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Old 3rd Sep 2020, 4:41 pm   #1
ThePillenwerfer
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Default VHF ‘Civvie’.

NO VINTAGE WRELESSES WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS POST

Some years ago I acquired a JasonKit VHF tuner. Sadly, as so often, when I’d had my fun of fixing it up it was only really clutter. The main trouble was that I cased it up as a Tuner whereas it would have been much more use with a built-in amplifier and speaker. Apart from having no real use for it I've never had suitable wood to make a better cabinet or the skill to go beyond something very basic.

Recent posts mentioning WCRs gave me an idea. Aesthetically these have always been one of my favourites so why not combine the two.

The amplifier is a 741 and a couple of transistors powered from the LT via a voltage doubler.

It’s not finished yet but is working. There’s still some tidying-up to do, a back to make and not least find or make some better knobs.
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Old 3rd Sep 2020, 5:04 pm   #2
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

Lovely, it shows that even a "utilitarian" set could be designed to look good. The new wood shows just what one would have looked like new. It was called a civilian set because utility stuff didn't attract tax.
 
Old 3rd Sep 2020, 7:10 pm   #3
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

I also have one of those tuners cluttering up the place....I only got it because it was the first FM tuner I ever had back in the 60's. You've given me an idea! It'll have to be a valve amplifier though in keeping with the tuner.....a Mullard 3-3 possibly.

I did try fitting a stereo decoder to mine which meant removing the de-emphasis network but the bandwidth of the Jason isn't really good enough even with careful alignment and it wasn't very successful so its back to original.
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Old 3rd Sep 2020, 9:58 pm   #4
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

The wood certainly isn't new, Merlin. It was a piece of some bit of furniture that I'll have had off a skip at some time.

I absolutely take your point about the amplifier, Rich. I have made several amplifiers over the years, valve, solid-state and hybrid, and that is the arrangement that sounds best to my, admittedly cloth, ears.

If you fancy having a go the plans I drew up are below.
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Old 4th Sep 2020, 9:44 am   #5
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

That looks really good !
Also, thanks for drawing up the plans, I'm tempted to make one myself - however, my woodworking skills are rather poor...
BTW how did you manage to get the lines/slots in the two front strips ?

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Old 4th Sep 2020, 10:00 am   #6
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

I cut the grooves on my table saw but a plough plane or electric router would do it. You could even make the strip ⅜" thick and the stick ⅛" thick bits to that with gaps between.
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Old 4th Sep 2020, 10:50 am   #7
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

Quote:
Originally Posted by radioman View Post
That looks really good !
Also, thanks for drawing up the plans, I'm tempted to make one myself - however, my woodworking skills are rather poor...
BTW how did you manage to get the lines/slots in the two front strips ?
Well, there you have a really nice project for you to learn some new skills. The sizes of wood needed won't cost you anything significant new. No exotic woods are needed so you could have several goes at it. A small router or zipcut will do the grooves or a table saw as the OP's one. The table saw will also cut all the pieces to size. The rounded edges could just be sanded given some elbow grease, or a rounding bit in a router.

A table saw that can tip the blade over to 45 degrees will cut the bevel joints, and a few runs through it upright will cut the simple joints.

So if you fancy a go, a small cheapie Chinese table saw would do all you need. The speaker hole can be cut with a drill, an hacksaw blade and sandpaper if necessary.

It's a way to acquire skills. No-one was born with them and they weren't handed out for free, so those with them merely started sooner. Besides, having such an end-product as the goal will be great motivation.

Then, you get to keep the tools you bought... so what do you make next?

I built an entire kitchen. All hardwood, no MDF at all, even down to making all the stile and rail doors. Hifi cabinetry, ofh and oak side cheeks to replace the missing plastic ones on my Revox B261.

Launching off into any new field, you never have a clue where you'll end up!

David
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Old 4th Sep 2020, 11:44 am   #8
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
....having such an end-product as the goal will be great motivation.

David
Well yes, you're quite right there.
I don't have a router but I do have a table saw I was given but I've never used it... the blade looks rather course though.
I'm more used to working with hand tools than power tools which always seem to have a mind of their own when I'm using them !
As for a 'zipcut' I had to look than one up.
Just need to find some scrap pieces of wood to practice on first.


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Old 4th Sep 2020, 11:54 am   #9
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

I rough-cut the wood on the table saw but apart from that it was done by hand. The coarseness of the blade shouldn't matter as you cut the wood a bit over size and plane it to exactly what you need.

The speaker and tuning dial holes were cut with a coping saw and then rasped and sanded.

An alternative to the JasonKit tuner, which I did think about, would be one of those cheap Chinese BlueTooth/FM/MP3 player things.
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 10:43 am   #10
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

I'd not dismiss plough planes either. Personally, I try to avoid power tools in my woodworking as the noise is very off-putting and I do it to relax. Although, often the same result (or better) can be achieved with hand tools in less time, as there's very little setup time. When something goes wrong, it goes wrong much more slowly too!

I've made some good mouldings using a Stanley multi-plane - a bizarre device from the early C20th when manufacturing processes allowed designers to imagine a hand tool that did all the jobs of large machines then becoming prevalent in joinery shops. The attachments allow moulding with many different cutters, or combinations of cutters, cutting grooves, rabbets and dadoes and slitting. This kind of thing (and plough planes alone) can be picked up at car boot sales or markets very cheaply.

Here it is making a half-round.
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 4:20 pm   #11
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

Just a quick word of warning, never run a saw without the blade guard, as it happens it's operating the smaller saws that's more likely to chop yer bits off rather than operating a large saw.

Never feed the job into the saw faster than the blade can cope with, if you exceed the feed speed with respect to RPM and gullet capacity you can end up damaging the blade, a damaged blade should be viewed as a dangerous blade and should either be discarded or repaired/serviced properly if it's serviceable.

The best hand held circular saw I ever owned was a Festool saw complete with guide tracks, very accurate for cutting slots/grooves and mitres, 8ft mitres anyone...

Lawrence.
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 6:10 pm   #12
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

I gave up looking for knobs as I couldn't find any new ones that I fancied — part of the trouble being that there are very few without dots or lines engraved in rendering them unsuitable for tuning knobs — and people want silly money for old ones. I therefore set-to and made my own.
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 6:21 pm   #13
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

That's a really nice idea and an excellent DIY project to boot. I've had a similar idea but using a DAB PCB instead.... - the "usual" Frontier Silicon module and 16x2 display. Something along the lines of 6C4/6CH6 driving the speaker that won't deplete the go-to AF-type valve ranks. I've always liked the idea of the straightforward, unpretentious table radio with decent sound quality- who really needs stereo etc. for casual as opposed to earnest listening most of the time anyway.
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 8:29 pm   #14
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

Excellent job Joe.

I heard your Jason Tuner in action when I visited you a while back and was surprised how well it performed. The very comprehensive original building instructions are an excellent aid to restoring these tuners. The instructions also cover a rather rudimentary design for the power supply. Shortly after I visited you, I bought a rather sad and neglected Jasonkit tuner, intending to build it into a cabinet but it's still on the 'do list'.

To create the grooves in the front mouldings, for anyone without a router or other power tools, that can be done by making a simple 'scratch plate' as often used in days of yore, (and today too by cabinet maker and antique furniture restorers), by grinding a piece of steel plate such as a cabinet scraper or even a piece of scrap power hacksaw blade to the desired profile. Alternatively, a simple 'scratch block'. The attached rough sketch shows what I mean.

These custom made improvised hand tools are often used by cabinet makers and musical instrument makers, (sometimes for cutting recessed grooves to add 'stringing' veneers on the face of acoustic guitars etc), by using screws filed to shape, or 'Stanley' knife blades, or whatever comes to hand, ground to shape. ('Low tech - high skill'). The video at this link might be of interest, especially 5 minutes in, which is relevant to the WCR moulding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI9DM0PW3V4

As to the WCR original knobs, I've attached a sketch of the dimensions. Not difficult to produce replicas on the lathe. The rim at the top could be left plain, but it was desired to 'knurl' the edge with a triangular file, ideally best turned from beech (from a cheap Wilko pastry rolling pin) then sprayed satin black or brown to replicate Bakelite. Hard to tell from the originals.

Hope that's of interest.
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 9:52 pm   #15
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

My knobs are oak, a bit of table leg that you gave me actually, stained with some Colron Jacobean Oak stain that I've had since I was at school. They've got ½" brass inserts taped for M4 grub screws. I don't mind them obviously being wood as that's what Bakelite tried to emulate.

As for the shape, they were based on the original Jason one. Civvies used so many different types that it's hard to call any right or wrong and they would never look exactly right as they are too near together. Yours certainly look simpler to make though and I'll keep the design in case I need any more.
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 10:36 pm   #16
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

Excellent Joe.

That table leg has some history!

It was from a Utility sideboard which belonged to my wife’s late aunt from Liverpool and dates from 1944.

There was yet another air raid warning and her aunt and grandmother went to the air raid shelter, but her grandfather and uncle stayed home. The house took a direct hit and nothing and no-one was found. My wife’s grandmother and aunt had to set up home again. (They were trapped in the damaged air raid shelter for two days too). Grandma lived to 103 and her aunt to 96. We cleared the house out 12 years ago and I salvaged all the timber from the Utility furniture - all English oak and oak faced ply. A lot of it has since been repurposed including in various small comb-jointed project boxes, cheese boards and a bookcase.

WCR knobs too now!
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 11:01 pm   #17
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

I couldn't have used anything more appropriate then.
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Old 8th Sep 2020, 8:37 am   #18
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Default Re: VHF ‘Civvie’.

Inspiring, amazing, beautiful and resourceful.
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