Ekco A22 case repair so far.

[vinrads]

This is the cabinet with the left foot broken away and missing all parts ,it was always going to be a challenge ,I was undecided which way to rebuild the section that was missing ,I ended up using the method that I used when I did a cabinet repair on a AWI radio , I drilled holes in the edge of the Bakelite using a very small drill bit, this would help the filler to get a grip as a forma I used some perforated aluminium ideal for this job ,I decided not try and replicate the original and filled in the gap on the inside of the cabinet In the early hours one morning I had eureka moment I could make the front of the foot out of a piece of scrap Bakelite I did this by scribing around the good foot then reversing it ,this also served as a guide when sanding down the filler ,I am not totally happy with the colour I may try and get a colour match paint if they can scan a good portion of the cabinet, all good so far I am now about to make some knobs. Mick.

[newlite4]

Well worth restoring. These are great performing sets. I got mine from the RWB auction some eight years ago for 150pounds. It had a repair in the same place. The cantilever feet do seem to be especially vulnerable on these sets.The original restorer had formed some ali sheet to add strength and form the curve. I put more work in to enhance this. It is difficult to see the join.
Neil

[David G4EBT]

That's amazing Mick.

Just a reminder what state the cabinet was when I passed it on to Mick, see post #5 at this link:

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=199257

Re the knobs, I'll drop you an email.

[vinrads]

Thank you David you came to the rescue once again regarding the before pictures ,also many thanks for the kind offer of the knobs , it wont be long before it is complete I have a repro dial , just one thing, do all the brown A22 Ekco's have a bronze speaker surround or were some chrome ? the one I have is chrome so it may well have to be painted bronze. Mick.

[Lloyd 1985]

Wow, you have done a great job on the A22 case! I must say, I'd not thought of using a piece of scrap Bakelite to make a new front for the foot like that, that's a brilliant idea, and I might steal it for future use

As to the colour of the speaker ring, the brown ones were bronze finish, and the black ones chrome finish. I guess there would be nothing stopping you fitting a chrome ring to a brown A22, it would actually look quite good!

Here's a photo of my 2, the black one was in the middle of being restored at the time, it's had a new dial and new knobs since that photo was taken, the chrome ring still needs re-doing as it's pitted and got green corrosion on it.

Regards,
Lloyd

[slidertogrid]

Great job! What a difference!
Rich

[David G4EBT]

Originally Posted by vinrads

Thank you David you came to the rescue once again regarding the before pictures ,also many thanks for the kind offer of the knobs , it wont be long before it is complete I have a repro dial , just one thing, do all the brown A22 Ekco's have a bronze speaker surround or were some chrome ? the one I have is chrome so it may well have to be painted bronze. Mick.

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.

[vinrads]

Thanks for that David I have some bronze paint somewhere I will se what it looks like , Mick.

[Tractionist]

Great work Mick ..... much impressed!

[Tractionist]

P.S. Can anyone recommend an appropriate speaker cloth for my black A22 -the walnut burr cased models obviously used 'Florentine' silk material .....

[stevehertz]

Impressive - as ever..

[David G4EBT]

Originally Posted by Tractionist

P.S. Can anyone recommend an appropriate speaker cloth for my black A22 -the walnut burr cased models obviously used 'Florentine' silk material .....

'Radio Daze' ('across the pond') have several nice examples, reasonably priced.

This one seems to be as reasonable a match as you'll be likely to find, or maybe not for the black cabinet?

https://www.radiodaze.com/grille-cloth-92-item-grc92/

There's also Ben Djikman in NL, who lists this as 'Ekco' speaker cloth:

https://www.bendijkman.nl/ekco-speaker-cloth?ipath=14

Good luck in your quest.

[Tractionist]

Originally Posted by David G4EBT

'Radio Daze' ('across the pond') have several nice examples, reasonably priced.

This one seems to be as reasonable a match as you'll be likely to find, or maybe not for the black cabinet?

https://www.radiodaze.com/grille-cloth-92-item-grc92/

There's also Ben Djikman in NL, who lists this as 'Ekco' speaker cloth:

https://www.bendijkman.nl/ekco-speaker-cloth?ipath=14

Good luck in your quest.

Cheers David - as informative as ever! Much appreciated.

[vinrads]

Ekco A22 the black one possible replacement speaker cloth ,what do you think , this is a shirt I purchased from a charity shop to wear but it seems to small they must have altered the sizes to much I guess .
Let me know if you like a piece foc , Mick.

[stevehertz]

You could buy Ben's piece and then sell the extra parts. There must be quite a few people wanting that cloth.

[CambridgeWorks]

David, my brown A22 cloth was from a charity shop in town.
A modern lady's top for £2! Not anywhere like the original, but looks the part.
Rob

[Techman]

That brown cloth looks very familiar. I'm sure I've got a curtain or similar exactly the same as that somewhere. I'm pleased that I didn't chuck out my late mothers 'materials/sewing' collection, as I can nearly always find what I want amongst it. It's worth keeping in mind the 'mesh' of the material so as not to 'muffle' the sound too much - although on AM radio these days with all the noise and interference on the one station left that 'might' be worth listening to, it probably won't be that noticeable anyway, and might actually help to filter out some of the background noise!

[Techman]

Below is a gramophone that I 'restored' about 5 years ago - although I usually call what I generally do as a 'repair', rather than a 'full-on' restoration. The first two pictures show the original torn and rotted grille cloth - there's actually a supporting wide metal mesh behind the cloth so that it's not easily 'poked' through by accident. The third picture shows a test sample of white, large mesh (similar to the original) cloth from my late mothers 'materials' box, where I was trying different staining methods and colours. The last two pictures show the finished grille where in the end I actually used the wood stain that I'd used on the case of the gramophone, just swabbed onto the cloth in two or three sessions with kitchen role and with the cloth laid out on a sheet of cardboard and then left to dry before fitting. Five years on and it still looks as good with no fading and no smell - which I actually thought it might do, but it didn't, even by the next day. I think it's important to have a reasonably open mesh type of cloth on something like an acoustic gramophone, as with a very closed type of mesh cloth you might get the effect of that old saying of "put a sock in it"!

[Techman]

Originally Posted by vinrads

This is the cabinet with the left foot broken away and missing all parts ,it was always going to be a challenge ,

Not forgetting the amazing repair done by Mick to this radio cabinet - a job definitely very well done!

[stevehertz]

I'd definitely go with the grey version. As the original stuff aged it tended to go brownish, but never blue. Blue is wrong, grey or brownish grey is fine.