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Old 18th Feb 2011, 8:32 pm   #161
Aerodyne
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

I'm beginning to run out of superlatives, Col. Fascinating to see the project develop. Better than the Archers as a serial, IMHO!
-Tony
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Old 19th Feb 2011, 10:43 am   #162
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Originally Posted by Retired View Post
I despair at the general poor quality of plywood being supplied and used these days.
Hello Colin,
Your so right! I have an Ekco TS88 that is missing a small area of veneer at the bottom, around four square inches. I recently had to scrap a TC138 that was walking around on it's own due to woodworm. I managed to salvage a section of cabinet around a foot square and decided to soak it in a tray of water with the hope that the ply would separate and give up it's veneer. That was back in August and it is still soaking. Not a chance! The ply is still solid and unmarked.
To be honest I don't think the standard of wood used for radio and television receivers needed to be as high as it was. They only had a limited life and I remember breaking up superb cabinets in the 60's. Such a waste.
Regarding your chassis. If all else fails you are more than willing to send me the complete chassis less the CRT of course and any other odd bits such as the knobs. I have a couple of T330 models here and I can repair your chassis using the 330 as a rig. The tube is 90 degree but that will not make any difference as far as repairs are concerned. You can then clean it to your professional standards. I would not suggest you clean it before 'first light' other than dust removal using a half inch paint brush and a vacuum cleaner.
Great work by the way.Regards, John.
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Old 19th Feb 2011, 10:55 am   #163
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

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Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort View Post
Regarding your chassis. If all else fails you are more than willing to send me the complete chassis less the CRT of course and any other odd bits such as the knobs. I have a couple of T330 models here and I can repair your chassis using the 330 as a rig. The tube is 90 degree but that will not make any difference as far as repairs are concerned. You can then clean it to your professional standards. I would not suggest you clean it before 'first light' other than dust removal using a half inch paint brush and a vacuum cleaner.
The biggest job on the chassis is the LOPT housing rebuild. I'm sure that Col, with his excellent craftsmanship, can do a better looking job than I did with mine. My work was strictly functional and the yellow/green fibreglass board does rather stand out like a sore thumb.

The cabinet restoration has been nothing short of stunning. My only concern is what might be called the Dynatron effect. This company had a reputation for putting ordinary sets in upmarket cabinets. The T311 is actually not as ordinary as all that, it's a very good chassis and deserves to be well housed.
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Old 19th Feb 2011, 1:13 pm   #164
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Col, I've been following this thread with great interest, I've dismantled or scrapped sets in better condition than this one was! Not only will you end up with a nicely restored set but also a wonderful piece of furniture. True craftsmanship.

Totally in awe of your skill, patience and perseverance.

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Old 19th Feb 2011, 6:58 pm   #165
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Hi,

Thanks Tony; this project really took off and I also find it highly entertaining.

John what can I say; you are such a gem and have already helped me out in great style when I was desperate for gear information whilst restoring my AVO wave winder. I’ll try not to impose on your generosity but if I get stuck I’ll certainly be in touch; thank you so much for your previous help and also for this wonderful offer to sort my chassis out. I tried using a soft brush to clean the chassis but it was incredibly dirty and in similar condition to the cabinet so with nothing to lose I took it into the garage and gently blew it off using the air line. I’ll post pictures once I make a start on restoring it; this will be yet another steep learning curve so please expect a plea for help.

Thank you Jeffrey for your very kind comments but I feel if I make half as good a job of the LOPT that you have I’ll be more than happy. It will feel very strange to make a start on the chassis as this cabinet restoration has lived with me forever.

Thanks Greg; I’m pleased to hear you are enjoying the story; I wonder sometimes if it will ever have an ending.

I was wide awake again at 4.20 last night thinking about how to cross veneer the tight curve to the top panel front and came up with two ideas. I could fasten two lengths of 4”x1” timber together at right angles lengthwise then cut a length from a broom handle. The veneer could be soaked in hot water then pushed tightly into the inner angle of the two pieces of timber and secured until the veneer dried. This would pre-form the veneer and the method works very well because this is how I produced the curved stringing.

The second idea is weirder and incredibly simple. Cut the cross banding veneer exactly to size adding the two end mitres after first giving the veneer a good wetting to expand it. Cut two suitable lengths of 3”x1” hardwood that is known to be true. Apply a generous coat of hide glue to the back of the veneer and don’t worry about the glue setting. Using the hot iron now lay the veneer after first wetting it’s face abutting the Pommel inlay panel taking care to ensure exact alignment and hammer down the veneer but only on the top flat section leaving the veneer overhanging and let the glue set securing the veneer in this position. Place both pieces of timber into the kitchen oven set at 200 degrees and allow to heat fully. With rigger gloves for hand protection remove a piece of timber and apply it to the overhanging veneer after first wetting again. The heat will quickly melt the glue and press the veneer into close contact with the cabinet around the curve until it rests on the lower flat section and hold until the glue bites. If the glue doesn’t soften enough with this then the other piece of heated timber can be applied. The remaining flat section can be completed with the hot iron and hammer. I’ve added these two ideas just for interest and think both have potential.

Before going to bed last night I had a really close look at the cabinet and the curved section in particular; it was looking good and I had taken the trouble of laying extended cross banding down the curve at each side to form one half of each mitre. These mitres suddenly started to trouble and disturb me; the more I looked the worse I felt and wondered if I was going about veneering this curve wrongly. These mitres would look rather strange viewed from the front of the cabinet and I now believed them inappropriate in such a position. I decided to scrap the mitre idea entirely not only saving myself a lot of extra work but also enhance the look of the finished cabinet. I would lay the quarter cut Sapele with the grain running from side to side and also do this at the rear of the panel in effect making the panel appear to have been veneered with one large sheet with the centre cut out for the addition of the Pommele inlay.

Before 9 o’clock this morning I was working on the cabinet in the kitchen enjoying watching the snow falling outside. By the time I cleared everything away for dinner the top panel main veneers had been completed. I removed the unwanted cross banding and laid the new veneer without trouble. Veneering the curve went very well indeed; as usual I soaked the veneer with water then went over it with the hot iron raising steam; this was repeated three times to remove the fight out of the veneer then it behaved and was laid easily. The pictures show the difference and now the curved section to me looks a lot better without a mitre at each end. After dinner I worked the full afternoon applying veneer to frame members and found this to be incredibly slow going; once again the lighting was terrible and cutting very small pieces of veneer was testing my patience to the limit; also as I tried to lay such small pieces using the iron they tended to attach themselves to the sole of the iron causing a right mess. The job is progressing though and over the next couple of days I hope to have all the veneer in place; I took a couple of pictures this morning but didn’t take any this afternoon for fear of disturbing the newly applied veneer. I hope to do more work on the cabinet tomorrow afternoon as I have other jobs to do in the morning; every session sees more progress. The top panel still requires stringing.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 19th Feb 2011, 7:06 pm   #166
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

I really can't do this sort of thing, and if I had two hands it wouldn't be much better! This is excellent so far and I am watching with interest.

Cheers,

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Old 19th Feb 2011, 7:21 pm   #167
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Your very welcome Colin. The Ekco chassis have stood the test of time very well. The air line should be ok with this one as there are no loose bits to get blown away. Leave it at that until you get 'first light'. If you stick to that the rest will be easy. We can't have you doing all that cabinet work and then ending up with a cardboard cut out of test card 'C' in the CRT opening can we? Plenty of help here with the electrical bit so no worries. Good luck with it. John.
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Old 19th Feb 2011, 7:29 pm   #168
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A bit like this one John
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Old 19th Feb 2011, 8:37 pm   #169
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I doubt if anyone would notice. J.
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Old 20th Feb 2011, 1:57 pm   #170
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

Hi Col,

Like others I have been following this thread with interest, and admire your patience and craftmanship (as this is not my forte ), this cabinet is now looking wonderful and Iam in awe of what you have achieved so far.

Just a few words of encouragement, keep up the good work

wishing you well,
Baz
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Old 20th Feb 2011, 8:59 pm   #171
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Hi,

Thanks Steve; I’m sure you would be up to the challenge given better circumstances. The set is now looking a lot different from when you kindly picked it up on my behalf.

I think a cardboard test card would make an excellent last resort John and given the modern garbage on TV these days I’m sure such a card would be an advantage giving us something decent to watch. Not only have you so generously offered to help in sorting the chassis out but I’ve also been offered plenty of assistance once I reach this stage and would like to thank everyone for their support.

It’s beginning to look as though I can pull this cabinet restoration off Baz and I’m very appreciative of your encouragement; I’m also pleased to hear you are enjoying my ramblings so here is a bit more.

The small amount of progress has been extremely hard won today; with all seven lights switched on in the kitchen I still had difficulty seeing what I was trying to do. After yesterday’s struggle playing around with bits of veneer I decided to try a different method today. I would use paper templates and make the pieces of veneer larger to aid cutting and handling. The inner top edges of the side panels stand proud of the top by 3/32” and I knew these would be difficult to cross veneer but no way was I going to take the soft option and apply a single long strip of veneer. Also the top inner front curved sections looked like a whole lot of rouble.

This is more akin to marquetry cutting and gluing such small pieces but I was up for it and really suffered as a result. Very little went right and the job tested my patience to the limit. Many websites state this work cannot be carried out using hide glue and I understand why.

I used my drawing instruments to make the paper templates of the curved sections and just to be downright obstinate I decided to mitre these to match the outside cross banding. I cut the first veneer exactly matching the template and thought this is going to be easy. What an infuriating job this turned out to be. As the veneer was wetted it curled up and the curve opened up; it was too small to apply the hot iron to as well. Next attempt was to pre-iron some veneer taking the fight out of it then cut it to size; this was extremely slow work; wet veneer doesn’t sand easily and it was most frustrating trying to shave bits off with the craft knife as the veneer was very weak.

Sheer determination won through though and I successfully veneered the first inner top corner; not perfect but acceptable. I had also tried cutting 3/32” cross banding yesterday allowing a little extra for trimming; unfortunately this failed miserably as the narrow strips broke easily. After yet another restless night I came up with a solution to this problem, apply the straightedge covering the narrow strip to be cut and apply pressure whilst cutting with the craft knife. In practice I thought I’ve cracked it as I could now easily cut the strips without breakage. My cheer didn’t last long though because as soon as I soaked the strips in hot water they curled up like coiled springs. Today was going to be bad!!

With the key in my back now being nicely turned to the limit I came up with the idea of soaking a larger sheet of veneer then made it behave by applying the hot iron producing steam; to be sure it had given up the fight I did this a couple of times; then as before I cut the strips and at last was getting somewhere as now I could lay them by applying hide glue using an artists No2 fan brush to the cabinet and quickly locating and pressing the strips home gently wiping away excess glue with a damp cloth. Boy I was happy to see one side done successfully so yet another technique learned the hard way.

Now I only had to duplicate the procedure on the other side so as I turned the cabinet around I destroyed the protruding front corner veneer as it hit the kitchen wall cabinet. Today was no longer bad it was a disaster. It was incredibly frustrating for this to happen after so much time and effort had gone into applying it in the first place. There was nothing for it but to start over with the corner. At last new veneer was cut and glued into place but this time I ensured this didn’t happen a second time as I turned the cabinet with care. I was also still struggling with the lack of light. Just to cheer me up as I worked on the second front corner I thought what was that? Once again the first corner veneer was broken; I had caught it with my elbow. I’m sure if I tried to shoot myself at this point I would have missed!! Words failed me as I looked at the damage once again in disbelief.

OK; so the cabinet wants to play games with me; I now cut out three curved corner veneers in readiness for more stupidity. At last I broke through the pain barrier and had finally laid the worst of the veneer only leaving the front and top edges of the sides and the top stringing to add later. I waited for an hour to let the glue set then decided to trim the new veneer to size to enable me to lay the edging strips; for the last time today I laid another corner section before putting the cabinet in the front bedroom and quietly closing the door on it. The glue was still soft!!

My blood pressure has now come out of the stratosphere and I can reflect on the pain this cabinet inflicted upon me today. It would be easy to become disillusioned with the whole project at this stage and walk away from it for good but this cabinet is going to get restored whatever it throws at me and if I have to learn every little lesson by making stupid mistakes and working in a black hole so be it; the gloves are off and roll on tomorrow as I’m still up for it.

I’ll put today down to experience as I’ve gained a heck of a lot this afternoon and even with the many problems have still made some useful progress. The veneer for the side edges has already been cut and the stringing is waiting for the grooves to be cut; I wonder what this cabinet will look like in daylight; perhaps I’ll find out in July. Yes I’m still smiling because I don’t know when to quit.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 21st Feb 2011, 6:44 pm   #172
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Hi,

The veneering of this cabinet is now almost completed; the stringing still needs adding to the top panel and the veneer laid today will require trimming once the glue sets other than that it is done.

I couldn’t start work on the cabinet until 2 o’clock this afternoon but have made more progress than I did all day yesterday; every project I do reaches a low point as it did yesterday then suddenly everything comes right as it has today; a bit of patience works wonders.

I hope it doesn’t snow again tomorrow as I want to get into the garage to turn a new router cutter then I can route the grooves and glue the last four lengths of string into place. Once this is done I’m free to make a start on finishing the cabinet but this will throw up other problems as it is so cold and dark all the time. I’m delighted though to have veneered the cabinet against all odds; I’ve added a picture of the very limited space I’ve been working in and it was the wall unit in the picture that destroyed the corner veneer yesterday as I turned the cabinet around. Today I’ve had the pleasure of a washing machine at 1,400 rpm and the tumble dryer both running together; it’s not everyone who has the luxury of a massage whilst veneering. I’ve got a wonderful wife in Bronwyn as she never complains at my activities and fully supports me; I always leave everything tidy and clean up after myself.

Although I’ve added the many problems encountered during veneering I hope my story will encourage others to have a go; I’ve made the mistakes openly and by including as much detail as possible anyone attempting veneering for the first time will now have the benefit of this information; this has been a story of work in progress and I would like to thank Paul and the moderators for allowing me to ramble on; I’ve enjoyed this restoration a great deal so far and there is still plenty of work ahead; I no longer panic when things go wrong but merely consider every problem that crops up to be a challenge; frustrating in the extreme at times but I don’t learn anything from what I already know and it is the problems that give most pleasure in resolving them whilst adding to my experience.

I had limited experience of veneering before starting this project but looking at the cabinet now sporting its new veneer I feel I’ve gained a vast amount of experience and knowledge in a short period of time. This cabinet was extreme and must be just about the ultimate challenge; the only major problem ahead is what do I do restore next or take on as a project.

For anyone interested in having a go at veneering please jump in and have a go because the only damage that can occur is to destroy a bit of new veneer; hide glue although a pain to get used to is also a cabinet restorers best friend as it is reversible so any problems that arise can be corrected with a little practice; I wouldn’t have missed restoring this cabinet for anything as it’s been very enjoyable and unless I do something really stupid whilst applying the finish I think it will have all been worthwhile.

Sorry about picture quality but this is with seven lights switched on in the kitchen.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 21st Feb 2011, 9:04 pm   #173
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Fantastic Colin - you're on the last lap now - I can't wait to see the cabinet in all its finery when polished, but I guess that will have to wait till Summer, and I'm not sure on what day that falls this year in Huddersfield!

This marathon 'voyage of discovery' - on which you embarked late last November - might seem a wide departure from the more usual electronic bias on the forum, but it's very relevant as so many radios and TVs are 'woodies'. It's clear from the number of queries about how to strip and renovate cabinets, how to deal with woodworm, how to repair veneer etc, that this is a facet of restoration work which has been much neglected on the forum.

The fact that this thread has already been viewed more than 10,000 times and still has some distance to run, is testament to the amount of interest in the topic. It will be evident that many of the skills you've illustrated with so many photos, will be a source of insiration and guidance which can be adapted to any wooden cabinet, be it radio or TV, and will help others to aviod many of the pitfalls that might otherwise catch them out.

Two aspects of this monumental labour of love that immediately spring to mind are firstly, that you've shown that nothing is truly beyond redemption when determination, enthusiasm the application of skill, and the willingness to learn new skills, are brought into play. Secondly, personal pride in whatever you undertake. That's something I know will have been drilled into you at an early age during your apprenticeship, which runs like a thread through every new challenge that you rise to.

Already your cabinet is showing the beauty of wood, even before it's polished, which brings to mind a wonderful poem - the 'Woodworkers' Ballad'. Way off topic to quote it in full, but a few lines won't perhaps be amiss, as I think it encapsulates your achievements and your natural affinity for woodworking:

...when Mother Earth pondered her duty
She brought forth the forest from whence;

Come tables, and chairs, and crosses,
Little things that a hot fire warps;

Old ships that the blue wave tosses,
And fiddles for music, and harps...

And of course, TV and radio cabinets

David.

Looking forward to the next chapter!
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Old 22nd Feb 2011, 3:22 pm   #174
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As an inspiration to others, you deserve a medal, Col. It shows what really can be achieved with thought, great care and skill. I too would like to see the finished cabinet as the pictures of it look superb even without the finish. No doubt in time, we will be able to view the complete TV!
-Tony
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Old 22nd Feb 2011, 3:26 pm   #175
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Fantastic, Colin. What a standard to set for us - the bar is now incredibly high
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Old 22nd Feb 2011, 5:20 pm   #176
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Hi,

Thank you so much David for such glowing sentiments; I was deeply moved to read them and eventually I hope to share the final result with everyone. I would also be interested to see the poem full length if you would kindly send it by email.

I’ve forgotten what summer is like as it is so long ago I saw one; last year it was cancelled and I don’t hold out much hope for this year either. This morning I pulled the car out of the garage and leaving the garage door ajar collected the cabinet from the front bedroom; immediately I closed the back door of the bungalow behind me it suddenly started to rain; just what I wanted on the cabinet top panel that I was about to work on. I placed the cabinet on the bench and left the garage to get a pot of tea but as soon as I closed the garage door the rain stopped; this is typical of my luck; a short sharp shower of rain lasting to the second whilst I carried the cabinet into the garage.

Thank you Tony for your continued support and kindness; as you know anyone who gets deeply engrossed into a project tends to lose sight of the full picture whilst concentrating on each stage but for the first time yesterday I stood back whilst taking the pictures and really noticed the progress I had made so far; right from the beginning I knew what I wanted this cabinet to look like and have been slowly working to achieve this. I think this is a very important point because I could visualize the completed cabinet even though I had not got the full compliment of skills at that time to guarantee success; I had plenty of basic skills from restoring other cabinets but this Ekco was something else and would allow me to push myself in order to see what I could achieve or in fact be capable of. I never lost sight of the dream and it is with a huge sigh of relief that I’ve managed to bring the restoration so far without making a total fool of myself in doing the work so publicly. I agree it is looking much better than the original and as John remarked earlier this Ekco chassis is well regarded so deserves a decent housing; I’m hoping give it one.

Many thanks also Brian; it is wonderful to hear that so many members have been following this thread with so much interest and offering me such kind encouragement; for me this restoration so far has been a massive learning curve and I was acutely aware at each stage I could mess up big style due to my limited understanding of the various skills and techniques required but bit by bit I’ve amazed myself to have now reached the point that today I completed the veneering.

The stringing to the top panel has now been laid successfully and whilst using the router with a new home made cutter I felt stressed out knowing one slip at this stage would see me requiring counselling. I felt so anxious that as I tried to plunge for the first groove the router would not plunge; I thought the plunging mechanism must be at the maximum limit so once again reset the cutter but withdrawing it from the collet to give extra length before re-tightening. Again after carefully setting the router up it failed to plunge; how stupid can I really get; I had totally forgotten that the plunge had been locked by me whilst setting depth of cut and flicking the stop lever got it working as it should.

I’m still very much a router novice and cutting the stringing grooves to both side panels proved to be a real problem involving very accurate measurements to ensure the cutter tracked correctly. The design of the veneers on this cabinet is such that the router cutter needed adjusting precisely to remove material from both sides of a veneer joint; these joints being between the main inlay panel and the adjoining cross banding; I spent ages taking accurate measurements and ended up with distances that were very difficult to set. Once again I had missed the obvious due to my ignorance; yes I successfully cut the grooves but missed a very important point. My home made router cutter is made from simple silver steel round rod at ¼” dia. This cutter was to run directly against a straightedge; I was awake for hours one night trying to solve this one and finally it hit me; position the straightedge exactly 1/8” from the very centre of the veneer joint and it is then positioned correctly for whatever width of groove I needed to cut; I had been measuring from the cutting edge not realizing all I needed to do was work from the centre. Simple isn’t it once the penny drops but throughout this restoration I’ve been learning all the techniques the hard way.

A second technique learnt is in cutting the mitres to the ends of the stringing. Cutting the mitres for the two side panels was rather hit or miss; my Gents saw had teeth a bit too course for really accurate work and cutting with a craft knife due to the thickness of the strings tended to cut part way through then crush the string giving a ragged edge. Today I cut perfect mitres with incredible ease taking all the guess work out of it. I simply drew a pencil line on the lathe disc sander table at 45 degrees and aligned the string to this; I would mitre one end then offer the string up to the panel and mark the length with a pencil then again use the disc sander to run down to the pencil mark; why do I have to always try the complicated ways first.

The stringing will be allowed to dry overnight then tomorrow I can scrape them flush and trim the other previously laid pieces of veneer finally completing the entire veneering job. To see the cabinet reach this stage fills me with immense satisfaction and unlike veneering the next stage of French polishing is familiar to me although once again I’ll add all the detail as the finish is applied. Today is good and I can now finally relax. I can honestly say I’m much happier now at veneering than when I first started this restoration as I’ve learned so much.

A short while ago I submitted an article covering the thread I added on making wooden radio knobs to Carl Glover; editor of The Bulletin and last night I emailed Carl to enquire if he would be interested in printing the entire story of this Ekco restoration assuming of course that the restoration will prove successful and Carl kindly replied that he would be pleased to receive such an article; I did explain that rather than try to make a single article out of this that I was prepared to put the time in and break it down into a number of parts adding pictures as appropriate for each part then it could be included over a number of issues of The Bulletin. I’ve become so involved with this restoration it has taken over my life and I will feel most strange the day it is completed but what fun and enjoyment I’m having and I would like to see more such restorations covered in the near future.

I’ll add pictures once the cabinet is prepared to receive the French polish.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 22nd Feb 2011, 11:03 pm   #177
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

I can almost visualise how good this is going to look when polished. I've been watching this as you progress and all I can add to the plaudits so far is a very well done.

Regards_ Andrew
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Old 23rd Feb 2011, 5:25 pm   #178
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

Hi,

Many thanks Andrew and here is another update.

I’ve just had the most wonderful time today in the garage. To be warm for a change and be able to work with my hand tools I was in heaven. I’m now preparing the cabinet to receive its finish. First job was to bring the top panel stringing down flush and as I’m now getting used to the router fitted it with a standard ¼” dia cutter and set the cutting height at 0.010” above the main veneer surface by placing two pieces of 6mm MDF onto the Startrite cast iron planer bed and with the router sitting on these added a shim of steel 0.010” thick onto the planer bed and gently plunging the router cutter onto the shim then locking it in position. I now knew the cutter would not damage the main veneer whilst leaving an easy scraping job to bring the stringing down flush; both pieces of MDF were placed each side of the strings on the top panel and it worked a treat saving me a lot of scraping.

With the stringing scraped flush then I needed to trim excess veneer before it became damaged. At first this looked like a simple job but as can be seen in the pictures it proved quite difficult. I didn’t want to use a craft knife or wood chisel to trim the inner top edges as there was the possibility of damaging the top panel veneer and a single cut with either would be difficult to hide.

In the end I resorted to using my Stanley No92 shoulder plane taking very fine cuts and taking extreme care not to cut into the face veneer which only stands 3/32” high; this was followed by sanding using 240 grit garnet paper with a wood block backing; again to protect the top panel veneer I placed a piece of thin Tufnol sheet under the sanding block and this actually worked very well. The outer edges of the top and front and the inner edges of the front side panels posed yet another problem; there was not enough surface to guarantee accuracy if I used the router fitted with the flush cutting bit as any wobble would be evident on the face veneers and I must avoid this at all cost. I tried using a craft knife and also a 1” wide sharp wood chisel but couldn’t gain the control of cut I needed; I then tried using a ¼” wide sharp wood chisel and found this to be perfect allowing a shearing cut whilst only having a narrow blade to control. This worked so well that I was able not only to trim the veneer but to remove any surplus hardened glue with great precision; it took a lot of patience but by doing this subsequent scraping and sanding was kept to a minimum. It was very important to cut towards the cabinet to prevent damage to the veneer as the cabinet supports the veneer being cut in this manner.

With the veneer now trimmed I could move onto scraping the panels and set a razor sharp burr on my favourite cabinet scraper to remove virtually dust as I did not want to remove gossamer shavings in fear of cutting right through to the substrate; the picture shows the scraping result. Two of the pictures show a section of veneer where the excess glue has remained and after scraping and sanding to remove it.

With the scraping successfully completed I followed by a great deal of delicate sanding using firstly 240 grit then 320 grit garnet abrasive papers. I did not use a backing block whilst sanding and sanded across the grain on the cross banding with the 320 grit removing the 240 grit sanding marks then I spent quite a bit of time sanding with the grain; I find this to be the quickest way rather than trying to sand all the time with the grain.

I found only one problem with the veneering and this was a narrow joint across the front edge of one of the side panels; by overlapping the strips of veneer and then cutting the joint removing the waste veneer left the joint glue starved; normally when I cut these joints I run the glue brush along the joint but must have missed this one. Not a big problem as lifting the veneer with a knife blade I’ll easily apply a dab of glue then press the veneer home wiping away excess glue.

The Stanley shoulder plane was bought for me by my late mother in law and Bronwyn as a birthday present over 30 years ago and this plane is unsurpassed for accurate close up work as can be seen in trimming the veneer. Its main function is for the trimming of tenon shoulders hence its name; it is a delightful tool to use and much care is needed to ensure the blade is sharpened perfectly at right angles across its cutting edge as the blade fits precisely into the plane body allowing the cleaning out of right angled corners; by removing the nose section it doubles as a chisel plane; it was very expensive all those years ago costing something like £21 but it has paid for itself many times over and is my favourite hand plane.

The cabinet is coming along extremely well and looks even better after scraping and sanding but there is still plenty of work ahead; I don’t need to stain the quartered Sapele veneers but I wanted to right from the start. Staining the cross banding was a failure due to later scraping of the stringing removing the stain but no harm is done and a lesson well learned. Adding the stain now will be difficult but just another problem to resolve and as a mistake here could be disastrous I’ll experiment with offcuts first before applying stain to the cabinet; the stringing and Pommele veneer are not to be stained. I also still need to resolve the grille panel problem as I can’t find any decent plywood but as usual I’ll give it some thought.

In modern day terminology this cabinet looks cool.

Kind regards, Col.
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Old 24th Feb 2011, 4:19 pm   #179
dominicbeesley
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

I had the pleasure of visiting Colin and Bronwyn last night and have to say the cabinet looks even better close up! The chassis looks like it will be a challenge but not impossible!

As always Colin and Bronwyn showed great hospitality and Colin gave me a great insight into many aspects of restoration and engineering...and lots of ideas for future projects!

One question for the telly experts - Colin's set has a large Metrosil in the HT lead (about 8" long if I remember right). Looking at the circuits it looks like one end of that should be earthed - was this a common feature? I'm guessing it was to give some level of EHT regulation?

Dom
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Old 24th Feb 2011, 4:38 pm   #180
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Default Re: Restorer's dream.

This model did have a metrosil. My own T311 looks as if it had one at one time. Works fine without it.
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