense to try it out on a test veneer otherwise I would have been in deep trouble had I applied it directly to the cabinet. Two lessons were learnt here; always use a test piece and stain creeps under tape. Out of curiosity I also did the test using shellac to see if the shellac could be applied leaving a sharp edge but this too creeps under tape. both water and spirit based stains were tried. Sellotape was used for this test but had standard masking tape been applied the result would have been the same; it is the grain of the wood that causes the problem; the tape when applied adheres to the surface well enough but the grain forms minute channels under the tape and allows any liquid to creep.

This simple test proves this staining technique doesn’t work using tape so now a solution is required to the problem. Masking tape is excellent when used on a very smooth surface giving a sharp cut off. Knowing this simple fact I can now consider two options; ignore the colour of the quartered Sapele for the moment because I’ll end up very sorry indeed if I pursue staining bare veneer; finish the cabinet as I normally would by firstly applying a coat of RAW LINSEED oil to bring the veneer colours (Pommele) out then apply the shellac using a brush to build up the base thickness quickly.

With the base coats of shellac applied and flatted to give a perfectly MATT surface all over masking tape can now be applied and my two options of adding colour are to either apply more shellac but with colouring added or to spay using toner which is also a surface treatment. Spray cans of toner can be bought in various colours and it is possible to colour shellac as required. Once the masking is removed then the cabinet can be finished as normal using a French polishing rubber. I’ll shellac fill the grain as this is the traditional way used on top class work. Filling grain with shellac uses more shellac and takes considerably longer than using patent grain filler.

Making a mess whilst veneering can easily be rectified and at worst only involves the loss of a bit of hide glue and veneer so any mistakes or accidents are not permanent but staining is a minefield and even the simplest mistake can be considered permanent.

I’m catching up with other jobs today but will soon start on the cabinet finish bringing it up to a Matt surface; I’ll also experiment on test pieces before deciding which option to choose for adding colour. Stain commands considerable respect and confident handling otherwise it will soon get out of control; with hindsight I could have completely avoided this staining problem by choosing a dark veneer but I’ll learn a lot more doing it this harder way. The end of this cabinet restoration is now in sight as long as I don’t do anything stupid.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 25th Feb 2011, 8:46 pm   #185
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Hi,

This has brought a smile to my face. It is always such a magical moment when I reach the stage of applying RAW linseed oil to bring the colour out as I know the restoration is nearing completion.

It’s been a long journey from a wreck to this stage and the icing on the cake will be a nice French polish finish.

I think I made the right decision to restore this cabinet and I could have tried to fill all the worm holes but the result would have always been a bodge job and I would have never been happy with it. Worm holes look easy to fill but as in this case once I pulled the cabinet to pieces I found large areas of nothing but dust with hollow panels and frame members so trying to fill would have failed as the filler had nothing to adhere to. I’ve never seen a cabinet have entire sides replaced and it was a huge gamble trying this method of repair out. Permanent wood adhesive was used on frame members and for attaching the side panels but all the veneering was carried out using the hide glue and hammer method.

Restoring this cabinet has taught me many new techniques which I’ve been allowed to share as work in progress. I made the veneering hammer and router cutter; MDF was reluctantly accepted but turned out better than plywood; router skills were learnt as were the many veneering techniques including making the stringing both straight and formed for curves. It has not been easy in fact it has been downright frustrating at times; I despaired over the available plywood quality and failed with staining the cross banding but on the whole the entire cabinet rebuild has gone well considering the number of new skills I’ve had to learn. I left my comfort zone way behind to take on what would at first appear to be an hopeless restoration but all I could lose if I failed would be my time; effort and a bit of money.

I’m not sure if I could truly call this a restoration as at least half the cabinet is now new timber. At times I’ve felt truly humbled and honoured to receive such kind comments about my work and can only say thank you for all such encouragement. I’ve felt quite emotional at times reading such comments.

I’ve only ever considered myself a novice at this kind of work; good on basics and general cabinet making but having gained so much knowledge and learning so many new techniques throughout this restoration I think perhaps I’ll in future consider myself as intermediate.

The pictures show the cabinet still wet with linseed oil. Due to the cold weather I’ll let the linseed oil dry for a few days before applying shellac in the meantime I can be cutting out the new baffle board.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 26th Feb 2011, 9:15 am   #186
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

Well Col, anyone would think that your cabinet was from a very expensive Dynatron TV. Perhaps you should stick a Royal Warrant on it .

An example we would all like to follow but ummm.............
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Old 26th Feb 2011, 9:45 am   #187
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

Time to fit the CRT soon. Then the electronics; while few if any of us can aspire to your cabinet restorations we are on familiar territory with the electronics. For better or worse, it's not a set that where you can adopt the John Wakely approach of first light ASAP; the LOPT housing will need to be rebuilt first.
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Old 26th Feb 2011, 9:49 am   #188
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

Hi Col,

Must say I am thoroughly enjoying the progress reports on this set. An inspiration to us all.

I'm curious about the application of linseed oil to the veneer though. Mightn't this cause long term adhesion problems for the French polish that will follow?
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Old 26th Feb 2011, 11:35 am   #189
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Hi,

Many thanks Brian; Jeffrey and Ian for your kind comments.

I’m not sure about the royal warrant Brian perhaps more appropriately would be a tattoo on my forehead declaring I need to get a life!! Joking apart though I’ve enjoyed immense personal satisfaction with each small success throughout this restoration. I honestly wish I had never met my old woodworking teacher as he put me off woodworking for so many years when in fact I feel I could have enjoyed my working life so much more had I gone into woodworking; it must be wonderful to have access to everything required in order to produce top end furniture and having a warm; well lit un-crowded area to work in.

I certainly can’t complain about my tools or equipment considering all my large woodworking machines have been bought as scrap and rebuilt by me; also I’ve bought the best hand tools that I could afford and it’s amazing how much excellent work can be produced with just a few such tools. I get high on the smell of wood and enjoy using both hand tools and machinery. Many people who see my machines think woodworking is so easy for me little realizing that my machines require a lot of accurate adjustment and setting up to give decent performance; they don’t do it all on their own at the press of a button.

It’s common for people to spend £10,000 to have a new modern kitchen installed but I decided the way for me was to invest in tools and equipment and slowly get to know how to use them whilst learning basic woodworking techniques. This has taken many years but I’ve kept upgrading my equipment whilst saving a fortune on making both fitted and free standing furniture mostly from off cuts. I’ve been very fortunate because Bronwyn has fully supported me and I’ve endeavoured never to let her down by once starting a job to follow it through to completion. There is absolutely no personal satisfaction for me in watching others do work merely to hand over a wad of cash once the work is completed. I don’t suggest everyone dash out to buy scrap machinery because a heck of a lot of work is involved but by not employing trades people I can now do any job from drains to re-roofing all self taught whilst saving a fortune.

I agree Jeffrey that the LOPTx will require a lot of work because in this instance to switch on to get first light would most likely produce a number of lights mostly bright blue followed by smoke. The chassis is in terrible condition and at first sight I thought I’ve no chance of repairing it but it does look better having been blown off with the air line; at least I can now see the components and I’m sure you will agree the chassis looked terrible having seen the chassis before me.

I can understand your concerns about applying raw linseed oil over bare veneer Ian and I too would never have dreamt of doing such a thing. The reason I apply the linseed oil is that it is recommended by an old master cabinetmaker Charles H Hayward in his excellent book covering staining and polishing; French polishing is covered in great detail in the book insofar it put me off attempting French polishing for around thirty years. French polish (shellac) is a truly wonderful finish and has many properties including its ability to seal one finish from another. Cellulose will react badly with many finishes but if a sealing coat of shellac is applied and allowed to dry cellulose can then safely be applied. This too applies to linseed oil but it is important that the linseed oil is allowed to completely dry before over coating with shellac. I can’t stress enough that applying linseed oil to bare timber or veneer is magical; this is always the moment in any cabinet restoration to really look forward to; the colours leap out at me as can be seen in the previous pictures. This has to be seen to be believed. I would however only ever apply linseed oil to a cabinet to be finished with French polish and I’ve never seen any adverse effects from adding it.

I've always considered Danish Oil an inappropriate finish for vintage TV and radio cabinets due to it being a penetrating finish that would in future years prevent a correct French polish or Lacquer finish being applied over it but I now wonder if Danish oil could be sealed with Shellac as is the case with linseed oil?

I don’t wish to sound smug or opinionated as my notes follow my lifestyle and had we employed trades people over the years we would never have afforded to live here. It would be foolish of me to expect anyone to attempt tackling such a restoration as this Ekco as a first project but I hope by covering each step in such detail I’ve included enough information to allow anyone to attempt restoring a less demanding cabinet after all I was very unsure if I could actually pull this cabinet restoration off. I still have much to learn but it is the learning that is so enjoyable; I’m never bored.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 26th Feb 2011, 12:00 pm   #190
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Retired View Post
...The chassis is in terrible condition and at first sight I thought I’ve no chance of repairing it but it does look better having been blown off with the air line; at least I can now see the components and I’m sure you will agree the chassis looked terrible having seen the chassis before me......
When I first saw the chassis I didn't think it was too bad. Yes, it was sordidly filthy and I wouldn't have been surprised if a tarantula or mouse had jumped out, but there was virtually no rust and everything appeared to be there. The only real worry is the LOPT. On the other hand, the one in my own T311 looked almost as bad when I got it. Because of the state of the cabinet I had thought of this set as a parts donor. It was only when Col appealed for a basket case cabinet that I took a different view.

Once the LOPT is rebuilt it is quite likely that first light will appear. Then it's replacing the waxies and perhaps a couple of electrolytics. On my T311 the main smoother can was fine.
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Old 26th Feb 2011, 4:53 pm   #191
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Hi,

Your description of the chassis is much more accurate Jeffrey; thank you; I was actually thinking of how it looked when I stated it was in terrible condition when absolutely filthy would have been better. I won't post pictures of the chassis until I start work on it in due course. I might be in for a pleasant surprise because given how filthy the chassis was it must have taken many years to accumulate so much dirt so hopefully it will be virtually untouched or messed around with.

Its taken a lot of work but the new baffle board is now completed requiring new cloth adding. First impressions can be very misleading; I never liked routers and very seldom used my B&D 1100W router bought for £15 brand new it being half price in a closing down sale years ago. I suddenly feel at home with it now after using it on this cabinet; it made easy work of the new baffle board saving me a lot of time and whereas previously it used to take ages setting it up I can pull it out of its box and be using it in minutes. I also bought a cheap 12 piece TC cutter bits kit.

A friend has suggested I put the cabinet to one side until the weather improves as I intend to French polish it and concentrate on restoring the chassis instead. This makes a lot of sense as it would give the linseed oil a longer period in which to dry but I feel if I break off now I'll lose momentum with the cabinet and if ever the warm weather does arrive I have lots of jobs to do around home and garden.

I hope to visit Restoration Materials in Bury one day next week to buy a spray can of toner and I also need to mix up some fresh shellac; French polishing will be quick compared to the cabinet restoration.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 26th Feb 2011, 5:17 pm   #192
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You've done a wonderful job with all this! I would have been tempted to make the speaker slots wider, wonder if it would make much difference to the sound in practice though? Also it might make the speaker cloth a bit more vulnerable to stretching ..


Brian
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Old 26th Feb 2011, 5:36 pm   #193
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I agree with Brian. If you think of the percentage of the speaker area covered by wood (albeit very high quality veneered MDF) it must be more than 50% of the total area. Add to that the speaker cloth and you might even get down to something between 30% and 40%. The speaker would certainly have to work less if the slots were wider!
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Old 27th Feb 2011, 11:46 am   #194
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Hi,

Many thanks both Brian's for your thoughts. It was a bit if a dilemma yesterday in that heavy rain had been forecast and once again I was feeling rather cool in the garage. I had to pull the car out to give working space and I hate putting the car away whilst it is soaking wet as this does the cast iron beds on my machines no good at all.

The slots on the original baffle board are 5/16" wide but only having 1/4", 1/2" and 5/8" straight router cutters opted for the 1/4" and cut the slots. I then did some routing on the back of the panel to accept a metal strip and also cut out the knob holes using my Hegner scroll-saw finishing these neatly using a drum sander mounted in the drill press.

By this time it had become very dark outside so I put the car away; of course with my luck it didn't actually rain until much later. The weather has been my enemy all during this restoration.

I note your concern and as I too considered the slots rather narrow I'll open them out a bit and post the picture. I had actually considered merely cutting an opening using my Hegner doing away completely with the narrow strips; many of my radios have much larger speakers and an unsupported grille cloth.

One thing I can easily do is to cut wide openings using a small diameter cutter by making multiple passes with the router. In the case of routing these slots extra width is gained by simply adjusting the guide fence on the router.

It's only a week ago that we were rudely awakened at 2am by the police helicopter overhead and officers with dogs going through our gardens after a stolen car had been abandoned on the lane running past the top of our back garden; it's a good job we live in a good part of Huddersfield!!

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 2nd Mar 2011, 4:41 pm   #195
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Hi,

I’m stuck at the moment as the weather is much too cold for French polishing. Yesterday I used the compressor airline to blow all the dust out of the garage causing a huge fog; I did wear my respirator and it’s a shame now to mess the garage up again but at least it is clean ready for when I do start polishing.

I mix my own French polish as this always ensures it is fresh because mixed French polish has a shelf life whereas shellac flakes can be stored without deteriorating. This is easy to do and only requires methylated spirit and shellac flakes.

The thickness of the mixture is called its “cut” and is measured in lbs. Ready mixed shellac usually has the cut printed on the container and a basic useful cut is 2lbs. This cut is based on the amount of shellac added to one gallon of methylated spirit so a 2lb cut is one gallon of meths with 2lbs of shellac added. I didn’t want to mix a gallon of shellac but I did have a clean vinegar bottle at 568ml which was ideal. Quantities are not critical so I weighed out a little over 1/4lb of De-Waxed Blonde Shellac flakes as seen in the picture to make approximately one pint of shellac.

The flakes were placed into an old mug and broken into small pieces using a screwdriver handle although I’ll buy a second hand coffee grinder if I get the chance as these are ideal for grinding shellac into powder. Using a paper funnel the crushed flakes were poured into the bottle and the bottle topped up with meths. I kept the bottle on the computer table where it is warm and kept shaking the bottle to speed up dissolving the flakes which took around two hours.

Now I had a 2lb cut of De-Waxed Blonde shellac which is ideal for use with the traditional rubber but a bit thin for applying the initial brush coats so I added more shellac flakes into a clean jam jar and poured in some of this mix almost filling the jar and with the lid firmly in place kept shaking the jar but now mixing was slower but with patience all the flakes fully dissolved. All I need now is a bit of warm weather.

As I wait for a warm spell I’ve been very busy surfing the web for information on dyes and pigments as I wish to colour the cross banding on this cabinet making it darker perhaps to dark oak or Jacobean dark oak. I was going to buy a spray can of toner but after emailing two friends who are familiar with toner decided not to. As usual I’ll take the hardest route by trying to mix my own toner but this is proving very difficult indeed. I know the companies who manufacture the toner have access to dyes or pigments suited to the purpose I’m finding obtaining such materials to be extremely difficult in small quantities; I’ve sent email requests but not yet received replies in the hope of obtaining a small quantity of suitable pigment.

Colouring is a massive industry and very complex. Dyes give translucency as in toners whereas pigments are opaque like paint; dyes and pigments also need their correct medium whether it be water; meths; white spirit; lacquer or oil plus many others. All I wanted to do was to darken the cross banding so once again I’m in the middle of a minefield. At dinner time today I received a welcome email from

http://www.jpennyltd.co.uk/

I’ve now ordered powdered pigment that is light fast coloured oak which colours shellac. Within an hour of placing the order and paying I received a further email informing me the pigment has been dispatched first class and I can highly recommend this company because I bought my hide glue from them receiving the same first class service.

My plan is to give the entire cabinet a good thick base coat of blonde shellac; thick enough to fill the veneer grain allowing me to flat it using abrasive paper and talcum powder as a lubricant leaving a Matte surface all over. The inlaid Pommele veneer panels and stringing will be carefully masked then oak coloured blonde shellac will be applied hopefully giving me the desired colour then with the masking removed the cabinet can be fully French polished as normal. That’s the plan and sounds simple but I need to decide how to apply the coloured shellac and I have the choice of brush or rubber.

Ideally I would have liked to colour some lacquer as I have a brand new air brush kit I bought three years ago costing £60; I feel this would be perfect after watching many air brushing technique videos on “you tube” but when I first bought the kit I tried to spray shellac with it and it proved an absolute disaster; all I managed to achieve was to fill the garage with meths fumes not managing to put a drop of shellac onto the cabinet so gave up. I blew a lot of clean meths through the air brush before putting it away but a couple of days ago found the needle locked solid into the gun body; these needles are extremely fragile; I stripped the gun down to it’s bare body plus needle and placed these on the hot radiator but this had no effect. After another restless night I decided to try using boiling water so the following day very gently placed the gun sitting on the needle tip into an old mug and poured in boiling water; in less than a minute I was pleased to see the gun slide gently down the needle to the bottom of the mug; the gun was then given a good clean and is once again ready for action. It’s such a pity I can’t use the air brush with shellac.

It’s amazing what I learn whilst searching for answers and have never seen the technique before shown in this video;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_tLs...eature=related

This technique is not relevant to this restoration but I wonder if it would be possible to produce an “Arbolite” finish on a cabinet that is otherwise bland. I’ve also watched videos showing how to achieve a grained effect; there is so much that I don’t know about cabinet finishes.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 2nd Mar 2011, 5:45 pm   #196
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I have been following your thread with very great interest and a considerable degree of admiration. I am a picture framer by trade, working with and hand finishing wood of many kinds. It has been totally absorbing to follow your saga, (even your weather seems to have a Norse connection!), although I do not often use French Polish.

Something I do have is a wide experience of working with airbrushes (I used to own an art materials business) and I can assure you that it is perfectly possible to airbrush shellac solution. The secret is in the proper choice of needle and nozzle size, also compressor capacity. A high rate of flow through the tool is required when dealing with relatively viscous fluids and the more volatile the fluid the faster the flow required.

If you wish to re-consider this approach, may I recommend this company:

http://airbrushes.com/

No connection etc., though I used to be one of their dealers. They can offer you the highest level of expertise in all related matters.

I hope the weather warms up soon, I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the next installment!

Kind regards,
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Old 2nd Mar 2011, 10:57 pm   #197
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Hi,

Many thanks for your kindness Dave and also for the information which is very useful. I’ll re-visit my air brushing and am cheered to hear that shellac can be sprayed with an air brush given the correct set up. I have a friend who told me he sprayed shellac hence I bought the kit but failed miserably. I also disliked the coiled hose supplied with the kit finding it a nuisance in use; this hose has memory and stretches like a spring returning to coiled once released so this will be changed shortly.

I have two large compressors but hope my new air brush compressor can be used as it is much quieter in operation and is fully portable. I’ve also had a quick look at the website you kindly gave the link to and with their air brushes starting at something like £83 with a ten year guarantee (Iwata Revolution) I’m not surprised I’m experiencing problems because I bought two different sized air brushes complete with the compressor for £60 these being sold as a complete kit. I think it’s a case of what you pay for is what you get and I wanted to try air brushing at entry level having never tried it before.

We’ve just had two afternoons that were sunny and warm; to the front of our bungalow anyway but at the back it was only just above freezing all day; I’m considering renting my workshop to Iceland as a store for frozen food. The cold weather causes me immense problems and in the past I’ve sprayed black paint in the garage only for it to turn white when it blooms and this is with top quality anti-bloom thinners. I need to experiment with my air brushes and get used to using them; I’ll try different liquids through them and post results because I feel an air brush in the workshop will be extremely useful saving a lot of money on spray cans whilst giving greater control over finish.

Whilst viewing air brushing videos on “you tube” I came across this one which is brilliant for a novice like me to see;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzUoP0UdhdE&NR=1

The linseed oil has now dried on the cabinet so I can start applying the brush coats of shellac; I’ll have to do this in the garage as the workshop is much too cold and I don’t want to use the kitchen because I’ll need to do a lot of flatting with abrasive paper. The cabinet needs new feet so first job will be to add strips of wood to lift it clear of the bench; I can worry about feet later. Next month we put the clocks forward and jokingly call it British Summer Time!!

I was thinking about how stain and shellac crept under the masking tape on my test samples and feel I might be expecting too much in wanting a perfectly crisp cutoff. If I do more test pieces but bring these to fully flatted shellac and again suffer creep I wonder if it would be possible to scrape to give the wanted sharp edge rather like removing paint from glass. Once again this is one of my weird ideas but I’ve never seen it tried before and have nothing to lose if I try it out on test pieces other than a bit of time and effort.

I’ve used lots of masking tape over the years but whilst watching the air brushing videos I noticed a product called Frisket Masking Film Rolls; as the name implies this product comes in rolls up to 24” wide and is readily available; it is self adhesive and can be re-positioned many times; it appears to be very useful and perhaps you have working knowledge of this Dave?

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 2nd Mar 2011, 11:52 pm   #198
Andrewausfa
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

Col,

Frisk film is very low tack, great for graphic design airbrushing on surfaces with little absorbency but not sure it's so ideal for what you want. I've got a big roll sitting under my desk if you want me to stick a bit in an envelope for you to play with.

I've got an Iwata HP-C which is nearly 170 quid but will spray the thickness of a pencil line. With its little cup needing refilling I can't imagine using it to spray a TV cabinet! If you do use an artists airbrush your fluid needs to be something like the viscosity of milk.

Regards _ Andrew
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Old 3rd Mar 2011, 12:09 am   #199
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

The main advantages of Frisket film (often known just as "Frisk" film, after the former main manufacturer) are its transparency, thinness and ease of cutting, especially to complex shapes. It has a low tack adhesive, intended to prevent "picking" or lifting of the surface when removing it from the paper or card it is intended to be used on. Few of these characteristics would seem to be especially helpful in your situation, but experience could prove me wrong.

Airbrushing is a technique which frequently requires mulitple masking, often over areas previously sprayed, so the masking film, in addition to providing a very clean edge, must not damage the sprayed surface on removal.

The key to sharp masking, as you already know, is to mask on the smoothest surface possible. You may well find that the use of "Scotch" brand Magic Tape, (the removable kind) on similar reels to Sellotape will be a lot easier to manage than Frisk film for the job in hand

Kind regards,
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Old 3rd Mar 2011, 11:44 am   #200
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

Hi,

Many thanks Andrew for the information. I’m actually going to completely fill the grain of all the veneers with shellac just as if I was doing a normal French polishing job then cut it back by flatting with abrasive paper therefore giving a non absorbent smooth surface upon which to apply masking. It’s extremely kind and generous of you to offer me a sample of “Frisk” to experiment with and should I decide to try “Frisk” I’ll be pleased to accept your offer; thank you.

If I wanted to spray the entire cabinet I’m well set up for this with my large compressors and assortment of industrial type spray guns including one HVLP gun but all I want to do is to experiment with my artist’s size air brush which holds a fair amount of paint in a glass jar to colour only the cross banding; I don’t wish to apply a good thickness as I only want to colour wash it without blocking the grain pattern. I bet your expensive air brush is pure delight to use and if I settle with air brushing I’ll certainly upgrade.

Once again many thanks Dave for the information which I’ll seriously take heed of. I was considering using Frisket masking due to its excellent sharp edge properties giving a sharp cut off but even better for my application appears to be your suggested “Scotch” brand magic tape; a product also new to me. I’m learning fast and am fascinated by researching into each aspect of this restoration gathering information and learning new techniques rather than just jumping straight in trying to complete the job in the quickest time possible. Had I merely applied plain veneer to the cabinet to match the original this job would have been completed ages ago but by adding so much more detail such as inlaid panels and stringing etc the whole restoration is on a much higher level forcing me to leave my comfort zone and really struggle to achieve my goal. Taking the easy way out I would have missed so much enjoyment and compared to what I’ve accomplished so far it would have been rather boring.

I’ve had a major breakthrough this morning; I received a very warm reply to my enquiry to “Rustins.co.uk” saying their stains etc are based on white spirit but they kindly sent me a phone number together with a company name and this company actually supplies the very material I’m seeking. It is Spirit Stain Wood Colours and is suitable for mixing with both meths and cellulose; 500ml costs £8.75 inc. VAT. After visiting their site I found a local stockist in Birstall; “Ask Tools For Wood” and later today I’ll pop in to buy a tin of Dark Jacobean.

This spirit stain is dye based so will be more suitable than the pigment powder I bought as it will be translucent allowing the grain to show. The manufacturer’s website can be viewed here:

http://www.chestnutproducts.co.uk/re...php?cat=Stains

How I wish the climate would warm up to allow me to experiment in comfort; with a high of four degrees forecast for today it’s hardly french polishing weather.

I’ll be very sorry to complete this restoration because the learning curve has been truly wonderful for me; I’m still uncertain if I can colour the cross banding to my satisfaction but its fun finding out.

Kind regards, Col.
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