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Old 25th Mar 2014, 5:46 pm   #21
PJL
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

You don't have to tint it that dark although you will need to do something to get the repwood to match in. You can wipe it over with white spirit for a good idea of how it would look. A lacquer or shellac finish will bring out the grain better than oil. French polish is a safe choice as it can easily be reworked or removed if you decide you don't like it.

Oil is permanent and can't be covered over. It also changes the colour of the wood and ages.

Last edited by PJL; 25th Mar 2014 at 5:59 pm.
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Old 25th Mar 2014, 5:50 pm   #22
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Shellac won't darken the wood; in fact 'blonde' would darken it less than oil.

Blonde is clear - and the most expensive, Button is golden brown and Garnet dark brown. These are the tradition shellac grades but there's also Lemon which is between Blonde and Button.

I agree that it seemed odd that manufactures seemed to apply stain so dark that they may as well have painted cabinets and I'd try to leave it more visible, depending on condition.

Whatever you use, try it out on some scrap wood first.

- Joe
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Old 25th Mar 2014, 6:59 pm   #23
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Hi,

That's a lovely radio you've got!

I'd avoid Danish oil too, as others have said, it's non-reversable, and I'm not sure lacquer would stick to it afterwards. You don't have to use dark lacquer, you can get lighter versions, same with French polish, you can get blonde shellac, which is clear. I've used aerosol car lacquer from Halfords before and that is completely clear, and looks ok, though I'd probably not use it on this set.

As to the shade it left the factory with, there's probably no way of telling! I'm pretty sure the lacquer does darken with age and exposure to sunlight, and nicotine will stain it too.

Personally, I'd keep the plinth darker than the rest of the set, and probably try French polish on it (I've not used French polish yet!). There's some good threads on here about using French polish.

Regards,
Lloyd.
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Old 25th Mar 2014, 8:21 pm   #24
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Quote:
Originally Posted by TriMan66 View Post
Here's a question I have toyed with. Do we really know they left the showroom with such a dark coat, or have they darkened over the years naturally, including the obligatory nicotine smoke they have been subjected to.
Very hard to guess, except that a few sets I've seen - among them a large and originally expensive motor tuned Defiant - have such haphazard veneering in places that I'm pretty sure it will have been hidden from ready view by a dark coating!

I was guessing the cabinet front would be more like that of the illustrated Echophone, with an irregular grain that's so faint I'm in doubt as to whether it's just unveneered plywood. The oiled set by contrast looks like mirrored walnut. It's each to his own with regard to finishes, of course, but to me that one looks exactly like a cabinet that's just been stripped, treated and had a new piece of speaker cloth fitted: as such it would blend in better visually with a mixture of Steepletone repros than with a collection of sets of its own vintage that had spent their 80 years in a benign environment, dusted and occasionally polished. I'm much happier if my own cabinet restorations result in a radio that few would guess had ever needed restoring, but someone else might think that tantamount to fakery...

EMI and a very few other manufacturers I think kept largely to French polishing through the 1930s, others switched to cellulose finishes very early in the decade, and most American firms seem to have gone that way too. (I wonder whether the imported cabinets were already fully finished?) So long as you don't use too many coats of French polish the visual difference from sprayed cellulose lacquer isn't too glaring anyway: it takes quite a few to build up the archetypal "piano finish" which you probably won't want at all.

Paul
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Old 25th Mar 2014, 9:56 pm   #25
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

It is a lovely rare radio But at the end of the day it belongs to you and it is your choice how to proceed with the finish.

Enough has been said so i will not add further,it is down to your skill and judgement.
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Old 25th Mar 2014, 11:49 pm   #26
TriMan66
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Hi All,
Thanks muchly for the replies. I will definitely not be finishing with an oil coat which has been pointed out would be a perminant change to the veneer.
I am now thinking along the lines of either a polish or more preferably a lighter shelac finish.
I have some old veneered cabinet sides which I keep for small veneer replacements etc so I am going to do some experimenting with the different finishes.

regards
Craig
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Old 26th Mar 2014, 12:00 am   #27
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Hi All,

Below is the work on the re-capping. It was a bit of an effort finding all the little buggas. One was hidden inside the copper cans which house the RF coils.
The large metal box on top of the chassis holds six 0.5uF capacitors. Each of these was completly open circuit.
As I mentioned before, the rubber had all perished and the wires to the speaker were in a bad state. I have some very close matching braid to go over the silicone wires running to the speaker. This will make the top look far more authentic.
The PM24M looks to be fine with plenty of volume and I have used some NOS MS-PENs just to try in the radio in place of the S4VAs.
The switch contacts for the band select need to be carefully cleaned too. Getting close.

regards
Craig
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Old 26th Mar 2014, 12:32 am   #28
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Looking good.

- Joe
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Old 26th Mar 2014, 1:07 am   #29
TriMan66
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Bingo!

It was the contacts on the band select. These were filthy and needed a good clean.
I was lucky that all the transformers, coils, chokes, speaker windings (being electro magnet type) where all fine.

Its always a buzz when you listen to a vintage radio tuning into a station for the first time.
The original replacement MS-PEN in my set was bad. The dial bulb would flicker on and off when it was in place. The S4Vb was soft I suspect since it worked but not particularly well. Not as good as the NOS MS-PEN.

It needs a good aerial and there is a plug which can be moved to two positions on the aerial input called S1 and S2. These appear to be the standard tradeoff between selectivity and sensitivity.

Brilliant. As I say a buzz to listen to music for the first time. I happen to like Absolute Radio on Medium Wave 1215kHz which is a little weak in my area, but sounds great on this set.

So I need to do that braiding of the speaker wires. Put the electro cans back on top of the chassis and sort out more appropriate valves for the two S4VAs. Then I'm pretty to close to done as far as the electronics go and then swing back to this case.

Craig ... happily listening to this 1932 set right now.
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Old 26th Mar 2014, 9:45 am   #30
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Well done!

I'm an Absolute fan too - it's the only thing on MW worth listening to.

- Joe
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Old 27th Mar 2014, 4:51 pm   #31
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Hi All,
So I found the time alo to read the latest BVWS bulletin and there was Mike's introduction about repairing an AC3 chassis.
How's that for coincidence!
From my perspective now I hav a photo of those capacitor cans I need to replace.
The braid is now in place over the wires to the speaker. Looks much better. I used talcam powder on the wires to allow be to slip the braid over the wires.
The valves in the set from Mike look far more original than mine, especialy the two S4VAs. I am going to hunt around to see if I have some somewhere tucked away.
Craig
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Old 27th Mar 2014, 7:36 pm   #32
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Hi All,
Ok, now onto the fun part.
There are still a few things I wish to tidy up on the chassis, but thats close to complete.
Now the case itself.
I very very very carefully removed the fretwork from the front.
This was done with a lot of care and as you can see in the last photo, the repwood is held on with small nails.
What a shameful state the front of the radio looks like. The white marks I imagine is bird poop!
The grill cloth was glued to the repwood, but not to the cabinet front so it all came away easily after the nails where loosend.

Craig
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Old 27th Mar 2014, 7:48 pm   #33
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Hi All,

And some more pictures of the repwood front grille that I took, just to document the state of my version.
You can see the centre lower section is missing a small spire. This is repair I shall undertake. Fortunately there are lots of American sites which talk about the repair of repwood.
I still need to gently remove the original finish fron this grille too.

On a polpular internet site there is a case for sale for an Echophone where someone has drilled holes in the front panel. One possibility would have been to buy that one, and use that fret work, but just like the veneer replaced on the top of my unit, I decided to repare the case of my one as is.

regards
Craig
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Old 28th Mar 2014, 10:26 am   #34
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

It's your set after all, I would go for the lighter finish myself.
 
Old 28th Mar 2014, 11:47 pm   #35
TriMan66
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Hi,
Yes, so the plan at the moment is to sand back the entire cabinet. I have started and it appears there are different styles of wood that have been used. When I can see the cabinet as a whole, with the previous finish removed, I can then decide the approach.
At present, though, it seems perhaps two shades of shelac may be a good idea. A darker shade for the base and the light repwood fretwork for example and a lighter shade to bring out the remaining woodwork for the rest of the cabinet.

Craig
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Old 29th Mar 2014, 12:09 am   #36
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Hi All,

Grille cloth...
I removed the very sorry looking grille cloth and took some pictures to document the work.
The grille cloth as I mentioned previously is glued directly to the fretwork.
The first two pictures are on a white backgorund and these show the shape and state of the original cloth. But far more interesting is the colour of the cloth that was protected by the fretwork and seems to be oringial in colour.
The last two photos were taken on the best match material I have. And actually its quite a good match I think.

I like to go to second hand shops and search in the womens clothes (each to their own ) for old scarves and dresses. There are some really good finds for grille cloth. I went to a car boot sale once and bought sheets of material. When the bloke asked me what I use it for, I told him I like to sew dresses for myself!!! He didn't see the joke when I explained about grille cloth, but it did make my chuckle.

In any case, the material underneath is from a scarf and its a great match to the original.

Craig
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Old 29th Mar 2014, 9:24 am   #37
mark pirate
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Quote:
I like to go to second hand shops and search in the womens clothes (each to their own ) for old scarves and dresses.
Actually these can be a good source for grille cloth, I have found some really good material from old clothes and curtains.
I too have had some comments when buying these items, but who cares!

Mark
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Old 5th Apr 2014, 8:03 pm   #38
TriMan66
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Hi All,
Just needed to get some actual work done.
Now back to the beast.
I decided that after taking the pictures of the grille clothe as reference, I would gently hand wash what I had. The intention being to see if I could get the best fit to original I have.
It was filthy, after four washes the water was only just starting to clean up, but the poor cloth was deteriorating with each wash.
Well, after washing ad drying it shows up better the original cloth. The last picture shows the good match to the material I have chosen.

Craig
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Old 5th Apr 2014, 8:22 pm   #39
Lloyd 1985
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

That cloth looks similar to what's fitted to my Ekco AC85.

Lloyd
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Old 5th Apr 2014, 8:32 pm   #40
TriMan66
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Default Re: Bush AC3 Cathedral Restoration

Hi Lloyd,
Now that was an extremely interesting comment.
Have a look at the match!

Craig
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