Ekco A22 case repair so far.

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by David G4EBT

My Brown one had a bronze ring on which the plating was largely worn off so I sprayed it with a metallic bronze car aerosol and it looks very presentable.

I polished mine to bright shining brass when it came my way in 1969, then realised a few years later that it hadn't been like that in the first place: it's at least reacquired dullness in the years since then. Shame about the hole in the grille cloth, but it was there in '69 and I'm someone who would rather see a defective original cloth than one that's perfect but of a different design. So, if anyone else makes the mistake of polishing the ring, don't worry, just leave it 50 years or so and it will look like this...

Paul

[jimmyg1]

Hi Everyone

I've been lurking for quite a while now and reading with great interest about the speaker cloth of the black A22 that I'm trying to source. Firstly, could I clarify a few things please:

Am I right in thinking that the cloth for the brown A22 is different from the black A22? This picture that I have found is from the V&A museum - is this what I should look for?
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O...-coates-wells/

Was wondering what you have found to be the closest match. I've come across this at the top of page 36
https://www.corrienmaas.nl/wp-conten...el-stoffen.pdf

or this one:
https://www.bendijkman.nl/silver-cloth-ekco?ipath=14

or can anyone suggest something better?

Lastly, if I find a replacement can I replace it by just prising off the bezel from the front or would I have to take it out of its chassis?

Many thanks!

[Lloyd 1985]

Hi,

Firstly, no!! Don’t try to prise off the bezel! It’s held on with screws from behind, to get to these you will need to remove the whole chassis.

Start by removing the control knobs, there should be a grub screw in each one.

Place the set face down on something soft, remove the back cover. Looking down into the set, you should be able to see 4 2BA screws, 2 at the top of the chassis, and 2 underneath it, you’ll need a long-ish screwdriver and good light for the bottom ones. Once these are out the chassis, complete with dial and speaker grille should just lift out.

Now you need to remove the dial/speaker grille, to do this place the chassis upright in front of you, with the dial on the left. On the round part of the chassis you should see a lozenge shaped hole, near the main smoothing capacitor can, it’ll have some wiring going into it, shine some bright light at the dial so you can see into the hole, there will be 2 screws in the centre, you need your long screwdriver for this, reach in and undo the one closest to the front of the set, this holds the dial and grille carrier on, you should only have to loosen it a couple of turns, and then the whole dial and speaker grille assembly should lift off easily.

Place the dial assembly face down, there will be the carrier that looks like a big Mercedes badge with a series of small flat head screws, carefully remove the screws, they have a nasty habit of being stuck, or breaking! Once they are out the bezel / ring will come off, and the speaker cloth will also now be free, it’s simply glued to a cardboard ring. To replace, repeat the above in the reverse order.

Sorry there’s no photos with this, but at some point I’ll try and make a video detailing this!

Hope this helps!

Lloyd

[jimmyg1]

Many thanks for this Lloyd that is really helpful!

Whereas I'm quite handy practical wise I'm a bit paranoid about touching my precious Ekco and unless I can source a speaker cloth that is a close match I might just leave well alone. Your instructions will help others and if you ever decide on making a video that will be appreciated by others too

[Leon Crampin]

As the owner of a black A22 with the original speaker cloth, I can confirm that the V&A exhibit shows the correct cloth.

Dismantle an A22 with great care. The case is of course fragile, but so is the original dial. Mine was broken by the previous owner during dismantling by finger pressure on the dial when lifting the set face down. The chassis fixing screws need very careful fitting into the tapped holes in the cabinet on assembly as the alignment is poor.

If you happen to find an exact match for the speaker cloth fitted to a black A22, perhaps you could send me a PM.

Leon.

[Lloyd 1985]

Ah yes, I thought it was just my set that the chassis screws didn’t line up with the cabinet on! My set did look like it had been in a swamp, so I thought the cabinet had just warped a little.

I was considering getting some of this to see how close to the original it is, it was just a little confusing as to which cloth you’d be getting, since there are 2 different pictures on that page! But I see from Jimmy’s link above the patterned version has its own page.

Regards
Lloyd

[jimmyg1]

Have spent far too much time looking at speaker cloths online (but a nice way to spend retirement!)
If seems that when new the speaker cloth for the black Ekco was a light grey colour and with time (and nicotine) many became brown with age. The conundrum now is whether to go for a beige weave to replicate the patina or a grey weave as it would have been when new. Thoughts?

[radiomobile]

Whenever I worked on an A22 in the past I always reamed out the holes in the fixing lugs slightly to allow easier refitting in to the cabinet. As has been mentioned the original alignment is less than perfect and this is often excerbated by slight distortion of the cabinet over the years.
When fitting the fixing screws I "sitck" them to a long handled screwdriver with a lump of wax from an old wax tubular capacitor.

[vinrads]

I would go for Lloyds suggestion ,I have used it in the past it's as close as you will ever get , a beige colour would look terrible against the black. Mick.

[David G4EBT]

You might like to look a the grill cloth sold by Radio Dayze across the pond.

In particular, Item Nos GRC92 and GRC05:

https://www.radiodaze.com/grille-cloth/

His prices are very reasonable, and because speaker grill cloth weighs little, his postal charges to the UK are low.

I haven't bought from him, but I have a chum who has and has been very satisfied.

[jimmyg1]

Well, I finally gave it a go and feel happy with the outcome.

I followed the instructions religiously (thanks Lloyd) and in all it took about 3 hours start to finish - pictures below

David Simpson kindly sent me some cloth that he had left over but after hunting around I found that Tannoy produce a cloth called 'straw' (not sure why it's called that as it's not straw colour to me) that seemed close to what the original looked like (pre-nicotine) and I got it off ebay (seller's name: mainlytannoy). I also liked the weave. I noticed that on the original the weave runs diagonally across the speaker rather than up and down so I tried to match the orientation on mine.

As was warned, the two bottom screws attaching the chassis to the case were a pain to put back in. I ended up slotting each onto the screwdriver and used a small piece of masking tape to hold it until it started to thread.

Many thanks to everyone for your help. I have loads of that Tannoy speaker cloth left so if anyone would like a piece drop me a message and I'll send one out to you. Maybe someone would take the chance of making a video of how to do it while they are at it?

[stevehertz]

That's a smashing speaker cloth, looks very original.

[Lloyd 1985]

That looks fantastic! Pleased the instructions worked, they were mostly from memory! I will get round to the video on disassembly of an A22, too many projects on the go at once currently! Including an A22 cabinet in a sorry state (cracks everywhere!), I’ll leave a link to it once it’s done.

Regards
Lloyd